Who is to blame?

[Pebbs]

My friend is on another contract for the same main contractor that we had a battle with, his work is all stone restoration. He rang me this afternoon, because now he's worried as the chippies have got the same problems that I had. I said, I'll tell you what they will do, they will pay your invoices for the first few months, and then when you two invoices away from your final account, they will start knocking you, and deducting money for any excuse.

I just think we are in a no win situation sometimes with these big contractors, and to be in a good position, you need a legal department.

Lynn

 

[bugs183]

Food for thought this link, as i may have some large commercial work coming my way.
If they are knocking the last two invoices those are the ones where you actually see some profit off the job 🙁
Are these the same you had the issues with over the Ditra??

 

[Colour Republic]

A bloody good day at the office it seems!

 

[Pebbs]

Bugs, yes this is the same main contractor I had issues on the ditra matting charge, the fact that every wet area was tanked and they wanted in the ditra matting rate of £8.00m2!!! I also had issues on the following...heres some big fat lovely main contractor gems....

Tanking ..... they didn't want to pay.
Gylvon Screeding to be primed....they didn't want to pay.
Substrate levels 20mm to low....they didn't want to pay.
4nr treads smashed by the sparkies..who held their hands up to it....the main contractor said we should have protected it, it was but the sparkies needed to take the protection of to put the lcds under the treads. Main contractor didn't want to pay for the replacements.
Curved cutting didn't want to pay.
Sealing of Stone they didn't want to pay.
In fact I can honestly say they didn't want to pay for anything in the job.

What made my blood boil is every single item was covered by an instruction...which you think would cover each item. Well no legally they can tell you to proceed but they don't have to accept your price. The only way they have to legally pay is if they write we accept your cost quotation of £***.00 proceed with the works.

Bugs check your contract, check the clauses, keep a site diary, and never ever ever do any extra work without a written instruction stating they have accepted your price for the additional extra works out side of that contract.

Bang those first invoices out as quick as you can, the last two are the stingers, which can wipe out the profit.

Lynn

 

[bugs183]

Very very naughty people, especially as you thought you'd had it all sown up 🙁
I'll take note of what you say and cross every t from now on.
It wrong that you have to be so careful these days.

 

[Spud]

hi Lynn next time you are instructed to do extras ask for a purchase order ,this is legally binding and they cant wriggle out of paying it

 

[Pebbs]

I swear to God, I will never take another instruction with out a purchase order attached to it again. We put our trust in people to often to do the right thing, to many times. The only thing we can trust the majority of main contractors to do these days is to effectively squash the life out of their sub contractors. In the last 12 months I have seen some very reputable and long established tiling and stone firms go down the pan, because they hit a bad contract, and were in the end bought to their knees.

Eight months ago I lost a big contract to a competitor, I don't like losing contracts, and I didn't like losing this one, but in fairness the competition are a good firm, so there were no hard feelings. Yesterday my supplier rang me up, to tell me that the other firm who got the job, had just been slaughtered by the main contractor, because the client didn't like the colour of the marble in the bathrooms. This is after they had submitted the samples in, got the sample area done and approved and were instructed to proceed. 14 bathrooms into the job, they have now been rejected. All the marble for the remaining bathrooms has been cut and is ready. How the hell is a company going to survive something of this nature, I just don't know. Some may say well its one less company to compete with, but that's not the point, instances like this are too common these days.

My Contracts Director summed it up, he said 'fighting with these main contractors is like being in a boxing ring with your hands tied behind your back you just get battered all the time'.

Im off to watch Rocky 2 now, to see if I can pick up any tips :fuk2:

Lynn

 

[Ajax123]

I feel for you Lynn. If even just one person learns from your experience, it'd help cut out these dodgy contractors tactics.

Nt really dodgy contractors.... Just contractors in general really...