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contractor walked off site, now charging inflated fee for one day

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  • contractor walked off site, now charging inflated fee for one day

    Hello and thanks for reading, I am in a quandary and would welcome advice. A company was contracted to do some groundworks for us. The quote was for £1495 for a job they said would take 3 days using mechanical digger and dumper. On the first day they did turn up with the plant and worked.
    Some 16 tonnes of material was taken away that day.
    The next day they arrived but with only a man and a wheelbarrow to remove the waste, the digger driver was left waiting for each return visit.
    I queried their invoice which arrived at 13.00 on the first day, saying they should have said the price was without VAT to be added, asking for the top soil element of 20 tonnes to be removed as we could not get the retaining wall ready in time. I told him the top soil previously delivered was of very poor quality with bits of brick and rubble etc in it.
    I asked how long it would take now that there was just an older man (and tbh an unfit older gent, but that's irrelevant we were worried about his safety I must say) and a wheelbarrow, not the mechanised tools to get the job done.
    I told the company I would not be paying up front for the job, but that I had offered a deposit initially and asked for the new invoice to remove the topsoil element.
    Within an hour the boss by phone ordered the 2 workers off site.
    The boss sent me a nasty email telling me I would be charged for one day's work and see you in court if I did not pay up immediately, saying "I knew you would try something like this on."
    We at no point said we would not be paying the invoice or not paying the VAT element.
    But an invoice arrived yesterday (the day after the first day) for a sum of over £1000 for a one day's work, almost 60% of the original agreed quotation for the works.
    I paid up a one third share of the price we had been quoted, £1495 plus VAT so just under £600 as that equated to one day's share of the 3 days they had said it would take. Again, an email saying see you in court. I believe the company made an error in their idea of how long the work would take and how much was needed but the boss who made the site visit spent some half an hour here looking around and gave us the impression he knew what he was talking about.
    I'm not sure what I'm asking for here, but the company sent an invoice on day one, number say 1234 for £1700 odd, with their registered address which is not the same address as the Govt Company House registered office says it is, and the second invoice, the same number for for over £100 for one day's work.
    It does seem as though the boss has done what he's done to mitigate his losses, pull the workers and plant out, get them off somewhere else and try to recoup what he had incorrectly quoted for.
    BTW they left us with a huge excavated pit in the garden that we cannot access, and a huge amount of waste garden materials on the front drive that we've had to pay another company to take way.

    Advice please as he has said see you in court after we paid the £598.00.
    Tags: None

  • #2
    Hi
    Welcome to LB
    Did the quote provide a full description of the contract works? Did the quote state whether VAT was included or not and did it state the required method of payment?

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