Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Help! My mum is in the grasp of an expensive roofer finding 'extra' work to do

7 replies

SmiteTheeWithThunderbolts · 28/10/2014 14:39

Have a roofer currently replacing a small flat roof (no more than 3m x 2m) and replacing the render on a section of the parapet wall (no more than 2m long). He's charging £2,100 - which seems very high to me but we are in London. No scaffolding required.

Now he's saying the chimney needs some work (don't know the details) and is quoting £400.

Does this sound the high side of normal pricing, or exorbitantly expensive?

She found him because he was doing some work for a couple of neighbours (small work, eg rendering), at least one of whom thought he was expensive (£300 to fit 2 cowls).

And now she's lining him up for other work that needs doing, eg repainting wooden porch; repairing the render on a couple of pillars. No prices yet.

Should we suck up the £2,500 for the roof and then cut him loose? I'm concerned he sees my mum as an open cheque book.

Of course the moral of the story is, always gets quotes from several tradesmen!

OP posts:
beingsuper · 28/10/2014 14:50

Could she not just thank him for his quote and say she's not planning on work done for a few weeks and will contact him as soon as she's ready.

Then she can get other quotes in the meantime.

BauerTime · 28/10/2014 14:52

Sounds like he is trying it on with an elderly woman tbh. You have just described an episode of rogue traders to an absolute T.

Did your mum approach him to go the initial work or did he notice it as he was doing the neighbours and talk your mum in to it?

TunipTheUnconquerable · 28/10/2014 15:03

She must, must get written quotes from him for any more work and get someone else to quote for any other jobs.

SmiteTheeWithThunderbolts · 28/10/2014 15:32

Thanks for the replies.

No, he didn't approach her. The interior wall underneath the flat roof has been showing signs of a leak for some time so we did need a roofer. (Although whether the roof itself needed replacing, or just the render on the parapet wall, is another question.) She saw him doing work on neighbours' houses and invited him to look at our roof.

I'll tell her to say that the work has been more expensive than she expected [insert worried-about-savings-running-out face] and ask him to give written quotes on the other jobs so that she can think about it. [And then get quotes from other people.] I may print this out so I can coach her on what to say!

OP posts:
TunipTheUnconquerable · 28/10/2014 16:16

She should mention she's getting other people to quote. He can't object and it will show him he can't just charge what he likes.
And anyway, it's good manners to be open with tradesmen (even if you do suspect they're ripping you off).

McGlashan · 28/10/2014 16:23

Sounds similar what I had done in Edinburgh- without scaffolding and it was about the same price 10 years ago. Depends how well they are replacing the flat roof. We had 3 quotes and one of them quoted me £10,000. Cheeky barsteward- and he smelt of drink.
I would find out what exactly he thinks needs done for the chimney and then get quotes.

My elderly mother was stung a few weeks ago for gardening and landscaping work. I knew the guy was at it because when I turned up he was busy telling me how he wasn't ripping her off. She's agreed to extra stuff but we cancelled that. Maybe you should offer to contact the roofer and cancel it if she isn't happy doing it. He is less likely to put pressure on you . I'm not sure he is over charging however.
Thing is- anyone can get ripped off it's not just old people.

SmiteTheeWithThunderbolts · 28/10/2014 17:54

Thanks all.

Will definitely get him to quote for the rest of the work and say we'll get back to him.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page