What should you do in order to make a legitimate record of an "agreed quote" for a parcel of work

[teaboyjim]

When doing a parcel of work such as pouring a screed floor, a rewire, or the installation of a central heating system - what's the best way to agree a "quote" as opposed to it being an "estimate" so that it can be a formal agreement and used later if a misunderstanding occurs

 

[sxturbo]

Get a written itemised quote.

There is sometimes unforseen circumstances, but at the end of the day no one quotes without seeing it first, so they know what needs to be done.

Never accept word of mouth, and don't accept single line quotes unless they are heavily detailed in description.

If they are worth their salt a fully written quote on letter headed paper shouldn't be to much of a problem.

Read the t's and C's when the quote arrives before accepting the quote, sometimes there is caveats in there and you need to be fully aware of those caveats.

Don't accept a written quote that doesn't come with t's and c's, they are there there to offer protection to all parties.

To make it more binding you could create purchase orders that detail what you are authorising to be done, and in accepting this the tradesman is accepting your terms and conditions, this however is usually only done at business level.

 

[^woody^]

The principles of a contract are offer and acceptance plus what is called consideration (the payment - which does not need to be money)

The quote is the offer and you saying "yes I agree" is the acceptance and the formation of a binding contract. None of this needs to be in writing in this case. Obviously, any quote needs to say "quote" or other definite word not "estimate" .

The problems arise in the detail of the contract apart from the price.

The terms, working time, site procedures, supply of electric, cleaning up, material quality and specification, payment dates and work to be completed before payment, programme, insurances, warranty period etc are what tends to need to be recorded to avoid ambiguity.

 

[^woody^]

Don't accept a written quote that doesn't come with t's and c's

I don't agree with that.

There is no reason to accept the other party's Terms and Conditions - they are invariably for the sole benefit of the party trying to impose them.

In fact they may not even be enforceable if you have not explicitly agreed to them beforehand.

A contract should be on joint terms, ones which are known and agreed by both parties.

 

[teaboyjim]

The principles of a contract are offer and acceptance plus what is called consideration (the payment - which does not need to be money) The quote is the offer and you saying "yes I agree" is the acceptance and the formation of a binding contract. None of this needs to be in writing in this case. Obviously, any quote needs to say "quote" or other definite word not "estimate" . The problems arise in the detail of the contract apart from the price. The terms, working time, site procedures, supply of electric, cleaning up, material quality and specification, payment dates and work to be completed before payment, programme, insurances, warranty period etc are what tends to need to be recorded to avoid ambiguity.

When you speak with a call centre signing up to terms and conditions of some type of financial contract such as insurance or a phone contract for instance this "recorded conversation" essentially forms the legally binding contract as you mention as it doesn't necessarily need to be in writing.

 

[teaboyjim]

I don't agree with that. There is no reason to accept the other party's Terms and Conditions - they are invariably for the sole benefit of the party trying to impose them.

Yes I agree with this and it might have clauses and caveats that are unreasonable and it's virtually impossible to read and comprehend all the possibly nuances of the terms and conditions some of which could be deemed to be unfair.

In fact they may not even be enforceable if you have not explicitly agreed to them beforehand. A contract should be on joint terms, ones which are known and agreed by both parties.

Yes that's correct - contract law cannot surpass "the law of the land" or common law

 

[^woody^]

When you speak with a call centre signing up to terms and conditions of some type of financial contract such as insurance or a phone contract for instance this "recorded conversation" essentially forms the legally binding contract as you mention as it doesn't necessarily need to be in writing.

There is case law to the contrary. Just because someone states that you are agreeing to their T&Cs by doing a certain action does not actually mean you have agreed and certainly does not mean that the T&C's are valid or enforceable.

 

[sxturbo]

Stating terms and conditions makes otherwise hidden caveats known, though to be fair if there are specific caveats where I work we make them clearly visible on the main page of the quote, for example we may quote for work without attending site so do not know space constraints or engine condition, we only know the basic information given to us by the customer, who tends to view there equipment through rose tinted glasses in order to produce a good looking quote to their bosses for approval. We have learnt this the hard way in the past, so make references to

"the quote reflects information given at time of request and without a site survey we cannot be wholly accurate, final costs will be determined on signed time sheets, and any additional faults found will be quoted for at the time, along with a short report detailing the reason for failure and the rectification required, no additional works will be undertaken without site approval".

Customers (mainly private yacht owners) always try it on with a quotes a quote if you lose money it's your problem, so we tend to now avoid these, because unfortunately until you start actually getting into the bones of the work there may be hidden issues, also because private yachts are used so infrequently their servicing regime tends to not be carried out as they should, meaning many things are seized that shouldn't be, or things have been bodged so they can use their boat in the nice weather this bodge tends to get left forever until it fails again.

I see a tradesman that offers t's & C's along with letter headed paper/pdf at time of quote as a reputable and professional setup, that's not always the case I understand, but it's more trustworthy than some bloke on my builder that quotes you on the back of a fag packet or give a one liner email/word document.