Hired a contractor to work on my home. Having a dispute over the price.

[Beaver Brownlee]

I think he probably charges 45 then, pays the assistant 20, then pockets the rest. I’m just speculating though.

It’s fine if you want to charge the same rate for any worker regardless of experience. Do you tell you clients/customers that you charge for the amount of workers you use? That’s where TS’s gripe comes from. It sounds like the contractor TS wasn’t exactly forethcoming (Maybe it was intentional. Maybe not) about these things, then again he states that he didn’t get an estimate.

I do specify per man hour verbally, which people often miss, and in emailed agreements.
It's none of anyone's business how much I pay my help or keep myself. I'm perfectly fine with them giving it a go if they know better how to manage a business. I do it as a hobby because I enjoy it and have a generous customer base that would absolutely never question the per man hour bit. Mostly because they are business owners as well and understand these things as well as operating cost and liability. New help a large liability and that adds to their expense.

I agree the contractor should have been more clear about per man hour if he didn't in speaking. I don't agree there should be any issue in him charging for the helper, it's the norm.

 

[RJ43]

Isn't that what he gave me? He said 45 an hour over the course of about two days. I thought that was clear enough and had no idea he would try to charge me separate for the kid he brought with him. If you mean a written estimate/quote then yeah I wish I would have done that. Never again.

You needed total hours. You never had a discussion of how many total man hours the job would be, just a duration. Whether it was intentional or not, he gave you a schedule and an hourly rate, NOT the amount of units (hours) that increase the cost.

Time and Material agreements are common with larger scale projects but even then it’s customary to provide what’s called a Control Budget that gives the customer a rough idea of how much will be required.

I’ve been a CFO in residential construction for about 12 years now. Depending on what state you are in he may or may not have lien rights on your property. Even if he does, it’s unlikely he’d go beyond the initial threat as it requires time and paperwork to foreclose.

If I were you I’d try to just negotiate something in between. If you really can’t oay or want to fight a virtue battle then you can play hardball and probably get away with it.

 

[thomnasty]

I do specify per man hour verbally, which people often miss, and in emailed agreements.
It's none of anyone's business how much I pay my help or keep myself. I'm perfectly fine with them giving it a go if they know better how to manage a business. I do it as a hobby because I enjoy it and have a generous customer base that would absolutely never question the per man hour bit. Mostly because they are business owners as well and understand these things as well as operating cost and liability. New help a large liability and that adds to their expense.

I agree the contractor should have been more clear about per man hour if he didn't in speaking. I don't agree there should be any issue in him charging for the helper, it's the norm.

Thanks for the insight. It does help me see things from the perspective of a contractor.

You are right it’s not really anyone else’s business how you handle internal finances of your business. It appears judging by the yelp review TS provided that his contractor has a habit of not accurately disclosing how he bills. As a consumer, regardless of the industry, this is not good practice.

 

[IamStryker]

Did you get a good overall price?

It doesn't seem very good to me but I don't know for sure as I didn't get to comparison shop. I was ok with what I agreed to not with what I was told I owed when the job was done.

 

[RJ43]

But then the worker can just go slow? The quote system works because you get several quotes from reputable people. Then if there is anyone taking the piss it's obvious.

T&M agreements still have schedules and slow is not the same thing as increased hours.

Both T&M, Cost Plus, and Stipulated Sum contracts have their place. The most client friendly agreement is a Cost-Plus Not to Exceed which aims to have the client only pay actual cost plus a agreed fee within a certain cap. This pains the contractor down on both buffering their costs and charging way beyond what the client expected.

No offense to TS, but this sounds like a very small project with a guy in a pickup truck that likely doesn’t even have a license.

I’d chalk it up as a lesson, negotiate with the guy and pay him something reasonable and move on.

 

[IamStryker]

UPDATE

So I had been waiting on a response from this guy since yesterday when I emailed him back explaining my issues with the price. He got back to me today and simply said that he was updating the invoice to the $980 that I was expecting to pay and then briefly remarked that the $45 an hour was for total man hours. I am happy that we are now in agreement I just found this whole thing to be very strange. I wouldn't expct someone who did nothing wrong here to just give in so quickly and lower the bill by $900. Whatever, I'm happy it's over and I will never let this crap happen again. Signed contract and written quotes from now on.

Thanks for the advice everyone. You all made me feel better about it which I wasn't really expecting. Sherdog can be a great place sometimes.

 

[minute bull]

Fuck you!

 

[supnmunm]

UPDATE

So I had been waiting on a response from this guy since yesterday when I emailed him back explaining my issues with the price. He got back to me today and simply said that he was updating the invoice to the $980 that I was expecting to pay and then briefly remarked that the $45 an hour was for total man hours. I am happy that we are now in agreement I just found this whole thing to be very strange. I wouldn't expct someone who did nothing wrong here to just give in so quickly and lower the bill by $900. Whatever, I'm happy it's over and I will never let this crap happen again. Signed contract and written quotes from now on.

Thanks for the advice everyone. You all made me feel better about it which I wasn't really expecting. Sherdog can be a great place sometimes.

Good to hear you didn't end up getting fucked over man, could have been a huge headache.