Urgent. when does a quote become legally binding

[ForTheLoveOfDoughnuts]

Really need some advice.

When does a quote become legally binding? I've had a few quotes from builders for work that I need doing on my house.

When I've gone back to one of them to say I'm going with someone else he's lost his shit with me and is threatening legal action. This obviously means I don't want him to do the work even more but I'm also concerned as to whether I've done something wrong.

Works needed doing and rough idea of when but I didn't confirm I was going ahead. I don't feel I confirmed going ahead. Haven't signed anything or paid a deposit.
Where do I stand?

[Awwlookatmybabyspider]

I really non plusses me as to why people seem to love making themselves unpopular. I mean you're obviously not going to recommend him to anyone, are you.
I remember when I got a decorator and he gave me a quote which I agreed to. However every day he was upping the Price and adding more on.
Needless to say I won't be hiring him again

[TheDHand]

Xenia and the Dancing Bear are correct. I say this as a commercial barrister of 18 years’ call.

The promise itself is not the consideration, and the consideration need not pass at the time that the contract is entered into.

[ShesABelter]

Well he's a unprofessional psycho! There's nothing he can do. My husband has a construction business. He sometimes loses out to other people. He says no problem thanks for letting me know (as alot of people don't have the decency to do that after he's taken time and paid petrol to go and quote then the time to work out the price) it's just the nature of the business and it's not a big deal. Only bug bear we have is those who don't have the decency to even let him know either way.

[FishesaPlenty]

Why do people with no legal knowledge post on threads like this?

^again

[maximumcarnage]

We quote for work all the time, at the point of providing the quote the client is under no obligation. If they agree to it, different story. I expect the reason this person gave so much abuse was either he was led to believe it was going to be accepted, that he put a lot of time and effort into it or that he was very desperate for the work. Or even, he simply wasn't a very nice man.

I can honestly say in the almost twenty years I've been doing it I have never got annoyed with anyone for rejecting a quote. Even the more involved quotes that take considerable time to put together. Some times you win some, some times you lose some. But you should always be polite and courteous because you never know if later in the future they will come back and have work done. Why burn your bridges?

[FirstNameSurname]

I had this year's ago, I had 3 boiler quotes. Ended up having a neighbour quote us too (didn't realise he had the qualification to do boilers) 2 of them were happy I had let them know 3rd one went off. He left voice messages saying I had agreed (I hadn't) and he was going to come round on random day X to start, if I didn't let him he would sue me. I responded text and email telling him I hadn't agreed, he would not be welcome, I would consider it harrasment etc. Messaged a few days before day X to remind me I had to let him in or go to court. Day before he acted like he hadn't gone off at me. Nice text saying he was pleased I had chosen his company and would be round at 9 to start. Clearly trying to continue the narrative that I had a agreed. I screenshot of the previous message saying I hadn't agreed with date showing. He ignored that and drove by the house 5+ times (we live in a close) that day. All very strange.

I think he got mixed up with another customer who had agreed and organised a date and either didn't realise his mistake or couldn't back down after working it out. I think he genuinely thought I had agreed the start day and expected another company to be at my house that day he drove by.

[veggiepigsinpastryblankets]

StoppinBy The thing I sell (sorry to be vague) is bespoke and very project-specific and so several hours' work by several people goes into putting a quote together. I'll often spent half a day travelling to see a client, measuring up, and helping them to work out what it is they actually need, after which my colleagues will spend on average 1-2 further hours turning all that information into a workable proposal. We don't charge for any of this and its often useful information whether they proceed or not, so I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a "thanks but no thanks" if they don't want to take it any further. I'm a fellow professional, not the help.

[Xenia]

It is actually a huge commercial issue with lots of case law particularly in more complicated cases. The lawyers on here giving advice above are the ones who are correct. My advice to clients is never start any work until you are 100% sure either ideally there is a signed contract or if nothing will be signed that it is clearly agreed you can go ahead and will be paid.

I have had quite a few clients who have taken a risk and done a fair bit of either pre contract work or work for which they thought they would be paid - depending what side you are on. Sometimes they just have some kind of hope that if the project comes off they will get their cut. It is a dangerous way to proceed as you might get nothing. Some will go to meetings with their client's client, even travel across the world and either it is in the hope a big project will come off or (they think) no some kind of verbal agreement they will be paid. Establishing what was agreed is not always easy.

If you are responding to tenders for big contracts it can be a good idea to put on your quotes that they are your copyright and are confidential and just to be used to assess whether to choose you otherwise some buyers will take all your hard work on the quote and hand it over to some cheap and nasty outfit who was not prepared to put the work in.

Lawyers have the same issues. I see no potential free of charge ever as otherwise i could work all year seeing them and not earn a penny particularly for my kind of work which is often only an hour to do anyway so why spend an hour with someone when the work it wuill yield will only be an hour long anyway? If I wer going to win work which would make me a lot of money (no such luck) then putting more effort in for nothing might be worth it even then people should make it very clear. Eg I will say I charge for all meetings. If we hav a meeting it will cost X. I charge for my travel time so why not come here instead? If I travel to you it will be X ; if you come here it will be Y or we could do it by telephone .

[nojellybabies]

"If I wer going to win work which would make me a lot of money (no such luck) "

don't say that Xenia, I count on you to earn £1000/day. It's a thing of mumsnet legend (I earn three times what I used to as a direct result of that thread and owe you a drink or several).

[tillytrotter1]

Get a quote and then choose to make a contract with one of them, then it becomes binding.

[Allthewaves]

Was it one of those 'rate my builder' type sites. I advertised a job and got a whole mouthful when I wouldn't accept one guys estimate there and then

[reindeermania]

I'm a tradesman (woman)

I no longer use ANY check a trade/ trustee builder sites

Because 1- I have to pay to be part of it
2- they do not at all check reviews (no i can't discount you after I've finished, even if you'll give me a good review - ie- if you don't give me money off I'll give you a shit review"
And
3- I'm not in it for the competition. And anyone that is- is usually shit.

I offer quotes. Give or take. And I'm not desperate. In trade- it's easy not to be desperate. Even in the early days, word of mouth is the dream, and without that, personality and professionalism sells. My ex husband went out of his way to trash my company. Him and all his friends left me terrible (untrue) reviews online- that I couldn't change or control. But even though those reviews are still there- my customers still book me. Because they know my last customer, abd the horrible reviews are less meaningful

[StoppinBy]

@veggie if your quote is really that intricate then why do you not have some sort of minimal charge that is then deducted from the job if the client goes ahead with the job?

My husband and I have a small business and he also has a full time job in the trade industry, lots of jobs are quoted, most of the quotes accepted but many times when a quote is not accepted people do not get back to say they are going with someone else. The only situation I can see this really bothering someone is when they don't have much work on and were relying on the quoted job to provide an income.

Quotes are never a done thing in my mind, personally we never consider it to be a go ahead job until the deposit is paid, even once people say that they want to go ahead, until that deposit is paid we don't spend a cent or any energy on the job beyond the initial quote. We also make it clear to the client that only the deposit will secure the job, nothing will be started until deposit is received, so if they take two weeks to pay their deposit and another client pays theirs in a few days, no matter who was quoted first, their job comes first in the order of jobs to be done.

[Guineapiglet345]

I used to do quotes for an expensive luxury product that people usually buy when they’re renovating or building a house, due to the cost and the fact it was a luxury item it was usually the first thing to get cut when people went over budget so I’d do hundreds of quotes but maybe only sell 1 in 50. I used to hate it when people told me they weren’t going ahead because my boss then expected me to try and persuade them to change their minds, it was much easier to tell him I could get in touch with them/never heard back from them.

[Xenia]

Yes, it's quite hard to generalise about quotes as they come in all different shapes and sizes. Stopping's point is a wise one about deposits although I don't take any money until after and don't handle clients' money. It will depend on your sector what is done and what is possible.

(nojelly, that's true but I always seem to have had a lot of farily small bills which add up to quite a lot. It's quite comforting because your risk is spread out a lot; whereas I know some lawyers with 5 big (or even just 2 big) clients and if they lose one it is disastrous - at least that never happens)

[rosablue]

Did he know you were getting other quotes?

If he has been like this I would be tempted to report him to the local trading standards department. Might be a small piece of a case that they are building or enough to make them take him off their recommended builder list (I don’t use the websites but our local trading standards do run a list of approved traders of all sorts locally, can’t remember exactly how they phrase it and I do use them as a starting point if I don’t have any other contacts).

And definitely keep all communication you have with him - or if he calls, follow it up with an email along the lines of ‘as I said on the phone call at no point have I ever contacted you about the quote to ask you to do the work etc etc..,’

And report to the police if he ups his harassment!

Good luck with the project when it goes ahead!

[veggiepigsinpastryblankets]

Sorry Stoppin, only just saw your reply. It's been talked about at various points but as it's standard in our industry not to charge for this, it's been decided by more senior people than me that it's just something we have to put up with. The work we do is usually high enough value that it's worth it overall - just frustrating when it happens!