To pay or not to pay electrician who did 25% of job then disappeared?

Hi all,

We were doing a self build house, and we got an electrician to provide labour only on the electrical installation. Over the duration of ten months, he did about 25% of the job. Over those ten months we constantly had to chase him and ring him to work. He then went off the radar, he wouldn't answer any of our calls or return me messages. We were left with no other alternative but to seek another electrician. We tried to contact him to tell him this, but again no answer. 15 months on, we have received a bill for €1300 for the work he did stating that if we do not pay he will take action.
Can anybody advise us on what rights we have with this issue. Do we have to pay him or not.
Thanks,
Dav

Re: To pay or not to Pay

[SIZE=-1]Wow, sounds like a right plonker. I'd imagine he's just chancing his arm telling you he'll take action, he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Try the European Consumer Centre, you can mail them or ring them. I've contacted them before about a consumer issue and found them excellent...www.eccdublin.ie[/SIZE]

Re: To pay or not to Pay

has the electrician provided you with invoices to back up his work? what i am getting at here is was he doing this as a nixer and if so you could threaten to report him to revenue. if he has given you invoices ensure that there is a valid vat number on the invoices. the only way that i know how ot do this is to go to revenue.ie and go to the locator link. this will allow you to enter the electrians vat number and it will tell you what tax distric they are located in. it wont tell you if the vat number belongs to the person in question but it is the only way that i know possible.

finally if what you are saying about the sparky is true i would under no circumstances pay him one cent.

Re: To pay or not to pay

electriciana have to be registered with the esb too before a certificate can be furnished for the work carried out, check with the esb as well.

Re: To pay or not to pay Electrician who did 25% of job then disapeared?

Im not sure that this issue is strictly a consumer issue.

It appears to me that you entered a contract with the electrician to do a job of work. It looks like the electrician only partially fulfilled his side of the contract.

It might be an idea to speak to a solicitor and in the meantime document miticulously your dealings with this guy.

aj

Re: To pay or not to pay Electrician who did 25% of job then disapeared?

A number of years ago we employed a builder to do some major work. He was fine initially and then disappeared. One of his employees told us 'he's great but an alcoholic, so he goes off on benders'!! Anyway after two weeks he turned up and did a little more, then off he went again. We employed a different builder to finish the work. Of course the new builder had to begin again and charged us accordingly. About six months later, the first builder presented us with a large bill accompanied by a solicitor's letter. He had never asked us to pay anything up to this so we were pretty shocked. We saw our solicitor and the advice given was that he was entitled to be paid for the work he had done. He suggested that we negotiate the fee based on what we had to pay the new builder, and to deduct a small amount for delays etc. He said he realised it seemed unfair but in law he was entitled to be paid. A case could be made he said, but by the time we'd paid legal fees coupled with the stress of the situation, it wouldn't be worth it. In this instance, the builder's brother was his solicitor and our solicitor thought they could go the whole nine yards with it without too much trouble for themselves. We let the two solicitors negotiate and ended up paying half the bill, plus legal fees.

Re: To pay or not to pay Electrician who did 25% of job then disapeared?

Ask the electrician who completed the job to write a note detailing the work he carried out (you may have to write and he sign). Ask that detail be given on existing work they found done and the time they spent clarifying/correcting/re-doing the "25%" and the costs related to that extra work.
It's never plug-and-play when somebody takes over work like that.

Considering the first electrician was labour only, they're really chancing their arm.

Re: To pay or not to pay Electrician who did 25% of job then disapeared?

Presumably you got a quote originally before this electrician started on the work. How does this €1300 compare to the value of the quote? Is it 1/4?

As per the poster above, have the work done detailed out, compared to the work quoted for, and pay the percentage (minus expenses for delays and chasing etc).

Re: To pay or not to pay Electrician who did 25% of job then disapeared?

Is there any proof that he carried out any work for you? He might have a hard time proving he was out with you at all.

Dont pay him a dime.

In Ireland i think our culture is way too into getting the law involved on these type of issues and people freak out when they get threatened solicitors involvement. He probably sent the same letter to a bunch of people hoping one would be silly enough to give him some easy cash.

My advise is to ignore it altogether or write a nice letter back, saying its been 15 months since he's been in touch, he did not fulfill his end of the deal and you made more than reasonable efforts to make contact. The contract was not for a portion of a job and was not carried out as agreed.

Don't even bother seeing a solicitor.

Don't encourage this type of guy. He deserves nothing as he was incapable of performing the job you had asked him to do. And the cheek of sending a nasty letter with the bill!

definately just ignore him, sounds like a total waster.

How about not answering his letters or returning his calls?

Don't send or return any letter's/notes'/phone message's ,If he was doing a foxer and let you down so badly act as if he never existed .Soon enough he'll probably fall out with another client and you'll be forgoten.