I have used a local tradesman for a lot of jobs since moving house about 18 months ago (shudder to think how much I have spent and I still need a lot more done). There have been a few times when the price has ended up being more than I expected. I pay him a daily rate, which he prefers and encouraged me to do saying that if he gave a fixed price he would have to err on the side of caution in working it out. So, I wanted the exterior of the house painted. It's a 4 bedroom detached house, but in fact most of it is pebble dashed - the back and part of one side needed to be painted, plus the woodwork. There is one cut-away at the back where there is a flat roof extension an area above is painted.
He estimated 3 - 5 days for the job (for him and his employee). From that, I estimated about 1,000 - 1,200 for the job. I thought it looked to be going slowly but talked to him about 4/5 days in and he confirmed that he had also thought about 1000 for the job and that it was going fine (so I assumed both men weren't spending all day on the job). Now at the end of the second week he says he doesn't have time to finish the job (twice in the course of this he has said things like 'did you want the front of the house painting'? which did raise some flags), and what he has done is going to cost rather more than the amount I'd calculated - exactly how much more he can't yet say but to my saying I supposed another 200-300 would be ok be indicated that it would certainly be more than that. He said he didn't want to be out of pocket for his labour, I said it was rather unsatisfying for me as not only was the job not complete but it looked like costing rather more than I had set aside for the whole job. He maintains that it just took longer than expected because removing the paint from the woodwork was time consuming.
I feel I don't have much option now but to pay for what he has done. I do have the choice not to use him again. So, I was hoping for some opinions as to whether I am being ripped off, or perhaps, very unreasonable...