Not happy with kitchen fitter

Discussion in 'Kitchen Fitters' Talk' started by Bkb2019, Nov 24, 2019.

  1. Bkb2019

    Bkb2019 New Member

    Hello


    First time poster here looking for advice.
    Not sure this is the correct forum but here we go.
    My partner and I recently bought our first home together and hired a fitter to fit our kitchen for us. Fitter started about 4 weeks ago and about 70% of the works were ‘completed’ within the first week of hiring. We had to put the fitting on pause for about a week to lay the flooring so that plinths and end panels could be laid. This took about a week and we called fitter back to complete the final works.

    Now, the fitter stopped coming back. He would text or call us telling us what days he would be round the following week and never turn up, without even informing us he wasn’t turning up. We would call him and he would tell us he would be round at x time this day and again never turn up. This went on for two weeks. We got increasingly worried and in the end we had to confront him on how upset we were. He was really rather rude to us and we were no longer happy to continue business with him. We got another fitter round who had previously fitted out our bathroom and completed our structural works, he came round the following day and he has informed us that the fitter has done an awful job, and it will cost a lot to finish and rectify the kitchen (this fitter is someone I really trust and isn’t just looking to make money off of us). Our worktops seem ruined, there is glue all over the floor. He didn’t fit a waste to the sink(!?), there’s a big gap between the worktop and the wall and we had a down draft installed and ducted under the floor and he didn’t duct it outside!? and much more. Now...here’s where we made our mistake, this original fellow was really kind, and trustworthy and accommodating within that first week of fitting the kitchen, he couldn’t do enough for us and we really liked him. We paid him x amount for the work he had done, he then asked for the full amount before coming back to finish. We didn’t pay him the full amount but in total we have probably paid him 90% of the cost (about £2000). The new fitter is writing up a report and hasn’t quoted us yet but whatever it is going to cost will already be out of our budget considering what we have already paid. I’m just wondering what my rights are here? We haven’t had any contact with the original fitter since telling him not to come back. I know we are very stupid giving the fitter that much money before he completed the works but as I said it was our first home and we thought we could trust him. Any advice would be really appreciated!
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2019
  2. Jord86

    Jord86 Screwfix Select

    Post up photos of the work.
     
  3. jonathanc

    jonathanc Guest

    Bit more of a legal question than building. To be honest with you; given you have paid and there is no written contract you are on a hiding to nothing to try to recover cost from him.

    sorry to say that but put it down to experience!
     
  4. jimoz

    jimoz Screwfix Select

    Id be careful of investing too much time and money chasing this bloke. By all means give it a go but if you can see he's going to be a nightmare chalk it up to experience. End of the day 2k isn't too much and if it's going to cost a grand to put right you could spend that chasing him and proving the work is shoddy. If he's installed the units correctly it could be argued 'x' amount of the work has been done correct i.e. £1000. I'd be saying different if 5 or 10k but if your trusted man quotes you a grand to put right I'd be looking to use him
     
    koolpc likes this.
  5. masterdiy

    masterdiy Screwfix Select

    But, make sure you pay up when the job is done right, and you are happy with it.
     
  6. Mr Rusty

    Mr Rusty Screwfix Select

    Agree with everything here. And it definitely is a life lesson - never let the money get ahead of the work. If a job is short, then a small deposit and full and prompt payment at the end is best. If it's a long job then set some stage payments, but keep enough in hand for leverage.

    You do have right on your side, but unfortunately to have a chance of going legal you do have to give the original guy a chance to put it right first, and if that doesn't work out advise him that you will get the job corrected and then sue him the rectification. As others have said, chasing £1K can eat you up in hassle. It is usually much better for your mental health to write it off and move on, than to obsess in some unachievable quest for pay-back

    The big problem is the subjective part that he has had not quite all the money for not quite all the work, and it will be incredibly difficult to value the "gap", and it is also difficult to criticise snags if he has never had a chance to rectify.
     
  7. kitfit1

    kitfit1 Screwfix Select

    You really do need to get back to us with pics, as @Jord86 suggested. Reading your post, if fitter 2 is saying that that the worktops are "ruined" then this could well be a very expensive re-fit and fitter 1 should absolutely be made to pay for it. The most important thing for us on here though OP, get posting as many pics up here as you can of what you and fitter 2 thinks is wrong.
     
    Mancone, furious_customer and Muzungu like this.
  8. furious_customer

    furious_customer Screwfix Select

    And would you give the same advice to a tradesman who's customer was refusing to pay him 2k?
    2k might be a drop in the ocean to a highly paid tradesperson, but to most of the population it isn't.

    The op should be paying for the work that has been done to an acceptable standard so far and should be refunded for everything else - keeping money for shoddy work or work not done is not acceptable.
     
    Bkb2019 likes this.
  9. Heat

    Heat Screwfix Select

    Would do no harm to send a recorded delivery letter asking for money back for all the work not completed and any faulty work that has to be redone.
    Keep it polite and just state the facts that the guy took all the money without coming back and left x,y and z faulty
     
    furious_customer likes this.
  10. Bkb2019

    Bkb2019 New Member

    Hi all

    thanks so much for your help/opinions/feedback. We have filed a complaint through the affiliated website we hired him from and are awaiting a response from the tradesman and have requested a part refund to cover the rest of the work needed to complete and rectify. I’m a bit apprehensive of posting any photos just yet as I am not sure which route will be taking should the complaint procedure not work. But will update you as and when I can!

    thanks again.
     
  11. Mr Rusty

    Mr Rusty Screwfix Select

    But it's not £2K is it? OP says he has paid 90% of the cost for around 70% of the work, and there are snags that the original tradesman hasn't had an opportunity to correct. Now it does sound like there is room for complaint on quality, but the OP does not have a particularly strong hand because the job has been abandoned part completed with the original installer, so the argument is about the marginal payments between 70% and 90% complete - (and who determines these are correct %) - and quality. Yes, worth a complaint and a challenge, but not IMHO worth dedicating your life to long-shots, and as described, not worth going legal.
     
  12. dinkydo

    dinkydo Screwfix Select

    Some good advice on here, and if you do decide to move on and put it down to experience don’t forget to use social media in your area making sure to keep to the provable facts, and hopefully this may stop this sort of thing happening to some other poor soul
     
  13. jimoz

    jimoz Screwfix Select

    This is what I would be trying. However my point was be careful about chucking good money after bad" furious customer" I wasn't saying it was acceptable
     
    Heat likes this.
  14. kitfit1

    kitfit1 Screwfix Select

    The peeps on this website offering advice are for the most part professionals, like myself. There really isn't any point in posting for help on a question of bad workmanship unless you post pics to back up your thoughts or fitter 2's thoughts...................................get them pics on here asap.
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2019
  15. Jord86

    Jord86 Screwfix Select

    My burning question is, if fitter number two is someone whose opinion and quality of work is trusted implicitly, why was he not given the job in the first place? Fitter number one has also been told not to come back, so what chance is there of having him rectify any issues then before he’s had chance to look, debate and argue any case?
     
  16. longboat

    longboat Screwfix Select

    Check-a-trade strikes again.
     
    kitfit1 likes this.
  17. kitfit1

    kitfit1 Screwfix Select

    More than likely, but the OP seems to have gone Awol .
     
  18. Astramax

    Astramax Super Member

    Down to what it always is, fitter 1 was a few notes cheaper than fitter 2.
     
    Dam0n likes this.
  19. collectors

    collectors Member

    In my opinion, i would send him a registered letter detailing all the faults with pictures & request a total refund or you will start legal proceedings. When i was working for myself & we had trouble with a customer not paying, we would send a registered letter with the invoice reminder & a small claims court form filled out with all the monies owed & charges on top of this. 99% paid within 10 days. Unfortunately the other 1% "a single person" that died, but this was only £65.
    Not sure if you can get a Small claim form any more as most is done on line. "Phone your local court & see if they have the forms". We have taken people to court for as little as £35 + our expenses & always got our money. If they still don't pay, it can be pushed up to the high courts with possibly bailiffs getting involved. At worst & it goes all the way to the high courts with bailiffs, it will cost about £250 in total, but remember you add this £250 as expenses on your claim. Don't let him get away with it. If you owed him money, i bet he would do the same.
     
  20. Mr Rusty

    Mr Rusty Screwfix Select

    Sorry, this is bad advice. In a simple case of not paying it's a binary situation - either they have paid or they haven't. In this case it's 90% payment for 70% of the work (maybe) and no opportunity has been given to the original fitter to correct snags. The OP does not have a strong case, and it certainly has a huge amount of subjectivity in it.
     

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