Invoice much higher than estinate

[user1489228947]

We’ve had a bedroom completely refurbed by a local ‘handyman’. The original estimate was higher than I expected, which was discussed at the time, but we went ahead as the handyman has done work previously and we thought ‘better the devil you know..’. The work was straightforward but took him a long time, which I just put down to the guy being a very leisurely worker and just wanting to be out of his house - he seems quite lonely and his order book doesn’t seem full as he could do our work straight away.

Then the final bill came which was double the estimate. I understand some of the work changed (eg we re wallpapered in the end instead of painting existing paper), but there was no conversation or caution about prices increasing to this extent. I said to him I would never have commissioned the work had I know this was the price. Its cost the same as having our entire bathroom refitted and altered!

I don’t know what to do. Shall I pay the original quote and try and enter discussion/negotiation on the increased amount. Or just pay and be done with him? I don’t like confrontation but neither do I like feeling mugged off. I’ve got the money but it will clear me out. I’m so annoyed at myself for not being tighter on this project, as well as being angry at him for not being more transparent.

I would ask for a breakdown of the extra cost - how many hours' work was the estimate based on and how many did it actually take. Just because you didn't get a signed quote doesn't mean you should pay whatever is on the invoice.

The OP has already said he was there a long time, so it was pretty obvious that there'd be a big bill surely??

I'd question it as well - he does need to justify why it came in at so much above the estimate.

Even assuming a day rate of £300 (which is a lot for a handyman IME) £2k would represent 6.5 days' work in addition to what he'd previously estimated.

Pay the original estimated amount at once and ask for an itemised account before you pay the rest.
If you can understand the reasoning and the job is well done then you should pay the remainder.

He might let you pay it over a month.

I would have thought the only extra cost would be the wallpaper and, at best, an extra half a day in labour for one wall.

Personally, I would ask for a full breakdown and ask why wall paper is £2k more.

Half day labour is nowhere near enough to strip, fill, sand, prepare and then wallpaper. Stripping and repapering is a completely different job to just emulsion-ing a papered wall and could easily add a few days to the job, especially if the walls were in a poor condition (i.e. cracks, flaky plaster, non square corners etc) and especially if there were several layers of old wallpaper or it was chunky such as wood chip which is awful for removal.

I really don’t think he’s at fault. It’s not his job to be responsible for you. Who asks someone to do work and doesn’t ask how much.

I think he's taking the piss. Ask for a breakdown of the costs but I don't know what you can do now unfortunately. We had someone in that behaved like this - estimated one thing then doubled the price and was keen to do more work for us. Fortunately the first job was small so we paid up and got someone else to do the rest of the work.

Sorry, I missed that the wall was going to be painted over. I thought it was going to be stripped and painted, which is why I had half a day in my head. I still don’t see why it’s £2k more, though.

Not £2000 extra though!

Did you get a final itemised bill and does it look reasonable? If so pay it. If you haven't had an itemised bill ask for one. If you think things look over priced ask why they are so expensive. But it seems like you signed a blank cheque by totally changing the job without getting a new quote.

The OP inferred there were other changes as she said "such as" the wallpapering, so the extra £2k isn't just for the stripping/filling/sanding/wallpapering and includes some other "extras" too!

That’s how I feel but maybe that’s just how much things cost. I would have done so much more myself if I knew this was the outcome. The work involves taking out old sliding door wardrobes, plastering the ceiling, stripping old wallpaper and rewallpapering, moving 2 plug sockets, and building ikea pax wardrobes and a billy bookcase and installing as ‘fitted’. The 4k doesn’t include the wallpaper or the pax wardrobes (which were a grand).

Just one handyman? who can plaster ceilings and is certified to move electrical wiring and who doesn't mind stripping wallpaper and building IKEA furniture - talented guy.

I would definitely ask for a breakdown. I don’t know how big your room is but I wouldn’t expect to pay less than £500 to have a ceiling skimmed.

You don't need a qualified electrician for minor work such as to move an electrical socket.

DH and I have done both stripping wall paper and repainting. The only time we stripped the wallpaper, we hired an industrial machine and needed replastering the old wall. It's a much bigger job than repainting a wall. Whether it's £2k I don't know. Labour is very expensive nowadays. But I'd need to get a couple of quote of replastering to know for sure.

The work involves taking out old sliding door wardrobes, plastering the ceiling, stripping old wallpaper and rewallpapering, moving 2 plug sockets, and building ikea pax wardrobes and a billy bookcase and installing as ‘fitted’. The 4k doesn’t include the wallpaper or the pax wardrobes (which were a grand).

Thats a lot of work OP.

Took him a long time

Assume was on a daily rate

Never do that. Get a fixed price

Once changed from paint to wallpaper you should have asked for a new quote

I agree. £4000 seems entirely reasonable, especially if it included incidental materials - apart from the wallpaper, wardrobes and bookcase - needed to do job.

For comparison we had a similar amount of work done - new section of stud wall installed, 4m stretch of wardrobes assembled and fitted, plug socket moved, additional socket installed, wall light wiring installed and fitted in 3 different locations in the room, wardrobe lighting fitted, radiator fitted, room painted and one wall skimmed, carpet fitted. We paid £2.5k in total.

Yes that was our original quote, which I obviously would have increased with the wallpaper job, so I was expecting it to be around 3k.

A little more very relevant info has come to light - DH got him to repaint the bathroom which I didn’t realise as I was away (it didn’t even need doing!) and that was included in this price increase - so imagine that was a couple/few hundred! So I still feel a little bit sore, but not as much as before!!

So he also painted an entire extra room?

I think that explains it

Not sure you’ve any reason to be sore op. Bloody hell.