none paying customers and gas safe

[sparra1100]

i have had a none payinmg customer in frodsham cheshire ,has anyone else had this and how have they gone about solving it,i have done the job and come to commission the boiler but the bloke informs me one of the rads are not working ive been back 6 times and i told him it wouldnt work due to were he wanted the pipework its cost me over £200 in juice and ive made virtually no money on the job so cos i refused to commisssion it and sign it off cos he,s not paid the out standing money i said i would go back and commission it and sign it off when he pays me he says hes getting someone else to commission it etc but i foned gas safe and they said they wouldnt be happy with it i wouldnt commission anybody elses work, would anybody else most people i no wont anyway, cos the boiler is not commissioned its classed as id so am told so i rang transco up and they switched it off anyone else had this just need a bit of guildence as gas safe dont seam to have helped much except for the local rep whos been great ,on the fone i got this posh snotty bloke who said cos it was gas tight it was safe to me thats wrong just cos its gas tight dont mean its safe as if ,say a boiler had no flue but was gas tight it wouldnt be safe if you get my point ,quite worrying him giving that kind of information out before i do any commissioning i leave it on so to let the co settle before doing the fga on new boilers
whats you thoughts

 

[lame plumber]

why is a pumped rad not working? not an easy situation but have to say you installed it, you will probably lose any argument in court

 

[sparra1100]

i think the building ius to high and it needs balancing but he wont have it ,plus ive been brief on here lot more to it than just what ive put to long to go into

 

[Deleted member 44451]

i had a situation once and i told the customer if they didnt send me a chq i would pass the debt over to a collecting agency and i was no longer my problem. chq came the next day. i like to call it a psychological threat . i didnt have to do anything it just worked

 

[sparra1100]

i had a situation once and i told the customer if they didnt send me a chq i would pass the debt over to a collecting agency and i was no longer my problem. chq came the next day. i like to call it a psychological threat . i didnt have to do anything it just worked

yep thought of that but they charge loads

 

[Guest123]

Don't give credit. Get paid a deposit up front with the balance immediately payable on completion.

Unfortunately for you, it sounds like this guy has no intention of ever paying you and is playing you. If it went down the long winding road of a court action against him, it could take many months and you could lose and find yourself out of pocket with the legal fees. The guy will stand up in court and swear blind that he knew nothing about the radiator and it was the way you installed it that caused it to fail.

Best way is to try to reach a amicable agreement with the nob and at least you might cover some of your costs.

 

[sparra1100]

Don't give credit. Get paid a deposit up front with the balance immediately payable on completion.

Unfortunately for you, it sounds like this guy has no intention of ever paying you and is playing you. If it went down the long winding road of a court action against him, it could take many months and you could lose and find yourself out of pocket with the legal fees. The guy will stand up in court and swear blind that he knew nothing about the radiator and it was the way you installed it that caused it to fail.

Best way is to try to reach a amicable agreement with the nob and at least you might cover some of your costs.

hi mate

no dont normally,went against everything i usually do,but was assured by the build who is a best mate learnt the hard way will never do it again havnt said everything on here cos its to long to go into

 

[Deleted member 44451]

the nob amicable arrangement route is prob the best if you are owed a fair amount, at least you should get something out of it and more importantly you can move on and get it out of your head. i had a situation where someone owed me money and it bugged me for ages whilst it dragged on it dragged me down. Getting some kind of settlement asap i think is def the way to go with this one. then learn from it, draw a line and forget it

 

[gasmanrob]

Don't use post mix it's been done and very tacky approach.

 

[sparra1100]

What does that mean am just askin advice

 

[Deleted member 44451]

i dont understand that either

 

[phpaul]

postmix is what car painters call paint with actvator mixed in
postmix is what builders use when puting concrete fence posts in to the ground
postmix some thing to do with softdrinks in pubs
am i close

 

[Destroyer2813]

Postmix is what a former angry banned member put in a outside stopcock cover once

 

[phpaul]

one of my mates was a arse of a car dealer
****ed off customer re decorated throu the letter box using a old fire extinguisher filled with gloss paint.
proper jackson pollock

 

[Petefinny]

I had this once and told the customer that until the debt is paid the parts belong to me s i had the receipt and would be taken off at a certain date, they paid ASAP, i need to ask one thing, so if you havent registered the boiler with gas safe then the boiler is classed as I.D? What if the bench mark has been done?

 

[sparra1100]

I have all the paperwork and there bits and bobs to be done so if someone switches it back on there in trouble cos its a unsafe appliance an most gas safe people wont sign off other peoples work the bloke is doin all he can to not pay me am on hols but am goin to town on him wen i get back

 

[Deleted member 44451]

as i said earlier if all else fails and you got no chance of getting paid just tell him your passing the debt to a collecting agency
you dont have to do it the threat can sometimes be enough

 

[sparra1100]

I really do wonder why we are above board pay our gas safe fees and get told about illegal work an someone can just come in an commission an sign off a boiler i have fitted and for transco to give them the numbers aswell is shocking

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

Amicable agreement is by far your best option.

You can go the small claims route - it is simple, you send a final invoice and threaten legal action if payment is not received with 21 days.
then send a final notice.
Then get the court forms and fill them in it doesn't cost much and is fairly easy up to this stage - DIY.
MOST people then do pay up - apparantly - within this process.

At least twice we have taken people all the way to court and won but honestly because of the time involved it is just not worth doing.
And it takes about 1 year before you get paid if it goes all the way.

- It is worth doing on principle though - those people who just won't pay with no good reason make me mad!
And i am pleased that those people end up paying more with interest and court costs.

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

Most people I know would n't commission someone elses work - and all the GSR advice is against it,
but he just need to find that one guy who will.

 

[Deleted member 32524]

Debt collection agencies are very fair with their fees, in my experience. Normally charging alot less than you think. Add on any fees they will charge you to the outstanding bill with a little added on top and let them sort it for you.

Or turn up with a scary looking mate. lol.

 

[mutley racers]

on all jobs do you get the client to sign a contract? Or only over a certain amount?

 

[Reg Man]

There is some legal issues on both sides here.

When you installed the boiler, if you do not immediately commision it, then you are required by the GSIUR's too disconnect the gas appliance until such commisioning is completed.

The customer has issue with the radiator not working, but they must give you opportunity to rectify the work.

The customer entered a contract with you for the work and has acceptance to this in so much that he has allowed the work to progress. The contract is not complete until all necessary work has been completed including the commisioning and certification. If the customer has refused to allow you to complete the contract, they must demonstrate that they have due cause to prevent this.

I agree with Tara, that the best way forward if possible, is to reach a mutual agreement. I would make sure that every contact you have is documented preferably in letters, so that if this has to go to court you can show you acted dilligently fairly.

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

on all jobs do you get the client to sign a contract? Or only over a certain amount?

We don't ask customers to sign a contract.
We give a very detailed quote with term & conditions (which are standard to all our jobs). If they pay the deposit/ we start work then the implication is they accept the quote & T&C.
We give written quotes for almost all jobs - even the smallest - and take deposits for those over about £1,000 - depending on ... client.
Payment on completion is part of the T&C.
Our T&C also includes additional admin fees if we have to chase the money - gives customers incentive to pay with 7 days!

All of this makes it easy to chase up payment and court action if necessary.

 

[Alpha man]

I've found a can of expanding foam in the flue very satisfying for instances like this!!!:wink5:

 

[iain85]

Did you have any come back from doing the expanding foam trick Alpha man?

 

[Alpha man]

Nope! And the best bit is, I've done lots of work for them since the foam incident.LOL

 

[iain85]

I assume you foamed them for not paying up ? But you also went back and did more work? Presumably you made them pay in advance?

 

[Alpha man]

Foamed, manufacture replaced flue at a cost to customer, lol, week later all monies arrived, and I've never mentioned it, so now we make sure we get a reasonable deposit before any work is carried out for them!

 

[iain85]

Good man. Nice to see an amicable ending to it all! Lol

 

[sparra1100]

Ive done everything by the book but i just dont think hes had the money an was stallin but got his eye wipe wen i refused to go any futher till he paid me then it got messy to hard to explain on ere but ive done nothing wrong an am defo takin it futher

 

[Reg Man]

Just to clarify: In thread 17, " I said:>QUOTE> When you installed the boiler, if you do not immediately commision it, then you are required by the GSIUR's too disconnect the gas appliance until such commisioning is completed.>QUOTE>

Disconnect, means isolate the gas supply by capping it off.

 

[sparra1100]

Foned transco got them to do it after askin him can i go in the house to switch it off with no reply

 

[iain85]

Interested in this. What did you tell Transco?

 

[sparra1100]

Told them i had fitted a boiler then had a disagrement with the customer and had switched it on to do my checks and an worcester were comin out to check a fault with water so i was told that its not allowed to be on as its uncommissioned so txt the bloke so could switch it off with no reply because he was bein an arse so they came out an switched it of as classed as id but then the bloke rung up transco and apparantly a woman gave the bloke 2 numbers to ring and told him it would cost £100 so she must have known them which i think is a bit naughty an thats were am up to at the mo

 

[iain85]

£100 to commission it from a Transco recommended 3rd party? Normally they just TOFO. Strange

 

[sparra1100]

Yep all a bit odd they told me they dont get involved but this bloke has been a pain all along ,should never have done it its a catch 22 cos dont want to cause hassle but we pay are fees so why be gas safe if someone can just do this ,an come in over you so am gunner take it as far as i can ,as i havnt done anythink to cause all this ,just done my job an now have all this hassle all i asked for was payin for my materials cos the amount of times ive been there the labour is out the window an was assured i be paid the same day for the metarials i carnt fork out again as had this done once before ,took 12 months to recover this will send me under if i dont get anywere and all the time expense and effort to get to were i am,just shows being legal and honest gets you nowhere just gunner have to go thro gas safe on the gas side thats been done the margins are so small at the moment that carnt loose 1500 quid