Painter asking for more money 2 months after finishing

[cunningplan101]

I hired a painter decorator back in July. His original estimate was for the work to take 4 weeks, but because they did the job slowly and had to redo some bits, it took closer to 8. I did ask for some extra work to be done, as they went along - a change of paint colour on a banister and on two doors. Also after there was a problem with the finish in the hallway, I agreed for that to be reskimmed and painted again. I also asked whether they would fill one crack inside a cupboard and paint a bookcase, which the guys agreed to do as they were there for so much longer. At the end, I received an invoice for the original quoted work and a separate invoice for the extra work, around £5000 in total, which I paid minus £50 which I held back for some snagging, which they never returned to do so I kept. That was all settled back at the end of September apart from the £50.

Today I got an email out of the blue from the guy saying that he has now paid his guys and he has made a £2000 loss on my job. So he has sent me an invoice for an l additional £1900. I am really taken aback by this. Is he just trying it on? Does he really think I'm just going to give him an additional £1.9k because he asks for it, two months after he'd sent me a final invoice which I paid promptly minus the fifty pounds? Should I be worried?

Good grief. How do you think he'd feel if you suddenly said he needed to come back and do another 2 weeks work for no money? Not a hovering batfuck. He is totally taking the piss and there's no way you should pay it.

I'm sure others will be able to advise better about how to respond though - I know how horrible it is when this sort of thing happens and how it makes you doubt yourself.

"hovering batfuck"

Haha!

OP, HIBU!

Hi I have spent the last couple of years having a lot of work done on our house - the various workmen vary from lovely, hardworking and honest - to the utter pits.

I had to call a plumber back after a two loos that he fixed failed again within a very short time. He finally turned up the following week - then charged me as much as he had the first time. One loo just needed a slight adjustment - the other loo he'd put the wrong flush in - so he charged me for his time ( plus extra because it was a Saturday)and for the new flush.

Another odd job man (who was a drinking buddy of my husbands), was given some cash by me to buy materials. I always checked I got a receipt and the change was right. My husband noticed that he had bought himself a new hand drill - then noticed a receipt (paid by us) was for the very same hand drill!!

I tell u this so u can see that what your decorator has done is along the same lines. He might have genuinely cocked up his quote - and its up to u to decide if the original quote was a bit too much of a bargain! Most decorators work on £100 to £150 per day max. One chap reckoned he could put two coats of emulsion on an average sized room in one day.

I would look carefully at his invoice which u have already paid - if it says anything like :" work as agreed, or as per quote" - then I really don't think he's got any right to ask u for more. He should have raised the matter of extra money during the job or just after completion . He has let too much time go for u to take this seriously. If it was me, I would completely ignore his email.

I refused to pay the plumber and kept the hand drill - there have been no repercussions.

8 weeks sounds ridiculous for painting. 5k sounds like an awful lot, he should have been quicker instead of dragging it out. No way should he get anymore. He is responsible for his estimate and bids, he gave you a FINAL invoice - you paid it and the work is complete - end of story.

He probably had no work this month and needs money for Christmas. Don't pay him any more, your business relationship ended with the final invoice.

Thank you very much for your replies. It's reassuring that others think that HIBU too. He's basically assembled a list of random tasks - some which were covered in the original quote, some which were covered in the extra work which he was fully aware of before he sent me the final invoice that I paid extra for, some of which they didn't actually do - assigned a random charge to each and summed it up!

I just don't get what he expects to achieve except leave me feeling horrible and destroy any chance I'd recommend him to anyone. Very glad I changed my locks. I sent a one line reply to his emails yesterday; he replied today demanding the same thing, so I'll ignore. I hope it doesn't turn really nasty.

Thank you sleepymum for sharing your experiences, it's always good to hear you're not alone.

And I must now find a way to use 'a hovering batfuck' in a conversation

I'm rather tempted to reply with my own invoice demanding that he pay me for the extra weeks I had to stay away from home because his guys worked so slowly! But I won't engage.

WHAT

DH is a painter and I don't think he's ever been on one job for 8 weeks. He painted a hotel recently in 3 weeks. Ok it depends how many guys your painter has working for him but he must have at least a few as he made reference to paying them? DH's guys painted a three bed house in its entirety in 3 days last week and that included some wallpaper stripping and painting of cabinets.

Also 5k is a huge amount and if he underpriced the job that's his look-out not yours! Shop around for a few quotes next time

The guy who fitted our bathroom sent me a text detailing 'extras' he wanted me to pay for amounting to 20% of the original agreed price. This was after he had finally finished the job. At no point had he mentioned any of these things costing more than the quote as the job progressed and I disputed that they were actually extras.

The work took him longer that he'd said it would and he had to come back three times to finish the snags.

If you quote for full tiling to me that includes the window recesses (he wanted to stick mdf to them instead of cutting tiles?!). He also plasterboarded a wall to even it up causing a problem where the board met the curve of the ceiling. He wanted to charge us more to install a upvc suspended ceiling - he suggested it as 'low maintenance' when we were planning things. We said no to this right from the off (you paint the ceiling every few years; there's hardly any maintenance required) and repeatedly said no to him over it. He didn't have a plan B (a false ceiling would have covered this up but he knew we didn't want it) so had to get a specialist plasterer in to tidy it up. As far as we were concerned that wasn't our problem as we had been very clear all along and had no idea he was going to plasterboard and it would cause an issue.

He tried to blackmail me - I could only have the keys back after he'd been paid the extra money. That left a very bad taste. We changed the alarm code and the locks and said we'd pay the original agreed amount in full and final settlement and that was it. He backed down. I would have gone to court had he issued proceedings!

I have since found that he cut corners and didn't seal the shower enclosure properly. Boy am I glad we didn't pay the extra money - I would now be feeling I'd been well and truly had if we had. I've spent a few hours digging out the original sealant and spent a tenner on materials to put things right.

wowfudge I think you're local to me and I'm looking at bathroom fitters atm... would it be OK to message me who you dealt with so I can avoid them?

orchid would you believe it, this guy was a personal recommendation and had done work for three friends! One man band sole trader. Definitely get three detailed quotes - I didn't. You live and learn.

wowfudge - thanks for sharing your experience - that sounds like a nightmare. at least with painting, there's only a limited amount that can go wrong afterwards. I've not heard from my painter since friday - fingers crossed he's given up.

Well the finished bathroom does look great - only because we were really insistent on things like the window recesses, ceiling curves, etc. If he had said to me at the time that his quote didn't include X and Y then I could have understood. I thought we'd had a good working relationship during the course of the project, but I guess he was harbouring some simmering resentments! The corners cut which we have now discovered also explain why there was a reluctance to do the snagging when we were around.

He had the nerve to tell me he didn't need [awful] customers like me and not to contact him over any further work we wanted doing!