Hi, I need some help knowing what's reasonable/unreasonable in dealing with builders.
I had a guy in to do some work and he sent the bill. All fine and I will pay it BUT he did some damage to my paintwork that I have asked him to fix. He said he would do so, but surely I won't have to pay for that? Also, I called him out to look at a leak. He started taking apart a unit I had put in (by someone else) and then realised that He had started the leak when doing the work he's billed me for. Because he was in a rush and didn't have his tools, he hasn't put the unit back together and said that he will come to fix sometime and that anyway it wasn't put together very well. In the meantime he's turned off the water to a tap I don't use, and I have to wait until he has time to fix it.
I'm feeling really upset. I'm on my own and on a budget. I know he doesn't have much time BUT he caused the leak and then made the situation worse by dismantling my units. AABU to want him to put it back as it was quickly and for free? Should I pay for calling him out to look at it?
It's difficult because he's already supposed to be finishing off another job for me (which means a whole other lot of work, and I'm worried he's going to add this stuff to the list so that I have to pay anyway). And I've struggled to find anyone else local to do the work.
This has caused me an incredible amount of anxiety and I find it really difficult to talk about what I want doing, or to negotiate costs, and it upsets me that I find it so hard. But if I don't find a way to be OK about standing up for myself, I will end up being messed around..
What would you do?