Contractor doubled quote after we accepted it

[Moonflowered]

Short version - As the title says, a contractor quoted for some work on our house as part of kitchen renovation. He quoted off the plans, we (foolishly) agreed the price by email, but now he says he can't do the work without very expensive extra work. Are we committed to paying for the work we'd originally agreed/is he committed to delivering it even though he says it's undeliverable?

Long version...

The contractor was introduced to us as part of the renovation process via the kitchen company. The price he quoted (based on plans only, he wouldn't come out to see the house because in his words "I've been fitting floors a long time") was roughly in line with what we'd expected so we accepted the quote. The kitchen firm had surveyed the kitchen so we thought they, as experts with 30 years experience in kitchens, would have picked up on any challenges and informed their recommended suppliers. In retrospect this was stupid I know, but we'd paid extra for the convenience of having the work coordinated by the kitchen firm and we thought that meant we could trust them to, well, coordinate the work.

When he came to start work, the floor guy saw the kitchen himself for the first time and decided the floor needed extra work. The floor slopes a bit so he said it needed to be levelled. Two weeks later we've finally got the additional quote which nearly doubles the cost of the already expensive floor. He hasn't done any work yet but the kitchen has been fitted on blocks where it slopes (anticipating the floor being levelled) so we kind of have to level it now otherwise part of the kitchen will have a gap around the bottom.

I'm trying to work out where we stand now. We accepted the original quote in writing (by email) but he says he can't deliver that without billing us a significant amount of extra work. Can he make us pay for the original quote even if we can't afford the extra work and have to go for a cheaper floor? Can we hold him to his original quote on the basis that he should have driven the 10 minutes to take a look?

If the original quote for flooring of one room had come in at this amount I would have said no and looked for another option before we started the work. There's no way this house or project is worth that. Even the original quote was pushing it. But now the goalposts have shifted half way through the project I feel completely shafted and worried he'll still bill us for the original amount.

As Lord Denning said, 'There is no room for common sense in the law'.

Then you'll know Lord Denning is well known for his 'bold' judgements running counter to the law
The simple summary is that it appears the work quoted for was inaccurate- did not include levelling of floors- whether that is through miscommunication, negligence or whatever is another matter
The OP cannot make the vendor do it at the quoted price nor will she be successful in a claim for damages if she were to take it that far.

Except without looking at the contract, we don't know what was quoted for, neither do we know conclusively the arrange between the purchaser and the kitchen company, so much of what you say is supposition and not fact based.

But unless "levelling the floor" is specifically listed in his quote (which is pretty unlikely since he didn't know it was needing to be done and he didn't include it in his price) then he's not contractually obliged to do it for free. OP asked him to quote for laying flooring, and that's what he quoted for. He wasn't asked to quote for levelling the floor and then laying flooring. So OP can pay him the additional to level the floor, or engage someone else to level the floor, she can't expect him to do the extra job of levelling the floor for free. Whether or not she can cancel the contract with him altogether depends on what she signed, and whether he has already bought materials for the job, which he is entitled to be compensated for if she pulls out of the contract.

As I said, we don't know and without seeing both contracts we can't say with absolute confidence what was agreed. The fact the contractor declined to attend to give the quote is pertinent particularly when assessing whether op is liable for any costs to date. There may also be an issue over the supply of information from the kitchen company. So hardly as clear cut as you want it to be.

Don't pay the kitchen company until they negotiate you out of this.. however.. you are in a tricky situation.. he could refuse to do the work.. and there are very few remedies open to you that will not end up in expensive court proceedings.

Surely the simple answer is he just doesn’t do the work? If the scope has changed from what he understood it to be, and the price needs to go up, and you don’t want the price to change, then you go your separate ways?

But the OP went ahead with all the work based on the quote. She wouldn’t have if she had known it would be double.

It is a binding contract. If he wants out of it, he’ll have to pay damages; like paying towards the cost of having someone else do it so the OP isn’t out of pocket. That depends on the wording of the quote though and what specs the kitchen company sent him. If the kitchen company sent the full spec, and the OP and the floor guy discussed him doing the work according to the kitchen company spec and the quote isn’t itemised then she has a good chance of getting something out of him if he won’t complete the works. However, if he did itemise it and didn’t include levelling the floor then he doesn’t have to do that work for the price and the OP may owe him damages if she withdraw from the contract as she should have read the itemised quote and agreed to just those items.

Except it is not at all clear what he quoted for, as OP hasn’t answered the question.

@Linio

Which is literally what I just said in the post you quoted.

Sorry, skim read it as I’m doing the grocery shop!

So you want him to pay the extra? A quote is not a contract. There is no way he will work for free so either pay or part ways.

It can be, depending on the terms.

Please see @prh47bridge post above which explains it clearly.

You will either need to pay the new price or get a different firm. The kitchen company are at fault to an extent. Were you aware the sloping floor would cause difficulties.

Sorry to post then disappear. Having kitchen work over running into the school holidays has drained more time and energy that I'd imagined. Thanks for taking the time to reply, even though it sounds like this isn't clear cut.

I think the best way/my preferred way forward is for him to not do the work and for me to get someone else to do it because regardless of whether we can negotiate our way through this I don't trust him now.

In answer (I hope) to the questions asked above...

1. My main concern is that I've entered into a contract by accepting his quote in writing. He hasn't provided terms and conditions and hasn't communicated a start date to me. I hope that we haven't and that we can all just walk away.
2. His quote included supply and fit LVT flooring plus prepare floor with latex somethingorother. It didn't specify how much latex/preparation was included. There were no terms and conditions supplied.
3. The kitchen company had been out and "surveyed" but didn't pick up on the sloping floor. I knew it sloped but I'm not a flooring expert so I didn't know that would be an issue with LVT.
4. We paid the deposit on the kitchen last year. The floor guy had 5 months to come and quote and did it on the phone 10 days before the kitchen fitting was due to start. My mistake in all of this was to believe that anyone had the project under control. The kitchen company were project managing this - electrics, plumbing, plastering, fitting - and because they're the experts I'd assumed this meant the floor should go in afterwards. Life is very full at the moment and I've tried to stop micromanaging stuff like this as a way of making things easier for myself! (let the experts do their job and all that)
5. The floor guy didn't see the room in person until the old kitchen had been ripped out so we needed to move forward with fitting the new one that was due to arrive the next morning. Otherwise we could have been living on a building site for weeks until we got another fitting slot.
6. The kitchen company suggested raising the units on the lower side of the slope then filling in the floor. Again, they're the kitchen experts, they do this every day so I went with their solution to manage the problem.

I'm not about to go demanding that the guy does the work and ends up out of pocket but equally I don't want him to come back and claim I've not paid him for the work that was agreed. It sounds like it's an all round murky area - and as with other issues that have arisen, it all tracks back to the incompetent kitchen firm - but hopefully one that we'll be able to muddle our way out of rather than having it get nasty. There's a whole other list of issues with the kitchen firm, but apart from the floor, all of them have been muddle-through problems/added hassle rather than adding to the price.

I have another flooring firm coming tomorrow to work out a pragmatic solution to our kitchen on stilts. At this stage we just need to get through the mess in a sensible way.

Legally he must do job for your quote but don't get annoyed if its not right. Sounds like this kitchen has been done all back to front before being properly looked at at the start

So, the kitchen company didn’t actually know the floor sloped until they were literally fitting the units? Meaning the floor guy wouldn’t know either.

The kitchen guys then, on the day, made the decision with you that they would raise the units and the floor could just be raised. So that decision was taken after the quote from the floor guy had been agreed, meaning the floor guy couldn’t have known about it.

The job changed. The fact that he refused a site visit, where he would have seen the slope beforehand, might allow you to walk away from this without paying for his booked working hours.

Am I missing something......but how can you level the floor if the kitchen is fitted and on blocks.....how will the levelling compound get under the blocks and if you remove the blocks how will the cupboards stay up......?

I have a severely sloped floor in my integrated kitchen/living room (7cm from one end of the room to the other.) Originally asked to have wood floors put down. Flooring company said this would necessitate opening up the entire floor construction including boards and redoing it on the level. In contrast laminate/lino/vinyl could be done on the existing slope, so I ended up opting for the latter. So I would question whether leveling is really necessary in your case as well? I appreciate this may re-open another can of worms with the kitchen people as well. FYI this was an extremely experienced and well-regarded local flooring company ( located in Germany where we tend towards over-regulation on construction matters as well) and no mere cowboys.

We levelled our floor with existing units. We screwed up the front feet of the units and put a strip of wood under the very back edge of them, then screwed them back down. Then we poured the self-levelling compound. Once dry, we laid the flooring, then removed the wood and screwed the feet back down on top of the new floor.

Having said that, it was a DIY job, so we're happy with the fact that the floor doesn't go all the way under the units, etc. If I was paying thousands with a brand new kitchen, I'd want it to be absolutely perfect.

Get it levelled and go for cheaper flooring.

Chances are another quote will come in at the same price. If it needs levelling, it needs levelling.

According to the other firms we've now had in to quote, it doesn't need levelling.

The question was whether the original floor guy could insist on us paying for work he decided he couldn't deliver if we decided we didn't want to pay almost 100% extra for prep work that it turns out isn't needed.

In any case, he seems to have walked away completely so my worries were premature.

Turns out this is what the other flooring firms recommend here too...