Builder invoiced us for a job not done

[kyliekoo]

Hi, looking for advice on this.

We were looking to have a few jobs done on the house - some big, some small - and had a builder come round to give an itemised quote on them.

One of the urgent jobs was to fix the roof, as we have damp coming through in our top floor bedroom ceiling, for which we were quoted £400. We asked him to do this job only for now, and the rest could wait until next year.

Last week, he came round with a long ladder to have a look. He said he couldn't find where the leaking was coming in and would recommend redoing the entire roof, which would require scaffolding. However, he wasn't prepared to do any work (even though he could see a crack) because he couldn't guarantee it would stop the leaking. I was a bit gobsmacked tbh, and asked if he could at least try and fix what he could see (even if he wasn't a 100% certain it would stop).

Anyway, he said no and left.

Now we have received an invoice of £300 (£100 he said is ladder hire, when we assumed he had his own), with a few photos of the roof and an email explaining he can't locate the problem. He was here for 1 hour maximum.

I now feel like we're no better off but £300 down. Has anyone any advice on how to challenge this? I obviously don't mind paying for his time, but feel like he almost never intended to do any work.

Thanks for reading, and any opinions welcome.

Don't pay....never heard of a builder hiring a ladder....nonsense....find another builder....he obviously doesnt want the job or need the work and is wasting your time and trying it on....£300 for a few pics....!!....and he cannot do the job...he is an idiot....!!

He is trying it on, don't pay it.

I think the facts are that the builder quoted £400 to fix a specific leak. You would be reasonable to assume that as an experienced builder he would have used his skill and judgement to assess the problem, decide whether he has the tools, equipment and experience to fix the problem to a satisfactory standard.

He turned up (with ladder), spent an hour and decided he could not fix the problem and left. I presume you are no better or worse off.

I would ignore his invoice. Failing that you could point out he did not do the work he quoted for. It is his fault if he realised later that he couldn’t/wouldn’t do the work.

If he had improved your situation in any way, then you could offer him an hours pay, but it doesn’t seem so. If he chases, you could ask for proof of ladder hire. Is this where you can contact Trading Standards?

i think we’d all like a job where we could quote for a job, turn up for an hour , not do the job at all, but still charge 75% of the quote for not doing the job. That’s a banging Business model.

I had a plumber who came to me to fix two loos. Within weeks they failed, I asked him to come back. Eventually after a couple of weeks he finally turned up on a Saturday. He gave one loo a couple of tweaks, but the other loo he realised he had bought the wrong flush mechanism, so had to go out and buy the right one and put it in. He left behind the one he had originally bought for that loo.

He then gave me a bill for £90 which I refused to pay. I had paid something like £180 for the original fixing of the two loos. That £180 included the cost of his experience and knowledge to put the right mechanism in in the first place. If I had wanted to pay twice, I would have done it myself. He also charged for coming out on a Saturday.

He had done work for us for years, but still thought he could try it on. So your roofer is also trying it on. The quote wasn’t to try to fix your leak.

Do not pay this imbecile of a builder who has hire a ladder. A callout charge of £50 might have been reasonable.