In the 33 years that I have been a lady home owner, I've felt taken for a ride on several occasions. I almost always have already paid, then sat down and thought it through and realised I've been exploited, ripped off and made a fool of. Older and wiser now, I try to be sensible, get quotes etc before agreeing to anything.
I'm a bit taken aback at something that happened this morning and don't know what to do.
A roofer who scores 10 out of 10 in all categories in his six reviews on Checkatrade asked to come today at 8.30am. I put myself out to make sure I was up, washed, dressed and downstairs by 8.20am, ready to receive him, but when he arrived 45" late he didn't apologise nor offer any excuse or reason.
He and a lad and went up thru the hatch to my (butterfly) roof to investigate the source of a leak that has damaged the internal decor. He did say that, if it was an easy repair he'd do it on the spot, but did not mention money at all.
He was on the roof for two hours, during which I saw them bring down three buckets of moss with a rope down the front of the house.
When he came down he said he'd done some temporary remedial work to the spot where water seems to be entering, had removed a lot of moss, and cleaned down some of my tiles. He would come back in a few weeks and do a "proper" repair, involving lead costing £360 a roll.
He then asked me for £180. Yikes... £90 a hour!
Seeing me blanch at that he said that he "had to pay the lad", and "had lots of overheads" and that he'd done lots of good work up there that needed doing.
But this still seems excessive. Regardless of what he did, he was only doing it for 2 hours. The roof has been repaired and maintained for the past ten years by an all-round builder who charged me £15 an hour for anything he did (regardless of whether it was the roofing, electrics, carpentry etc) until he recently retired. Ok I can see that a specialist roofer is going to charge more than £15 but £90 <gulp>?
Instead of paying then regretting it, I didn't pay him, saying I had no cash and he'd have to send me a bill with the work he's done clearly listed. But bottom line is, he's charging me £90 an hour for what is (mostly or wholly) cleaning moss off the roof. Is this right/fair?
I am glad I didn't pay yet. It gives me the breathing space to think, consult on here, consider and maybe challenge his bill.
Thoughts please gentlemen?
BTW I am in a depressed seaside town, not in Mayfair .... lol
LHL
I'm a bit taken aback at something that happened this morning and don't know what to do.
A roofer who scores 10 out of 10 in all categories in his six reviews on Checkatrade asked to come today at 8.30am. I put myself out to make sure I was up, washed, dressed and downstairs by 8.20am, ready to receive him, but when he arrived 45" late he didn't apologise nor offer any excuse or reason.
He and a lad and went up thru the hatch to my (butterfly) roof to investigate the source of a leak that has damaged the internal decor. He did say that, if it was an easy repair he'd do it on the spot, but did not mention money at all.
He was on the roof for two hours, during which I saw them bring down three buckets of moss with a rope down the front of the house.
When he came down he said he'd done some temporary remedial work to the spot where water seems to be entering, had removed a lot of moss, and cleaned down some of my tiles. He would come back in a few weeks and do a "proper" repair, involving lead costing £360 a roll.
He then asked me for £180. Yikes... £90 a hour!
Seeing me blanch at that he said that he "had to pay the lad", and "had lots of overheads" and that he'd done lots of good work up there that needed doing.
But this still seems excessive. Regardless of what he did, he was only doing it for 2 hours. The roof has been repaired and maintained for the past ten years by an all-round builder who charged me £15 an hour for anything he did (regardless of whether it was the roofing, electrics, carpentry etc) until he recently retired. Ok I can see that a specialist roofer is going to charge more than £15 but £90 <gulp>?
Instead of paying then regretting it, I didn't pay him, saying I had no cash and he'd have to send me a bill with the work he's done clearly listed. But bottom line is, he's charging me £90 an hour for what is (mostly or wholly) cleaning moss off the roof. Is this right/fair?
I am glad I didn't pay yet. It gives me the breathing space to think, consult on here, consider and maybe challenge his bill.
Thoughts please gentlemen?
BTW I am in a depressed seaside town, not in Mayfair .... lol
LHL
