Wrong Quote Received

Khal

Hi,
I have to be somewhat scetchy on the details but i would like some advice on the situation i find myself in. I was getting some builing work done in the house with a very reputable large contractor. I had priced the job with a few people and the quote i got from these was way under anything else and they gauranteed a very high standard of work.

They quoted and i paid and got my receipt and the work was done by a sub-contractor who commented on the ridiculously low price i was paying but he was ok as he was being paid either way.

I have now gotten a call a good few months later to ask if they could come and measure up all the work that was done as the bill has come in from the materials supplier and they just want to confirm the size and the work involved.

What i think has happened is they mis-measured from the off and that is why i got the low quote.

Is there anyway they could now look for the balance which i believe would be in the thousands???

dilallio

Did they come out to measure the job before they provided the quotation, or did they provide a quotation based on measurements from you?

They may have some recourse if they can prove that the job was priced so low, that you would have been aware that they made a mistake. Did their quote contain a list of materials required to cover a particular length or area? If it did and it appeared obvious that there was a mistake then they may have a case.

I don't think that you have to let them back into your house though, and it probably isn't in your interest to do this. I am surprised that the sub-contractor did not alert the contractor at the time - it would have been obvious to him/her that a mistake had been made.

You may get a better answer in the Legal forum if you put it as a hypothetical case. Or you could ask the mods to move the thread there.

Khal

dilallio wrote: »

Did they come out to measure the job before they provided the quotation, or did they provide a quotation based on measurements from you?

They done all the measuring. I was aware that it was a better qoute by far then any other i had been given and i even asked did it include everything, when they said yes i agreed to the job.

It only dawned on me after they called and thinking back on everything that maybe there was a mistake, i just thought they were doing a cheaper job.

The quote i received was just for the total job, no materials were specified.

Mountjoy Mugger

Was the quote in writing, or verbal?

seamus

Acceptance of the quotation and handing over of the money would have formed a contract which the builder was obliged to fulfill.

Even if they had discovered their mistake before starting work, they would still be required to complete the job at the price quoted. At a push, they could refund your money considering the contract "unfulfillable" (or whatever the word is). Though even in that case, you would still have some recourse for breach of the contract.

dilallio is partially correct when he states "If ... it appeared obvious that there was a mistake then they may have a case."
They would have a case if the mistake appeared obvious to you. For example, if they made an error in pricing the hours - saying that it would be 5 hours instead of 15 - then unless you yourself are a building contractor, such an error would not appear obvious to you and they have no recourse on which to come back later and ask for more money.

It would be worth pulling back up all of the documentation that you've gotten from them, looking for special clauses in relation to errors and omission and overruns.

However in general, once the work is complete and paid for, the contract is complete and the builder has no legal recourse to come back and claim more money.

Whether you let them remeasure the job is up to you. You don't have to. And you'd be better off not letting them in, just keep the box closed.

jor el

seamus wrote: »

Whether you let them remeasure the job is up to you. You don't have to. And you'd be better off not letting them in, just keep the box closed.

I was just thinking that in this case, this would be the best course of action. Do not let them back in on your property.

Reply to them though, and let them know if they have issue with the job that was done, or the price of materials, then this is a matter between them and their contractors and suppliers. It is not something you are prepared to get involved in. For confirmation, tell them that the job was done exactly to your required specifications. They should have this still on file, so tell them to re-check their own documentation.

Also, make sure to keep any quotes and receipts you got from them safe. Don't destroy them, ever.

Khal

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

Was the quote in writing, or verbal?

It was in writing. I have all the documentation stored away.