Advice re a "rogue trader" please

[bobg]

Just had a £1,500 job on my house only to discover today that some of the work was poor verging on the appalling. I have no faith in their ability to correct it since I have also discoved that they had charged me vastly inflated costs for materials, so I really dont want to give them the chance to remedy it, even if they were competent enough, which I doubt. My preferred option is to get it remedied by a reliable firm and ask the first lot to reimburse me both the cost of the remedial action and a percentage of their original parts and labour costs. If they fail, then opt for Small Claims Court court.
MY question is
a) would anybody suggest an alternative approach
b) would I be on shaky ground legally by not giving them the chance to correct matters.

Before anybody says it, I'll approach CAB on Monday and also get some legal advice but I was just interested to hear what CC'ers think. BTW. yes, I've been a bit of a prat in a number of ways but checking peoples work by climbing about on a roof is not an option for me plus I need it put right quickly or the roof willl leak

Interestingly, I just noticed that they trade under the same name as a far bigger and more reputable firm. Seems to be verging on fraud to me ...

 

[Bill Gates]

Have you paid them the money yet?

 

[bobg]

Have you paid them the money yet?

Yup afraid so cos it seemed fine until another roofer came this morning to finish a little bit of work . I know that tradesmen learn the sharp intake of breath routine and the "what cowboy did this" but in this case it was justifed; I checked the installation methods used via Google and it seems to be a common ruse by dodgy roofers cos it cant be seem from the ground and they rely on their customers not finding out. I've not elaborated so far but if there's any roofers out there, its all about jamming the eavesguard under about 6" of tiles rather than remove 3 layers of tiles and nailing the whole lot down properly.

 

[Headgardener]

Sounds like trading standards might like to get involved as well.

 

[PaulB]

Them rogue traders 'organising' the Manchester 100. They're rogue traders. IMHO.

 

[crankyray]

Yup afraid so cos it seemed fine until another roofer came this morning to finish a little bit of work . I know that tradesmen learn the sharp intake of breath routine and the "what cowboy did this" but in this case it was justifed; I checked the installation methods used via Google and it seems to be a common ruse by dodgy roofers cos it cant be seem from the ground and they rely on their customers not finding out. I've not elaborated so far but if there's any roofers out there, its all about jamming the eavesguard under about 6" of tiles rather than remove 3 layers of tiles and nailing the whole lot down properly.

http://www.vents.co.uk/pdf/eg920.pdf

It should be fixed to your roof rafters at some point minimum being at each end,
depending on what type of tiles are on your roof would determine whether 1/2/3 courses need to be taken off to fix it.
chances are if they have just shoved it up, they could quite possibly have damaged the underfelt aswell(if your roof had been underfelted).

dont know about the legal route, but id have thought your 1st step would be to at least let them correct bad workmanship, if they refuse then it may be a case for the civil court ??


by the way im not a qualified roofer.

 

[bobg]

http://www.vents.co.uk/pdf/eg920.pdf

It should be fixed to your roof rafters at some point minimum being at each end,
depending on what type of tiles are on your roof would determine whether 1/2/3 courses need to be taken off to fix it.
chances are if they have just shoved it up, they could quite possibly have damaged the underfelt aswell(if your roof had been underfelted).

dont know about the legal route, but id have thought your 1st step would be to at least let them correct bad workmanship, if they refuse then it may be a case for the civil court ??


by the way im not a qualified roofer.

Thanks crank, thats just what they did and 3 courses should have been taken off.
I really dont want to see them again even if it costs me money. I doubt if they could do it properly anyway!!

 

[Paul_L]

Gut feel, is that for you to have any legal recourse they should be given an opportunity to correct defective works.

You need to let them know that since the work was done you know they've bodged it and (a) they've not done what you've paid them to do and (b) they've risked further damage to the roof (assuming the above post is correct as i'm not a builder either!)

Tell them if they don't come back and re-do the job properly you'll be reporting it to trading standards and the local council building control officer.

Have they given you an invoice? If so does this list works which you now know they haven't done? If so this is fraud surely.

Employing tradesmen is a bloody nightmare isn't it.

 

[bobg]

Gut feel, is that for you to have any legal recourse they should be given an opportunity to correct defective works.

You need to let them know that since the work was done you know they've bodged it and (a) they've not done what you've paid them to do and (b) they've risked further damage to the roof (assuming the above post is correct as i'm not a builder either!)

Tell them if they don't come back and re-do the job properly you'll be reporting it to trading standards and the local council building control officer.

Have they given you an invoice? If so does this list works which you now know they haven't done? If so this is fraud surely.

Employing tradesmen is a bloody nightmare isn't it.

 

[bobg]

Gut feel, is that for you to have any legal recourse they should be given an opportunity to correct defective works.

You need to let them know that since the work was done you know they've bodged it and (a) they've not done what you've paid them to do and (b) they've risked further damage to the roof (assuming the above post is correct as i'm not a builder either!)

Tell them if they don't come back and re-do the job properly you'll be reporting it to trading standards and the local council building control officer.

Have they given you an invoice? If so does this list works which you now know they haven't done? If so this is fraud surely.

Employing tradesmen is a bloody nightmare isn't it.

All you say is spot on Paul but I was so pissed off about them inflating the charges for the eavesguard then lying to me, that the thought of trusting them with even the easiest job fills me with horror. If there is a funny part to all this ( with hindsight ), its when I confronted them with the overcharge and the came over shocked, reeled off a load of tosh about including the cost of timber (which I didnt have ), blamed their supplier for getting it wrong and then rang him from my kitchen leaving a message for someone to ring back. It wasnt till about an hour ago that Mrs BG reminded me that there is no signal whatever for any phone when used from my kitchen and that's been confirmed on endless occasions. Bloody good acting though!! The bill says "fitting eavesguard" etc but making a balls of the job is not mentioned

BTW yes, it is a nightmare and there are jobs which arent getting done because I dont want to get anybody in and I'm too old and knackered to do it myself

 

[Paul_L]

i completely sympathise Bob. I guess see what happens after you've spoken to CAB on monday. They are really good and will give you really good advice.

Me and Mrs. L are really lucky we know a builder who has been doing work for us for donkeys years and is completely reliable and trustworthy. Sadly he's retiring this year though.

I really hope things work out for you.

 

[Dilbert]

 We went through a similar situation with our bathroom and I didn't want them near the place again for the same reasons you have, but trading standards (who were worse than useless quite frankly) said we had to give them the chance to sort it out.  If they fail to sort it out then you can have someone else do it and try to get the money back off them via the courts.  Make sure all correspondence with them is in writing, by recorded delivery.

Best of luck.


Alasdair

 

[MarkF]

I run a roofing business and I am sorry to read all this. It's a hard game for an honest guy when you are competing against cowboys and "thrifty" clients.............seen it a thousand times.

Did you have an itemised quotation and a schedule of work?
Did you ask for referalls?
Did you inspect a completed installation by this company?
Did they provide an insurance backed guarantee? (Not a guarantee of good workmanship but at least a sign of a financially sound company with a good trading history)
Who are they and why did you let them loose on your roof and pay them?

Ask them to put it right to a certain specifictation, give them a reasonable deadline, if, not met, will result in court action.

Good luck.

 

[bobg]

I run a roofing business and I am sorry to read all this. It's a hard game for an honest guy when you are competing against cowboys and "thrifty" clients.............seen it a thousand times.

Did you have an itemised quotation and a schedule of work?
Did you ask for referalls?
Did you inspect a completed installation by this company?
Did they provide an insurance backed guarantee? (Not a guarantee of good workmanship but at least a sign of a financially sound company with a good trading history)
Who are they and why did you let them loose on your roof and pay them?

Ask them to put it right to a certain specifictation, give them a reasonable deadline, if, not met, will result in court action.

Good luck.

Hi Mark, I'll pm you if I may, ( once I've worked out how) rather than air all this and bore the pants of all the other CCers! Its close to my heart at the moment but probably less so for others.

 

[bobg]

We went through a similar situation with our bathroom and I didn't want them near the place again for the same reasons you have, but trading standards (who were worse than useless quite frankly) said we had to give them the chance to sort it out. If they fail to sort it out then you can have someone else do it and try to get the money back off them via the courts. Make sure all correspondence with them is in writing, by recorded delivery.

Best of luck.


Alasdair

Thanks Alasdair, ithe general concesus seems to be to allow these bastards a second shot but it really sticks in my craw.........