Painter Decorator Issue

[Salien]

After some advice from anyone who knows about the building trade and invoicing etc.

We hired a guy to come and decorate our hallway and landing, he delayed the start of the job because he found out that his missus had been cheating on him and it had essentially left him homeless. He eventually started the job, but then just started not turning up, when he did come , the quality of his work was poor and then he started ghosting us for about 2 weeks. We thought he had gone for good, so we hired someone else to come and finish the job. Literally the day after we booked the second guy, the original one messaged saying he was going to come the next day to carry on, no asking if it was OK or anything.

We were honest with him and said we had hired someone else and he has just sent us a message with the amount of money he thinks he's owed. It's ridiculous. The job was £950 and he thinks he should get £750 for what he has done, but he's barely done half of the overall work. On top of that, we have had several quotes to come and finish the job and they have all been around the £800 mark.

Does anyone know where we stand legally? Can we just not pay him, can we just pay him what we think is reasonable? We tried to negotiate but he says that he's lost a lot of money and can't afford to go any lower - as though that is our problem!!

Thoughts?

[Huxie]

ULA GYPLEASE is a serial spammer. They have made 2 posts since joining the forum and both posts contain hidden spam links.

[atticus]

Salien Offer £150.The painter's quote was £950, and the cost of finishing the job is £800.

[Salien]

Salien Offer £150.The painter's quote was £950, and the cost of finishing the job is £800.

Would i not need to take into account that different decorators charge different amounts and that most will unofficially charge a certain amount to make it worth their while to even come out?

I personally would not now expect this job to cost £950 with two decorators having contributed to the work, since one doing the whole job would always likely be cheaper than two doing one half each.

I guess what i'm trying to determine is how a small claims court would likely perceive it.

[Pezza54]

Did the original decorator give you any indication how long the work would take once he started?
Are you still able to make diary notes of the dates and times he turned up to work and any occasions he disappeared for extra long breaks?
Did he tidy up at the end of each working day or leave a mess?
Did the second decorator make any comments about the original decorator's standard of work?

[atticus]

you agreed a price of £950.As a result of his breach of contract you had to pay someone else £800. This gives you a good defence to a claim for more than £150.