Certain builders "extras"

[Caveat]

There seems to be a lot more of this going on in recent weeks and months if this site is anything to go by. I'm talking of course of an agreed price mysteriously increasing and sometimes, almost doubling during the course of the job.

I'm talking about jobs where the customer hasn't altered plans or changed their spec. etc.

Confusion and misinterpretation of plans or instructions can only account for some of it.

If this is what recession hit, unscrupulous contractors are resorting to now (not that it didn't already happen to some extent anyway) they are not exactly futureproofing their services or reputation are they?

Bad enough that many seemingly evade tax as it is.

I know there are many honest, decent tradespeople & contractors out there, but the chancer element seem to be getting worse?!?!

 

[Vanilla]

There are genuine reasons for extras to be charged sometimes and sometimes there are genuine chancers. People have to have a bit of common sense about it all. On the last two occasions I have been to the garage the estimate turned out to be around 30% less than the end bill. I questioned it and I believed the guy when he said he did more work than he originally envisaged. Fair enough, that happens sometimes. Bit of cop on is needed.

 

[ubiquitous]

I think it would be a mistake to assume that this problem is getting worse rather than better, based on a few posts to this site. It was rife during the boom years and there is a lot less building going on nowadays so on that measure alone the problem should be diminishing to some extent.

The other point is that there are 2 sides to every story and its worth noting that when we read of such cases on AAM we are only hearing the consumer's side. If the tradesmen were able to give their version of events, I guess that at least some of the cases against them wouldn't seem so clearcut.

Finally I always throw my eyes towards heaven when I hear of people complaining about this sort of thing and going on to mention that they agreed a cash deal at the outset. If the consumer is happy to conspire with the tradesman to rip off the taxpayer, is it really a shock when the tradesman turns around and rips them off? What goes around comes around.

 

[Bubbly Scot]

On the other side, I recently managed a project to install new temporary buildings. I had three companies bidding for the business and every time one company offered an "extra" another would top it. In the end I got far more than the budget would have got this time last year. It all came in on time (early in fact) and at the price quoted.

I can understand that some builders would increase their charges but my experiences have been quite the opposite, most are happy to have the work, especially if it means keeping staff in jobs.