Advice on paying for a gardening job 1/2 done and no date as to completion

[mamabear2b]

Hi wondered if anyone has any idea as to my legal rights on this problem I have - I apologise for how long it is

• Gardener agreed around 7th Feb to dig over and turf our garden - No written quote but verbal agreement of £585 for job

• Said he was aiming to get it done before his regular march work kicked in so we booked him as wanted garden ready for ds birthday on 24th March

• Gardener came with 2 other people on 22nd Feb , dug over the garden and kind of levelled it and we haven't seen him since!

• I have made 3-4 phone calls to him to find out when he was going to carry on - he cited bad weather which is ok in a way because we live in Cumbria

• I told him on 11th March we needed it it finished by 21st March for ds's birthday and he said we were top of the list and would do his best.

• Still no job done so called on 1st april to find out what was going on he said repeated the same platitiudes - we were top of list needed a good couple of dry days etc

• Today called him again as we have had three good days of weather this week and still no sign of him. Told him I was unhappy and wanted to cancel.

• I complained about the lack of communication and that I felt we had been misled and wouldn't have agreed to the job if was going to take this long. He explained he had been ill for 2 days this week, had lost 2 members of staff and generally things weren't good for him.

• I sympathised and tried to come to an arrangement for him to comtinue as I felt a bit sorry for him.

• He said he couldn't give me any date not even a guess as to when he could complete so I said I was left with no choice but to find someone else.

• He now wants to charge me around £350 for the 1 day work that was carried out and I am not happy about it.
  I mean would you go to someone's house and strip their wallpaper off then say you didn't know when you would be back to repaper it?

• I am happy to give him the £100 he claims he has spent on topsoil but he got shirty and is saying he will take it higher

We have no qoute or written agreement from him

Can anyone offer advice?

These people might be worth a call www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

Hi mamabear,

My parents had a similar problem with a tiler who kept putting off completing their bathroom. In the end, they said unless it was completed by x date, they would not pay him - full stop.

He never returned to complete the works and my parents never did pay him even though he had spent weeks doing most of the work and had left tools behind.

Good luck.

I would ask for the receipt for the topsoil and pay that

Then tell him to bugger off and get someone else to finish it

He can't take it anywhere without paperwork and without finishing the job!

Thanks guys

Will try that site TheBlonde hopefully they can stop it getting to small claims which is what he was hinting at.

Morningpaper I though of doing the same thing but bugger off is a slightly more placid responce than the one I would like!!

And whatever you do decide to pay, only pay on a lovely fully completed dated invoice, and in exchange for a super little signed and dated receipt.

Remind him it will be very helpful for him to have a full paper trail in case he has any problems with income tax or VAT later down the line.

Of course, indications are that he may not be able to come up with this, so he might struggle with putting together a small claims case.

Good thinking catinthehat I was just going to send him a £100 cheque with a note that it was a sign of goodwill and that it was a shame he was unable to meet the agreed work required

Think I will have to wise up a bit for future dealings!