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Hello!

We hired an electrician in August to complete some work for us in a little art studio. It included metal conduit, plugs changing to metal ones (plus more added), pendant lights fitted, strip lights updating (2), plus bits like electrical radiators (3) and a hand dryer installed.

The work was due to be completed for the 9th of September, in time for the space to be used the following week. We were asked to pay for materials up front as he didn't like the idea of buying them, so we transferred £1400 up front.

He then failed to show for two weeks, and gave us a few different excuses, then turned up in dribs and drabs (two hours here, then a full day on a random Sunday). We're now over a month behind schedule, paying rent on two places, and the work is still not completed. He never turns up. He never calls. We are constantly chasing him. Half of our unit is without lighting or power completely, including the toilet, which means the space as a whole is completely unusable. He has had to redo a few different bits where he has not followed our plan (pendants in the wrong places, power too close to the sink etc).

Anyway, he is now asking for payment before he completes. He's charging us for his mistakes and calling them our changes. He's threatening us with a bill for over £4000 +VAT when I've asked for his break down of work completed, plus a receipt for the materials we purchased. He's incredibly defensive, aggressive and unprofessional, but I have no idea where we go from here. The work is uncompleted, he is demanding payment, but we have no faith he will even return if we pay him for the work done. We have never undertaken work to this scale, and basically do not know where to go from here. Where do we stand? Do we have to pay him immediately, or is it ok to request that work is completed first? He is claiming over 80 hours work on site, but this is just absolutely not true.

Furthering this, in reality, we do not want him on site any more. He has been so aggressive in his correspondence that we would really rather just pay him for work already completed and move on from this mess. Is that viable? We have no idea what to do.

Any help would be massively appreciated!
 
Welcome to the Forum, sounds like a very unprofessional person, may we ask if there were any written contract or agreement be it even in email form or text to back up your position here.
Is there any written contract on your part that gives completion dates etc and what you expect out of the Electrician, also when he was asked to alter his work because he had failed to follow instructions can you confirm you had some detailed plans for him to follow.

If this was all done on the word of mouth then it makes it a lot more complicated on your part but if any of this was recorded, he had been supplied plans of the new layout and it clearly showed positions etc that he did not adhere to then you have a much stronger position.

I would from now on record all dialogue and is probably easiest to do via Email, if he has become aggressive then you probably have a legal angle to refuse him back on site but you also will be looking at legal options, I would first of all approach Citizens Advice or a on line legal advice forum to establish your position here.
 
PS - by the sounds of it you already paid a down payment to cover material costs, now lets consider his 80 hrs claim was correct then that would amount to him charging you £50 a hour which is extortionate and not at all competitive, also is he VAT registered and are you so you can claim it back, otherwise why use a VAT registered firm to do a few jobs when you could have hired a local sparks non registered who doesn't have to apply the 20% to his Labour costs.
 
Agree with darkwood, think your first step is to seek legal advice, darkwood mentioned registration, I assume he is on about VAT registration.
Do you know if this Electrician belongs to one of the CP Schemes, such as NICEIC, NAPIT as examples, if it turns out that he does then a letter or email to them may be in order.
Do you still have the materials you say you have paid for, or is he holding onto them?
It seems from what you are saying that you do not wish to use this chap again, regardless of any outcome, you could try asking for the materials, paid for by you, back. Can you estimate how much of the materials he has used? I would say as you paid for these materials the legally they belong to you, if he still has the remaining materials, then perhaps take out a CCJ for the materials or cash, but take proper legal advice before you do anything, and keep copies of ALL documentation, sent and received, looks like you took this blokes word, which is the wrong way to do things, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, good luck, please let the Forum know how you get on, if you can.
 
Keep calm, communicate in writing and let the other party respond in writing

Unfortunate as this is try and keep the relationship in tact..... But do not pay up front as I suspect he won't return.

Do you have his full details?

Do you have an invoice for the upfront payment?

The fact he didn't want to buy parts is worrying to say the least
 
If any of the work includes the following:

1. Electrical work within a bathroom or shower room.
2. New consumer unit (fuse box)
3. Adding a new circuit (This means taking a new cable from the fuse box)

then it means the work is notifiable to the building authorities which he should be dealing with. If so then he should be with a 'scheme', in which case he HAS to have a complaints procedure. Ask him for his complaints procedure in writing, take photos of all the work, record calls made to/from him.

I know this doesn't sound much but if it does go to court then it shows you have gone about things in the right way.

I don't know the legal implications of not paying someone, but if he is threatening you and clearly over charging then I really can't see that you are expected to pay. If he becomes too aggressive then you call the police..... or ask MDJ (above) to step in as he would scare me off!
 
Frankly I think the behaviour of the person in question is amounting to extortion and is a criminal offence. I would discuss that aspect with the police and inform the person not to attend the premises at any time. Further I would most certainly be taking legal action for damages against the person for lost business and payment of two rentals as he did not complete on time. Take legal advice immediately. Make sure there are men to meet the electrician. I have seen this a couple of times on site. A tiler when questioned by the lady of the house got very loud and aggressive until I appeared and stood around monitoring things. They don't usually behave this way around men.
As for the price it is extortion with menaces no way should you be paying that for the work you describe. Do not part with any more money and demand a fair re-compense and advise the person of legal action. Liaise with the police prior to this action and take advice in case further threats are issued. What scheme is he with? Contact them especially about the aggressive behaviour. If I were close I would personally assist you in this matter I think the behaviour is disgraceful in the extreme.
 
As above seek advice, Citizens Advice or Solicitor.

Is this Art Studio part of a House or a small Commercial unit / shop?

Don't pay him any more money until you've sought advice.
Don't allow him access untill you have a breakdown of costs so far and a proposal to finish the work including future costs and timescale.

Make a list as far as possible of dates and time of his visits.
And dates and times of phone calls and his attitude on those calls.
Photograph all work started or completed, this could be usefull if you end up in the Small claims court later.
 
that would amount to him charging you £50 a hour which is extortionate and not at all competitive
I don't think it's fair to suggest that without much more information about this. There are circumstances whereupon a £50 an hour charge would be reasonable.
 
One thing which has not been mentioned, there are always two sides to an argument and we have only heard one. I am not suggesting the OP is lying, but I have been in a similar situation where I had to walk off site because the customer kept altering things and the costs escalated, so maybe there could be some misunderstanding, as Murdoch mentioned in his reply, perhaps the way forward is communication first in a friendly manner, then go from there, we have no idea what the sparks side of the story is.
 
One thing which has not been mentioned, there are always two sides to an argument and we have only heard one. I am not suggesting the OP is lying, but I have been in a similar situation where I had to walk off site because the customer kept altering things and the costs escalated, so maybe there could be some misunderstanding, as Murdoch mentioned in his reply, perhaps the way forward is communication first in a friendly manner, then go from there, we have no idea what the sparks side of the story is.
Yes good idea, never gave that idea much thought, but never the less, good advice.
 
I don't think it's fair to suggest that without much more information about this. There are circumstances whereupon a £50 an hour charge would be reasonable.

It's Leeds, my neck of the woods, if this was London then I could see it but the going rates locally are well below this and would require some good justification IE working out of hours at agreed rate, this does not come across in the customers OP and seems he just turned up when he could/wanted to, if he is busy with other work and has to fit this work in in out of hours time then this should have been agreed beforehand, you cannot pop in on the weekend and charge weekend rates if this was not agreed prior... I do suspect there is no formal contract anyway given the manner we have been led to believe that this bloke has come in demanding some payment.

PS - I do machinery breakdowns etc and even I don't charge that much locally and that is saying something, if an Electricians claiming that rate then we either don't have all info' or he would seem he is trying to rip the customer off given the limited info' we already have the latter seems to be the best call IMHO.
 
Some good advice above, part with no more money, communicate in writing to record things.

Hopefully this is just a misunderstanding and can be sorted amicably and quickly.

@GLENNSPARK it's not you is it??? :D
 
Some good advice above, part with no more money, communicate in writing to record things.

Hopefully this is just a misunderstanding and can be sorted amicably and quickly.

@GLENNSPARK it's not you is it??? :D
can't be Glenn, coz if Glenn was in the right, OP would be posting from a hospital bed. :D:D:D.
 
Is there any written contract on your part that gives completion dates etc and what you expect out of the Electrician, also when he was asked to alter his work because he had failed to follow instructions can you confirm you had some detailed plans for him to follow.

If this was all done on the word of mouth then it makes it a lot more complicated on your part but if any of this was recorded, he had been supplied plans of the new layout and it clearly showed positions etc that he did not adhere to then you have a much stronger position.

Hi!

Thank you so much for this, and thank you to everyone for your replies. Honestly I was a wreck this morning; it is so(!) reassuring to know that this isn't typical and we're not totally screwed.

So, yeah - we have written confirmation of the initial completion date, plus every subsequent date we've re-agreed (four total). He repeatedly does not show, we miss the deadline, we re-agree the following week, and he fails to show once again. It's exhausting.

All of this is either in email or text, and every time we have made sure to mention an exact date, so that it's clear when he exceeds it.

We also have the plans (three total - one for lights, one for sockets, and one for the fittings).

I've stopped replying to him for now because I don't know where to go from here, so we're seeking legal help. He's been emailing/texting me all day asking for the 'interim payment', telling me that I've created a 'nightmare' for him by asking him to provide proof of purchase for the materials.
 
Agree with darkwood, think your first step is to seek legal advice, darkwood mentioned registration, I assume he is on about VAT registration.
Do you know if this Electrician belongs to one of the CP Schemes, such as NICEIC, NAPIT as examples, if it turns out that he does then a letter or email to them may be in order.
Do you still have the materials you say you have paid for, or is he holding onto them?
It seems from what you are saying that you do not wish to use this chap again, regardless of any outcome, you could try asking for the materials, paid for by you, back. Can you estimate how much of the materials he has used? I would say as you paid for these materials the legally they belong to you.

His invoice says STROMA on it, if that's anything? He had an argument with my landlord on the first day of the job (a ring spur not connected properly or something?) kept going on about being an inspector for something and insisted he was "going to get the place shut down" - he then refused to attend the site for a week until it was connected due to the fact that it was a "loss of life" hazard. I wish we'd pulled the plug then but, hindsight is a beautiful thing.


We don't have the materials, we never received the materials. We were told when he bought then (attached is his email) that they'd be delivered to the unit. They never arrived. Because we'd paid him such a large amount up front, we sort of panicked and wanted to keep him sweet, so didn't push it. Again, in hindsight we were naive and should have questioned it (or, just not paid him up front).


I've asked for a receipt for all of the materials purchased for our job so I could have a look at what has been used, and that's what's made him blow his top. He says he bought it in dribs and drabs with other jobs so won't be able to get me receipts. But, his email clearly pushed for early payment because he was doing a bulk order? So frustrating.

Aggressive electrician demanding payment...what do we do? Screen Shot 2018-10-08 at 16.47.51 - EletriciansForums.net
 
Do you have his full details?

Do you have an invoice for the upfront payment?

The fact he didn't want to buy parts is worrying to say the least

We do! We have an invoice for the upfront payment - which includes all of his details inc. address.

We weren't aware this was an issue until we've started getting quotes on what's left. Is it really this unusual to request payment up front? We were completely oblivious. Obviously he saw that and took us for a bit of a ride.
 

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