Have verbally accepted a quote for roofing, scaffolding has gone up. Have just googled and found I am paying over twice the going rate? Should I try to renegotiate.

[starpatch]

Just that really. I was a bit desperate as previous roofer had done poor job, kept failing to respond to messages, been going on over a year and house is now damp. It is for chimney flashing. I have agreed to pay £1800, just googled and job should be £900 max even with scaffolding. We are in southeast but a cheap area. It is difficult to get roofers at the moment and if this carries on will do expensive damage.

Just to add I am not well off at all, roof needs other essential repairs and oven is broken and no money to fix!

Have you googled that the company is legit etc? It’s hard to know what you can do now. Is it really just chimney flashing? That should be a really small job.

Prices of both labour and materials have risen steeply recently. How confident are you in the "going rate" you found being accurate and up-to-date?

To be honest I think you're in a poor position to start negotiating now. You've agreed the price, and the scaffolding is up. Even if the roofers walk away without doing any work at all on the roof, you'll owe them for the scaffolding. If you got someone else in to do the work, you'd have to pay for the scaffolding all over again!

Scaffolding is really expensive at the moment. Our costs for it rose by about 20% because of shortages/demand. It might be the online estimate is out of date. Does the quote breakdown what is scaffolding, materials and labour?

How have you established that going rate?

Have you had 3 estimates?

No way is that a £900 job. Scaffolding materials and labour clearing site will cost more than that at current rates.

Good luck finding 3 roofers willing to waste time on estimates at this time of year they are working flat out as it is.

You were happy to pay the price. Just let them do the work.

It’s a 6 month wait for a roofer where we are!

Prices are skyrocketing at the moment. How in date was the site that said it should be £900?

Honestly those online estimates are usually nonsense, particularly in the south east. If you try to renegotiate now it will be a world of pain.

If they'd given you a price, you'd accepted it and then once the scaffolding was up they'd turned around and said 'actually that's a lot cheaper than the going rate so it'll be twice that' how would you feel?

And I've looked at online going rates before and found them massively cheaper than I can actually find anyone to do it, even when getting multiple quotes.

How reliable is the information you found by googling? Is the chimney as easily accessible as whoever told you £900 was the right price? When we needed scaffolding for a minor roof repair, the scaffolding alone was more than that, and we'd had about a dozen quotes for it. Even a scaffolding tower for a single height job was being quoted at over £500!

Too late for second thoughts. Between rising costs and high demand I suspect the price you're paying is not far off the mark so long as its a decent outfit who will do a good job.

We need a new roof and can't even get anyone to come out and give us an estimate! Think building costs have risen so much lately, we thought originally that we'd be between 4-6k, but I think it may be closer to ten now!

And that's if we can get any buffer out to actually look at it!

I paid fifty quid short of that in 2018 for chimney flashing with scaffolding to be done. SW London.
The scaffolding is the expensive bit.

They’ve already started the job op! And I agree that £900 is too low (my partners a scaffolding project manager). A verbal contract is legally binding, and trying to renegotiate on a job that’s already been started after you were happy with the original quote is going to cause an absolute shitstorm with the company. From the many scaffolders I know, the vast majority don’t take any shit from people. If you tell them now that you’ve changed your mind on the pay then I wouldn’t be surprised if they stripped the job immediately and black listed you with other local companies. I’d take this one on the chin and use this as a lesson in future to do your research before instead of after.

Trades have got too much work. They can pick and choose. Given we are about to hit winter, when people need roofers becausectherd has a big hole, I think I'd stick with what you've got. It should get fixed, which will be a lot cheaper than needed more extensive work later.
I'd also take the online quotes with a pinch of salt. If these are the only guys you an get out after a year, its possibly the only company you are going to get in to do it.

If you want another poor job and more damage, try to find someone who will do it for 900!

The work needs doing. The price is not extortionate and they are doing it now. Consider it paying also for the timescale. You need the job done, not waiting over the winter months while the roof gets more and more fucked leading to a job that costs a lot more then 1800

I'd also take the online quotes with a pinch of salt. If these are the only guys you an get out after a year, its possibly the only company you are going to get in to do it.

This. Prices of all commodities go up when they're in short supply and that includes workmen's time; why should they charge less than they can as some sort of act of charity?

@IncompleteSenten

If you want another poor job and more damage, try to find someone who will do it for 900!

The work needs doing. The price is not extortionate and they are doing it now. Consider it paying also for the timescale. You need the job done, not waiting over the winter months while the roof gets more and more fucked leading to a job that costs a lot more then 1800

agree.