Is my partner overcharging my mum for work he has done?

[Lleeaahh1992]

My mums house was in a state of disrepair and needed plastering painting and lots of old furniture getting rid of her house hadnt had anything done to it for 25 years. My mum isnt in the best of health and is also a carer for my dad who is bed bound.

My partner offered to do the painting and get his dad to help him as his dad is a retired plasterer and painter. My partner isnt a painter but is pretty good at it, but he cant plaster thats why he was getting his dad to help. Anyway it turned out the housing association done the plastering so she only needed some things polyfilling and the house painting. He said he would get his dad anyway as it would be quicker that way.

It was agreed they would be paid £10 per hour each, he said they would probaly be working 10 hour days but if it varied they would only charge for the hours worked.

Anyway my mum waited two months for my partner to start as he kept putting it off but finally started last week and has just finished. The thing thats bothering me is most of the days he has worked, he has finished at a half hour or less so e.g 7.5 hours, 6.5 hours and so on and his dad only worked 3 days out of the 7. He has now said any day that he finished part way through the hour even by 10 minutes he is charging the full hour because thats how it works he says. So altogether he is charging for 6 lots of half hours that he didnt work, and 3 lots of half hours for his dad that his dad didn't work. And he is charging 39 pound for his dads travel for the 3 days he worked. So altogether it is £84 added onto the bill. Im not happy about this because he agreed with my mum he would only charge what they worked and said nothing about travel for his dad .

When iv broached it with him he has told me to keep out of it as he is the one sorting it out and he done some bits an bobs for free a few months ago like dismantling and removing furniture because my mum was struggling. Shall i stand my ground and say this is unfair and was not agreed to or just leave him to it?

@XiCi so you expect your friends to do jobs for free , do you return the favour as in have a skill to return
My dh mum paid him to work when self employed as would rather give him the work than a stranger and know its a good standard and it was done in the day and she knew he could have other work and that in weekends he likes to actually see his kids as opposed to be working free elsewhere
Obviously she never paid anywhere near the going rate
Tradesmen generally hate mates rates and the exepctations

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@OhCaptain but this isn't work in the evening its during the week , its a lot of work for just evening and weekends 80 off hrs worth [/quote]
You’re going around in circles. You said I didn’t mention it until later posts - I was showing you that I had mentioned it.

You are now saying but this isn’t evening abs weekend work. I’m saying it was for my DH because he’s not a painter by trade, just like OP’s wanker boyfriend.

donewithitalltodayandxmas the OPs partner is not a painter. Hes not losing out on money from other jobs because he is not a tradesman!!!

@Adios2011 he obviously got his dad to help with painting as well instead , so providing they were both working the job would of been completed quicker and cost no more, that doesn't matter
We don't know if he has a job and took holiday to do this as the OP hasn't explained

He is being very unreasonable, even more so as its your parents and they are vulnerable. Just charge for actual time worked ,its not that hard to work out.
Had he turned down paid work to do you DMs house? I think a lot of families would do it for cost of materials with DM offering money or gift as way of thanks, but obviously if its his business he will need paying but shouldn't be taking the p**s

@donewithitalltodayandxmas

So all of you expecting that family should do free work and a large amount If your family member works as a cleaner would you expect them to come and clean your house For free ? Surely thats the same thing as if your bil is a tradesmen and expecting them to work for free

The difference is me/my ex didn't expect to get paid for the work we did/do for family - that's the difference. I am by no means well off but I just couldn't charge family for work I've done and vice versa

@XiCi maybe he is self employed as something else though or took time off the OP hasn't said
But the point is your all going on about nit charging the OP doesn't have an issue with charging that was agreed , its the overcharging which you shouldn't do to anyone , let alone family

He is massively unreasonable! My DH has remodelled half of my Mum's house (fitted a kitchen, plastered, painted, knocked an archway through, fixed some leaks, tiled etc). Mum paid for the materials but he didn't charge her a penny, not even travel and he had to do a 3 hour round trip each time! Wouldn't even have crossed his mind tbh and I'd have thought a lot less of him if it had.

Definite CF'ery. I'd have a word with him, if I were you.

@FuckyouCovid21 so if you did a weeks work for a family member you could afford that and have no paid work for that week

Tradesmen generally hate mates rates and the exepctations
Yes but your mum is not a mate . Noone charges their mum to do a job for them. Noone I know anyway. And yes, both me and DH are able to 'return favours' Thats how it works.

I think it’s ok for him to charge your Mum and ten pounds an hour is reasonable however it’s obviously not ok for him to be ripping her off.

I’d dump him over it.

@TheOnceAndFutureQueen and your mum hasn't offered him anything , I find that strange as well I wouldn't dream of a family member doing all that for nothing

@XiCi well my mum pays my dh when he does work for her as he is self employed and would be out if pocket , so does his mum as we kind if need to feed out kids too
Obviously the odd little job is different
Neither my mum or his mum would use him if he did all the jobs for free as they would feel they are taking advantage and have told him this

Tradesmen often charge for the full hour. They also have training, experience, insurance and pay tax.

As your partner isn't trained and presumably doesn't have insurance and isn't going to pay tax on this money, he can sod off with his "this is how it's done in the trade" bullshit. Or, at last, he could if he were my partner

He can say all he wants that a proper business would charge 2 grand, he ain't a proper business. He's a knobhead who went down to b&q and got paint and rollers there. He is no professional. Also, a proper business wouldn't charge for hours not worked.

He's a knobhead. Work out what the actual bill is, pay that and dump him.

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@FuckyouCovid21 so if you did a weeks work for a family member you could afford that and have no paid work for that week [/quote]
I'd do it outside of normal work hours so it wouldn't affect my day job same as my DP did with the re-wiring of mum's house

My husband is not a tradesman but he's good at DIY he wouldn't charge any elderly person he knew who is a carer for doing some painting and plastering he'd probably but the materials also.
your partner sounds really mean.

@XiCi are you on the trade ? As yes in the trade people may exchange favours but all the tradesmen I know and thats a fair few as lots on my side are , do not like doing work for friends that expect mate rates as you stated you had had,not the op who's mum it is.
But the tradesmen all say how it annoys them that there so called friends want them to do work for next to nothing and that it actually takes the piss ,one off here and there
My dh sibling bought a run down house that needed thousands of pounds of work that he then expected family tradesmen to come and do hrs upon hrs of work for free or very cheap ,which would of added thousands on to the value when he sold on a couple of years , so making money of others
Yet some on here would think my dh should of gone and done all for free as its family

@FuckyouCovid21 is your dp an electrician then

@donewithitalltodayandxmas I suspect your experiences reflect the reality, rather than competitive fantasy displayed by others whose husbands would practically build a house for friends and family for free in their spare time.

If he brings it up again, just look at him and say, you do what your conscience tells you and then offer no further comment.

If he has a conscience, it will work a treat, if he hasn't then I personally would be deciding whether I wanted to be with this man long term.

The ten pound an hour would not be my issue, but the rounding up would.

@Lacucuracha thanks yes I think so to

He’s ripping your mum off - and probably planned to do so, seeing her as a way to make money. I’ve never heard such crap about part hours and travelling expenses. For a start, if his dad was going to help on the condition he was to be paid travel expenses, that should have been made clear before your mum agreed to it. It wasn’t so she shouldn’t pay.

I’d add up the actual hours worked over all the days to get the total hours. Then pay him for that and dump the sly b***d.