Invoice 85% more than quote - would you pay?

[Eth4455]

I’ve also posted this on AIBU but maybe this area would be better…

I’m looking for a general consensus of opinion here, can’t get through to citizens advice…

We had some roof/chimney repairs done recently which were quoted at £1900. Whilst the job was ongoing the guys left a gap in the slate overnight which led to water coming into our bedroom. Phoned them to make sure they were on the way back to start day 2 of works and make sure this was fixed. Whilst on the phone the company director (who did the quote) said oh the chimney is actually crumbling when we drill into it, we can make it water tight just now but you may need to replace some of the brick work in the near future but it should see you through the winter. He also mentioned a bit more slate than original quote and offered to paint the chimey after they resealed the crumbled parts. We supplied paint and he said ‘it’ll be a bit more but not much’ (cost wise).

We’ve now received an invoice for £3500! I was shocked, at no point was an 85% additional cost mentioned. The original quote has 20 slates, they ended up using 121 slates and most of the additional cost is slating. I would never have agreed to pay 2 guys to be on the roof doing slates when I have a roofer who would do it by himself for a fraction of the cost. I’ve spoken to the company owner and he’s basically agreeing to £2700 and telling me he won’t make any money, maybe lose money. I offered £2500 which he said no to originally and countered £2700.

I understand there were unforeseen extras but where do you draw the line with additional costs without requoting or even just mentioning it? I simply would not have agreed to the job at this price. When he quoted he didn’t go up on the roof, his mistake?!

The last thing I want to do is cheat anyone out of money or not pay for work but AIBU to think this is a bit much?

He’s charging £800 more and that covers 100 more slates and more extensive chimney repairs & painting. Put like that it doesn’t sound unreasonable.
The cost difference would annoy anyone, but it makes it much worse as they’ve not told you in advance.

Where have you got 85% from?

He quoted £1,900, now it’s £3,500.

The slates are the majority of the extra cost, and you’d have paid for those if your own roofer went up there?

The fact is he should have given you the option of having the full quote and choosing whether or not to continue with the works, he didnt. He could just pluck any figure out of the air he wants to. I would not pay either, if you didnt have the quote in writing then surely he does not have a leg to stand on?

The OP is correct- the increase is 85%- well 84.2%

NoSquirrels: I think the 85% reflects the increase in the actual price compared to the original quoted price,

i.e. (3500-1900)÷1900×100=approx. 85%

Yes not as unreasonable I guess, it’s just that he’s giving me the sob story of he won’t make any money at £2700 and he’s really doing me a favour.

See other comments regarding 85%.

The materials cost for slates and nails is around £72. But the difference lies in the fact he is paying two guys £34ph to be up there for an additional 18hrs (the majority of this time would have been on slate repairs). My usual roofer for slates would not charge anywhere near this amount for labour.

I guess legally he may struggle to defend it but equally I want to leave the situation with a clear conscience. I’m happy to pay a bit more for unforeseen works and the painting but yeah it’s not license to go up there and do what you want. It’s a 120 year old slate roof.

I wouldn’t be happy about an 85% increase on an estimate.
A quote is meant to be a fixed price.
Fair enough the contractor could re negotiate if additional work, which could not initially be seen, was discovered during the job. He might not have been able to tell that the chimney would crumble until he drilled into it.
I think he was unreasonable to describe an increase from 20 to 120 slates as a ‘bit more’ when it’s 6 times as many.
He should have given you at least an estimate of the additional cost. I doubt many people would think an increase from £1900 to £3500 was reasonable.
Was there a particular reason why you didn’t ask your usual roofer to do the work?

It was a quote, definitely not an estimate. Agree on the chimney crumbling being unforeseen.

Most of the works were for the chimney, these roofers were more specialist. The slating was just around the chimney area, by far not the main part of the job. My usual roofer is part retired and just deals with ‘easier’ jobs.

I certainly wouldn’t be paying the extra amount at all. He sounds like a scammer.

How many days were they there?
Anyway, you’ve agreed 2700 so pay it.
Your bigger issues are a knackered chimney and a 120year old slate roof. Repairing the chimney will result in a lot of broken slates. At. 120 years old they may/will be approaching end of life.

What would have been your other option? You said you had water coming into your bedroom. Would your semi retired roofer been able to go up the roof and replace it straight away? It would have taken him at least double, but realistically 3 or 4 times as long on his own. They should have told you the extra costs in more exact terms streight away, but you probably would have had to accept it anyway or risk a flooded house with more long term damage. Starting any job on an old house is a nightmare as you never know what you might find. I therefore never ask for quotes, always for dayrates and an estimate of how many days they expect it to take, and I like to buy the materials myself.

The original quote didn't reflect the additional work that needed to be done, though? Why didn't you make them commit to an amount rather than accept "a bit more"?

@NellyBarney Sorry to clarify the point about the water coming in the bedroom was because they left a gap and I called them about this which is when he mentioned ‘a bit more’ work. I meant to highlight that they didn’t even call me to highlight ‘a bit more’, it was mentioned while I called them about something else. Wether they were going to tell me eventually or not is another story!

Why 3 or 4 times as long? His hourly rate would be less. They only had one person up there able to fit tiles, the other guy cutting. Not sure if that’s normal.

Clarifying day rates in future is a good idea.

@Johnnysgirl No original quote didn’t have additional work listed. It came up once they went on the roof and was mentioned on a call when I called him about something else.

Yeah I should’ve nailed him down to costs in hindsight but ‘a bit more’ and £1500 are very different.

Not a roofer myself, but my experience is that lone workers take longer than just double what 2 guys can do- just getting tiles up requires usually 2 people and an electric lift, 1 person loading up at bottom, 1 person receiving at the top, otherwise 1 person would spend a day climbing up and down a ladder with a couple of tiles each time, just to get 120 slates on top of a roof. So if your roofer may charge 25 quid/hour, you might end up paying almost similar amounts as it will take him 3 times as long as it took the 2 two chimney guys.

@NellyBarney Yeah I see what you’re saying. I suppose ultimately if it was discussed about the extent of slate repairs I would’ve had a chance to at least ask my normal slate roofer for a price. That choice was completely taken away.

@Saz12 @NoSquirrels @TangoWhiskyAlphaTango

Sorry I did reply to you further up thread but I’ve only just worked out how to tag in the reply 😂