Advances for Standard Materials

CBYR1983

Can anyone please tell me how in their view this scenario should be approached.

Small plastering job required. Materials €500, labour €1000.

Plasterer operating off his own back, no company, no trading name, no invoice, no receipt.

Customer has no details of plasterer other than first name and mobile phone number.

Plasterer claims €500 must be paid in advance to secure materials, which are standard (insulated plasterboard, skimcoat).

My answer: customer has no option but to decline job. Cannot pay any amount of cash in advance on basis of "trust". Materials are in no way customised, plasterer could easily re-use or return. Customer can't understand how people expect to work this way. Customer's job goes undone for another 6 months.

Joey the lips

What advice do you want..... Not too sure....

Any job there is an element of risk. Even in paying a deposit.

There is plenty of plasters out of work at the moment.

If however you like this chap and are fond of him. Ask him for references. Go around to the house and look at the Job. When there as what way he liked to be payed.

If at the end of it all you are happy tell him you will pay half for materials and give him an extra 50 tip....

CBYR1983

I suppose I'm just after people's views.

I'm getting another plasterer now and I am going to source the materials, so he only gets paid when he does the work.

I'm just wondering if I'm being a pernickedy so and so but unfortunately I have used cowboys in the past, been ripped off and felt short-changed.

Hence my reluctance to part with cash to people who could easily vanish into thin air.

Wertz

If you've had bad past experience then your reluctance is understandable.
Personally I don't look for money up front for materials (and certainly not for labour) but then my materials cost wouldn't usually be that high and I tend to get them on credit myself.
Asking someone to outlay 500 notes and to incur a further debt for the labour (leaving them being owed 1500 at end of job) might go against the experiences of the tradesman in question...perhaps he's had a bad experience with a client (where he was in the right) and has lost money.
I've managed to avoid being stung but I've come close with builders who I've chased for money for months.

There has to be some compromise. Hvae you considered that perhaps this guy is doing it for a good price (he'd want to be since it's cash in hand) and that that's why ne needs the money upfront? If he was doing it through books with VAT etc, then getting credit from a builder's supplier and invoicing you would protect him somewhat.
It's not like a sole trader can take a client to the SCC to recoup money owed...
I'd phone him up and explain your end of things, see if a level of mutual trust can't be built....that's if you really want the job done.

CBYR1983

Yeah, bit of an impasse unfortunately.

I have no problem giving a stage payment before the job is completed, and I have given deposits in the past to companies where the materials are customised (e.g. fitted windowws and doors).

In this situation, when he told me he needed money upfront (only on the cusp of doing the work I should add, never when he quoted for the work) I offered to give him the €500 immediately on delivery of the materials on the first day of the job.

He didn't want to play ball, so I felt that I had no choice but to decline as for all I know he could have just left me high and dry.

Ok, I could have left him in the lurch, but at least he knows where I live! I have no idea where he lives. And he still has the materials, which are totally re-usable in any case.

Wertz

You were probably in the right there then...an offer of paying for materials and having them on site for him to carry out the work was a decent compromise.
Possibly he owed for other materials in the place where he intended to buy the ones for your job or possibly wished to make something extra by telling you X amount cost Y.

nophd08

You were very right. I'd tell him to sling his hook. When he didnt go for cash on delivery you were right to smell a rat. If he really wanted job he could have insisted you bought materials.

gsxr1

He would need the money. Not many building supply yards offer credit anymore.

I cant see the problem. Get the stuff delivered to your home. If he is a no show, you still have all you need to do the job .

If I get materials for a customer, i would expect to make 20% on it. Thats the way business works.

You could get a list of gear of him and spend an evening pricing materials and get it yourself. Then pay labour only.

If you really do distrust him so much then dont use him