Have I been overcharged?

[NicolasR]

Hey there, had some unfortunate problems with a local plumber.

We needed a new oil tank fitting, and as my partners father is a builder, he recommended us a plumber and sourced us a tank, cement for new base, and any other parts that were needed to install said tank.

The plumber came on day 1, and helped make the base while coming to diagnose a separate plumbing problem.
He spent around 4 hours working in the morning, dithered about my house for around an hour talking to himself while refusing to go in the loft as the problem 'wasn't up there' (despite it being an overflow leak, which turns out is from the hot water tank in the loft, as found by another plumber), took around an hour lunch, and went home.

Day 2, he came back to connect the oil tank up after lifting it onto the base and filling it with the oil from our old tank. He spent around 2-3 hours on this, at which point the boiler wasn't heating up properly. He spent a further 3 hours 'trying to work out' what the problem was, constantly changing his mind and talking to himself about what it could possibly be, going off to get a replacement part (that wasn't the problem), and generally not doing much. He probably took around an hour and a half to get the part + have lunch.

Day 3 he's decided he can't fix the problem, as it's a tiger loop failure (no idea what this is sadly, not a plumber), and gets in a boiler engineer to fix it. However, he decides to come along and supervise the boiler chap (I have no idea as to if this is a 1 or 2 man job) for around 3 hours.

At the end of the work, I advise him I'm not happy, and I'm not willing to pay him for all the time spent. He was very apologetic and said he wouldn't be charging full hours as he knows he'd spent too long, etc etc.

Got the bill through, and he's charged 12 hours labour, deducting 2.5 hours.

Also got charged 3 hours labour and parts from the boiler chap.

Is this a reasonable amount of time to spend doing the work (am I being irrational), or is the chap just looking for an easy pay day?

Sadly I have no quote from before the job was taken, as my partners father dealt with hiring him, and he informed us to install the new tank would cost 'no more than £400 total worst case'. Thus far it's cost around £900 with the father in law undercharging due to 'family rates', the boiler chap, and the plumber.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, if there's anything I can do, if I'm being unreasonable, etc etc.

Cheers!

 

[lame plumber]

brilliant set of posts that lead me to think that your better off paying full price for a new tank through an oftec registered technician, but I would say that and my prices would include a working boiler

 

[SimonG]

brilliant set of posts that lead me to think that your better off paying full price for a new tank through an oftec registered technician, but I would say that and my prices would include a working boiler

I think a working boiler would be the minimum on offer, and work from there.

Just like a bloke round our way. He can service, supposedly, oil oilers, but he can't repair them. If he switches it on after the service and it doesn't work he has to call somebody else out

 

[Nostrum]

So the issues is, did he do 12 hours work?

The rate is reasonable for a plumber (rather than an oil technician)

What at the other guy charged to make it work is reasonable.

Presumably your father in law didn't rip you off on materials, so that's reasonable.

I would guess they took the best part of a day to drain the old tank and make the base? Say 8hrs?

If the hours don't tally just speak to him, suggest the hours you feel he was being productive for and go from there, not much anyone on here can do considering you've gone about arranging the whole job in a less than perfect way (family and work don't mix!)

 

[WHPES]

I could be wrong but OFTEC isn't a requirement is it? I thought you could install yourself and notify, not 100% certain though.

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Yes if you install it yourself you can pay £200 for a Building Inspector to sign it off. But the customer did not install it themselves so the plumber is acting illegally if they do not notify it. Also if it is a second hand tank, is it a single skinned tank? If so, I would be very wary.

I repeat, do NOT hand over any money until you have the CD11 certificate and the Building Control certificate. This is an absolute legal requirement and the installer has a duty to provide these and you are totally within your rights to withold payment until you have them. Without them you have an illegal installation and your insurance is potentially invalid.

 

[MOSSEP]

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Yes if you install it yourself you can pay £200 for a Building Inspector to sign it off. But the customer did not install it themselves so the plumber is acting illegally if they do not notify it. Also if it is a second hand tank, is it a single skinned tank? If so, I would be very wary.

I repeat, do NOT hand over any money until you have the CD11 certificate and the Building Control certificate. This is an absolute legal requirement and the installer has a duty to provide these and you are totally within your rights to with hold payment until you have them. Without them you have an illegal installation and your insurance is potentially invalid.

Could the plumber not install it himself and then pay the £200 fee then, from what I have read I thought that was the case. Still best to get an OFTEC fitter of course. In this case though it seems obvious that the plumber isn't OFTEC and hasn't paid the £200 fee.

In the same way that saying you need a Part P registered electrician to carryout certain electrical work in domestic properties isn't true.

:vanish:

 

[Ermintrude]

Yes but plumber would need to submit a building notice 48hrs before work is due to commence. Then the LABC will give him a pretty hard ride . Not fun

 

[WHPES]

Would end up costing more than using an OFTEC tecnhician able to self certify.