I'd welcome other views on this.
We agreed a contract of works with a builder for home improvements. Everything was done to satisfaction, more of less on time & the whole experience was better than feared.
He has submitted a final invoice and has included a claim for an extra amount that I don't agree with.
Before the contract of works was agreed, they had 2 opportunities to assess the scale/scope of work and submit a quote. At a late stage in the work, they discovered that part of the work was more complex than they had thought and, to get it done, they had to rip out some of the finishing work already done and then redo it.
He is looking to be paid extra for this piece of work, i.e. increased effort and re-work. My view, and that of my architect, is that he should have identified the complexity of the work earlier in the build and resolved it before applying some of the finishing work.
At the time, we agreed that he had to do whatever was needed to resolve the situation but we did not discuss the cost.
He is adamant that he is owed this money. I believe that he is not as he had a lot of opportunities to figure out the complexity of the solution required.
The amount is less than 2K, including VAT, I'd be happy to make a cash settlement but he has dug in his heels.
What do you think ?