Tradespeople removing rubbish

[cheezmonster]

I've just been quoted £150 for the guy replacing my kitchen floor tiles to take the rubbish away with him. It's a small kitchen, about 5 metres squared. He said it's because it's a commercial van and there is a fee.

Is this ridiculous? How can it possibly cost this much for him to take away a few bags of tiles?

Is it normal to be charged so much extra for this?

I'm pregnant and don't have a car so I can't exactly say no.

A friend of mine recently spent close on four grand with Hilary's blinds having the whole house redone. The installer just left all of the rubbish with her. When she complained to Hilary's they told her this was standard and most of their contractors now don't have waste licences. Like you she thought that leaving a site clean and tidy was just part of doing a good job. Not so. She was absolutely livid, I know because she needed to use my partners van to take all the packaging to the tip.

He will be charged to take the waste to the tip as its commercial waste. It will also take time for which he is entitled to be paid.

Last week I took my old carpet to the tip as I didn't want to pay the £90 that the carpet people wanted to take the old one away.

Yes, it's normal - tradesmen have to have a commercial waste license to take things to the tip - it's not free.

The refuse site charges by weight not to mention it’s on the outskirts of town.
You can deal with it yourself but tiles are heavy and have broken sharp edges. Plus will need to pay a fee.
I don’t think doing it yourself would be a huge cost savings.

Normal.

I just thought they would account for these costs in their quote as no one wants to be left with bags of rubbish.

I also struggle believe it's actually £150 (even including paying him for his time - the tip is only a 5 min drive away - it would be a 20-30 minute job).

There is a charge for depositing stuff in a legitimate commercial waste centre. There is also the cost of bagging it up, moving it to his vehicle, driving to the waste centre, handling the bags at the waste centre- how much do you think this waste will weigh? how much time do you think it will take to move the waste from
your house to the vehicle? To drive there? To empty the vehicle?
he also has to sweep the vehicle out after, to add fuel, pay for his commercial licenses.
waste can only be moved by a licensed waste removal person- to reduce fly tipping- What would you want to paid to do this for a stranger?

It can cost over £100 a go to dispose of trade waste. It's not cheap.

If you wouldn't have minded him including it in the original quote, surely it shouldn't be an issue to pay it now?

Some people are happy to remove the waste themselves, given home owners can legitimately load up the boot of their car and take it to the dump.

but others think I might scratch the car, i might need to hoover the boot after, i might find the bags too heavy etc . And opt to get the tradesperson to do it .

when you got him to quote for the work you probably should have got clarity about all of this.

scratch it up to lesson learnt.

I understand all of this, but I've just posted on my local facebook group and a man and van has said he will do it for £60. It will take him longer as he has to drive to me first.

I don't doubt there are costs, I just thought £150 seemed quite a lot, on top of a job that I'm already paying him very well for.

It costs a lot to remove the rubbish, commercial waste isn’t free, £150 for a small amount sounds reasonable.

Is the "man and van" licensed to dispose of waste? Many of them aren't.

This is normal. We had plastering done recently, where the guy hacked off all the old plaster leaving tons of rubbish. In his quote he said to have the rubbish taken away it’s £300 extra, or I’ll leave it in heavy duty bags and you take it to the tip yourself. We did four tip runs and saved the £300. It’s normal.

You have to be careful of overly cheap rubbish removal quotes, often they just fly tip.

I deal with commercial waste a lot through work; I'd say that £150 is pretty cheap.

Feel free to go with the man with a van. Be aware that if he flytips your waste and it has anything identifying you in it (packaging, for example) you can be prosecuted.

Does he have a waste carrier license? https://www.gov.uk/register-renew-waste-carrier-broker-dealer-england

without it you are responsible for making sure that waste ends up in a legitimate waste centre and isn’t just flytipped.

you need to have a receipt that shows that license number .

www.keepbritaintidy.org/faqs/advice/fly-tipping-and-law

Yes, I'd be worried about where he may dispose of this waste.

But it's the convenience as well. He can charge whatever he wants, doesn't mean it would cost him that or it's worth that price, but that's his price to do it, take it or leave it

£150 is the going rate. For £60 if he has a van, he will simply dump in the woods and if any of the packaging or waste has your details on it, expect a big fine from council. Happened to us 😭 Even when I have hired a van and disposed waste as a DIYer, i have had to show rental agreement proof and still have to go on van scales before they let me dump for free. If he has a big car and doing it that way, then maybe thats how he can do it so cheaply. But if he owns a van, tips will charge commercial rates.

@SofaSpuds @MumonabikeE5 @LBOCS2 @biscuitsandbooks @Moveoverdarlin @Daddydog

Good point about the licensing/ flytipping, I don't know about the man and van.

But I also just had a quote from a local waste removal company which is fully licensed by the Environment Agency, for £45.

I know I may be wrong and there might be different costs involved for the tile guy - but at this point it's hard not to think that £150 is a bit steep.

That's about right when you factor in the cost of disposal for a van load plus his time

This is very annoying when they don't give you a quote including the cost of removal of rubbish - it sounds a bit like when they never mention anything about the quote excluding VAT, when clearly working for a domestic customer, and then just add it on at the end.

I don't see why they can't say the job will cost £X and then it's an additional £Y if you want me to dispose of the rubbish (as paid-for trade waste), or you can take it to the tip yourself if you prefer.

Do you have any friends or family members with a car who could take it to the tip for you? You could offer them £20 for their trouble - assuming it fits into clean bin/rubble bags and won't risk damaging or dirtying their car?

If you do go for a man with a van, ask to see his waste disposal licence. If he doesn't have one, he's probably planning to sling it over a hedge into a farmer's field - scum.

Flytipping of waste by unlicensed man and van outfits which undercut legit firms is a big and growing problem.

Bet they'll insist on cash payment too.

It's not a van load - it's a few bags of rubble from 5m of floor tiles.

A local waste company can collect loads of waste from loads of different people and dispose of it at once, though.

A "one man band" can't do that. He'll need to charge for his time, wear and tear on his vehicle and the cost to dispose of the waste. He also won't have the space to store loads of waste at once, so will have to do a trip per customer, or per job.

As long as the person you use is licensed, it doesn't really matter though.