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Hi All,
I really don't know what to do so I'm hoping someone can help with some advice.
A car restoration workshop has had an old car of mine for some time to undertake restoration work. I've not received an invoice for any work since May 2020 and since then I have called monthly to enquire about progress and to try and encourage the guy to do some work on the car. In every call I've been told that he wasn't in a position to do any work on it as he had too many other pressing jobs to do but he hoped to start soon, the last call I made was on 9th August 2021.
On 1st September, out of the blue I received an invoice on email, all it says is "Fabrication 13/1/21 - 31/9/21" with a lump sum of £996 (inc. VAT), it contains nothing else, no details of the work done, not even how many hours were booked, just one word, dates and a sum to pay.
I emailed back and asked if he could update the invoice with a few words to explain the work that had been completed, it's worth noting that I am currently working overseas so cannot visit to examine progress and I rely on him to provide information and photos to substantiate invoices. The response I received was "I'm finding it difficult to spend any time in the office at the moment" he went on to say how busy he was and how he needs to employ an office assistant. I very politely replied asking if there was anything he could tell me, even on email, to explain the work covered by the invoice, again the reply was "As I said, not got time for the office stuff. When we decide to spend time on your car there is a lot of thinking and planning involved", this is copied from his email reply, I've not replied further yet.
So, he's emailed an invoice, that says "Fabrication", although his email says "planning and thinking" but won't tell me what the work is he's done, his invoice is backdated to cover a period of time during which he continuously said he wasn't working on the car (and forward dated it to the end of the month), he won't even tell me the hours spent, just a lump sum to pay.
I can see where this is heading, he'll say that unless I pay he won't do any more work and will refuse to let me collect my car and parts until this invoice is paid, I suspect if it came to that he'd issue another spurious invoice for good measure. I'm dubious as to whether he's actually done any work at all.
Please, what are my options?
I'm going to call him to see if we can reach some middle ground, but I'm not hopeful.
Many thanks for any advice.
I really don't know what to do so I'm hoping someone can help with some advice.
A car restoration workshop has had an old car of mine for some time to undertake restoration work. I've not received an invoice for any work since May 2020 and since then I have called monthly to enquire about progress and to try and encourage the guy to do some work on the car. In every call I've been told that he wasn't in a position to do any work on it as he had too many other pressing jobs to do but he hoped to start soon, the last call I made was on 9th August 2021.
On 1st September, out of the blue I received an invoice on email, all it says is "Fabrication 13/1/21 - 31/9/21" with a lump sum of £996 (inc. VAT), it contains nothing else, no details of the work done, not even how many hours were booked, just one word, dates and a sum to pay.
I emailed back and asked if he could update the invoice with a few words to explain the work that had been completed, it's worth noting that I am currently working overseas so cannot visit to examine progress and I rely on him to provide information and photos to substantiate invoices. The response I received was "I'm finding it difficult to spend any time in the office at the moment" he went on to say how busy he was and how he needs to employ an office assistant. I very politely replied asking if there was anything he could tell me, even on email, to explain the work covered by the invoice, again the reply was "As I said, not got time for the office stuff. When we decide to spend time on your car there is a lot of thinking and planning involved", this is copied from his email reply, I've not replied further yet.
So, he's emailed an invoice, that says "Fabrication", although his email says "planning and thinking" but won't tell me what the work is he's done, his invoice is backdated to cover a period of time during which he continuously said he wasn't working on the car (and forward dated it to the end of the month), he won't even tell me the hours spent, just a lump sum to pay.
I can see where this is heading, he'll say that unless I pay he won't do any more work and will refuse to let me collect my car and parts until this invoice is paid, I suspect if it came to that he'd issue another spurious invoice for good measure. I'm dubious as to whether he's actually done any work at all.
Please, what are my options?
I'm going to call him to see if we can reach some middle ground, but I'm not hopeful.
Many thanks for any advice.
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