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.