Misrepresentation in a contract

No I never received a quote for the other job or paid anything. But I only agreed to the window job once he said he said he was going to do the other one.

I asked for the price for the second job and he told me he was just waiting for figures from his suppliers. Again this is in text.

I appreciate I was careless but was paying in part for the convenience of having everything taken care of. Or I thought I was.

To me it seems clear now he was offering an inducement he had no intention of following up. But is there a legal case or does it fall down because there was never an agreed price for the other part of the job.

I don't see that he is obliged to the second job now, it was only ever offered as an inducement.

It's clear now there was never a genuine intention to do that work.

I suspect the reason he never wanted to do it is that it would never be as profitable as the roof window work. Were he to try to charge the same rates for this more basic work I think he'd be into bogus tradesman territory.

Ah ok, I have it now.

My understanding was that the principle was to attempt to put me in a place where the misrepresentation never happened.

So on that grounds, I've no damages, as I wouldn't want to proceed with any more work with this individual.

Well, thanks for that 👍️

Unless anyone has a correction or opinion on that point, I think that's the end of my case.

I'll just go back to leaving terrible, but non-defamatory, reviews for the guy online!

I appreciate the advise but I think I'm past looking for some form of revenge.

To put this in perspective, I had some plumbers come in and do another job. From my rough calculations this roofer charged somewhere between 10-15 times their hourly rate.

I knew he was charging an expensive rate, but I didn't realise how high, thinking there was more work involved.

I've since had a look around for other quotes for the same job, to make sure I'm not being overly critical with my negative reviews.

I've learned there's some people charging even more again for the same job.

It looks to me that there are some unscrupulous businesses taking advantage of the fact that people might think this type of work is more complex than it is.

I get that that's within the law, and I can live with having been caught out myself, but I think there's a public interest in making people aware of what's going on.

It sounds like someone's left bad online reviews for you?

I've already posted online reviews, I'm going to post now on some consumer threads about my experiences. Had someone else done the same for this guy beforehand, it would have saved me a lot of hassle.

I've learned a lesson from this which is to always seek out multiple quotes even from local tradesmen. Previously I would only have done so for what I thought were larger jobs.

My experience had been that in rural areas tradesmen didn't engage in this kind of price gouging. It seems now, with the market the way it is, some are, and I'll be sharing that.

I think it's a good thing. It doesn't cost me anything as I have downtime in front of a computer anyway. Once I'm telling the truth, what's the harm?

Hasn't done anything wrong?

When I spoke to the CCPC they felt he had engaged in misrepresentation and asked me to provide the text messages where he'd promised to do the other job. They did say they're unlikely to pursue enforcement because they usually only do so when a business regularly shows up in their complaints. I'm guessing a smaller tradesman rarely would.

I guess it also depends on your position on price-gouging. Some see it as part of the 'free-market', others see at as unhealthy for a properly functioning economy. Various members of our government have spoken out against it recently.

But let the people decide for themselves I say.

They mentioned I think a 1997 Consumer Act.

As I understand it, you can't offer an inducement for another party to enter a contract unless you genuinely intend to provide what you're promising. I get that for this case it's a bit 'iffy' because there might not have been a material value to the inducement.

But that's the principle and I believe it can be, and is sometimes, enforced.

As for 'price-gouging', again a matter of perspective. I wholly agree I was naive and at this time extremely busy. That does not mean there isn't a public interest in people being aware of the variation in prices between businesses, and over time. It would have been unheard of for a rural business to charge these amounts until very recently and I think it's important people are aware.

I've dealt with plenty of tradesmen and never had a problem until this guy.

Previously I've relied on word of mouth but being new to this area, I didn't have the contacts yet and made the mistake of quickly turning to someone online when I was in a hurry.

I don't intend to 'get anything' out of this. I've already said I'm not taking a case.

I will share my experience online though. It's what people do now. Once I'm not saying anything untruthful, what's the problem?

Sorry I couldn't disagree more.

There's no special rules for trades. Business is business. I'm not obliged to ring multiple restaurants and get quotes, why tradesmen?

Maybe it's not just a 'rural Ireland' thing but I'd always have relied on word of mouth and it's served me well. Come to think of it, this is probably the first time I've gone online to find a tradesman.

Where I've gone online to find other services, I'd leave reviews, why not here?

If I heard a neigbour was getting windows done I'd share my negative experiences with this guy. Why not my online neighbours? It's where I found the guy.

As I've said I'll generally go with word of mouth.

If I'm happy with the quality for the price I'll get them back.

Mostly would have used the same tradesmen for years.

It certainly wasn't the handy number he expected.

But as much as I was niave, I think this guy was too.

Charging what some mug in a hurry is willing to pay might not be the best idea in the age of Google.