Don't beat yourself, many rogue traders are very good at extracting money from customers.
I've been asked by a friend of a friend to go look at his extension tomorrow.
I was shown the quote of £25k and immediately said it was impossible to work for that price, even with free labour.
My rough estimate for material was £20k.
Turns out the rogue trader has already taken over £50k for "unexpected expenses".
There is nothing I can think of that could've been unexpected.
And, the ckeeky bugger has taken the liberty of relieving them of some solid wood furniture that he claims the customer had told him to throw away.
Furniture was carefully loaded into a van and taken away at the beginning, when the skip was empty, but he claims that he disposed of the furniture.
He now wants more money to finish the kitchen because apparently doors and panels where not included in the quote.
That's another £3k.
To me, "supply and fit kitchen as per plans" means a fully fitted kitchen, not just the bare cabinets (3d plans show cabinets with doors and fitted panels).
I'm expecting a lot of bodged things.
One thing I know it's gonna be wrong is the waste pipework from a toilet under the stairs.
The 4 inch pipe it's supposed to run for 4 metre and end up on a joint outside the gable wall.
Thing is, I'm told the original joint is just about below the floor level, so they must've laid the pipe flat because apparently they didn't excavate anything outside.
That's to say that his sweet talking got him a foot in the door and more than double the original agreed quote.
And it was a quote, not an estimate; that's what his paperwork says.
