Fencing Nightmare - Job Taking Too Long?

Lcwr4024 on 17/12/2017 - 12:23
Last edited 17/12/2017 - 12:38 by 1 other user

Hello everyone,

We built a new house and as the first one done on the site, we had to organise the fencing.
We found this 'company' (One man running the business) on OneFlare - had good reviews back in October
The tradie did the quote, paid him 50% cash deposit (~$1500) with receipts/quote list.

Now it has been 10 weeks but only 1/4 of the fencing is done (not even one side is complete, mostly just railings)
For the past 10 weeks, he came up with thousands of excuses and avoiding phone calls.
Whenever he shows up, he only stays for short periods of time (~30 mins) and leaves saying he needs more supplies etc.
With Christmas and New Years coming in, it is certain it will be delayed.
His review on OneFlare is really bad with other people experiencing same problems.
I'm getting bit worried as his Gumtree ad, facebook page and website is all taken down + his QBCC licence is cancelled this month for not paying…

Would it be wise to suggest him to refund some of the deposit (not sure how much because he did some jobs…) and walk away?
Or just patiently wait until next year?

• 

  mysterytal on 17/12/2017 - 12:39

  +5

  You've got yourself a dilemma….if ask for a partial refund and you'll most probably never see him again. And you won't get any money. You could of course take him to court for a full refund but it sounds like he's broke and that action would be futile.

  So I'd probably just wait…if you can. 10 weeks is a very long time to build a fence but $1,500 is also on the other hand a lot of money to write off.

  • 

    cwr4024 on 17/12/2017 - 12:54

    yes that's what i think as well I doubt he will refund..

    • 

      xuqi on 17/12/2017 - 14:24

      Had this trouble once a few years back. My cousins and I met the contractor on-site where he kindly agreed to accompany us to the nearest ATM to refund my money.

      No voices were raised, or threats made. Just a guy and 3 family members making a reasonable request.

      • 

        robbyjones on 17/12/2017 - 15:19

        Passive, aggressive - the worst kind of intimidation.

      • 

        eyeballz2770 on 18/12/2017 - 10:34

        +1

        @robbyjones: If he got his money back, I'd say it's the best kind of intimidation.

• 

  holdenmg on 17/12/2017 - 13:07

  +1

  Contact the http://www.qbcc.qld.gov.au/contact-us

• 

  garetz on 17/12/2017 - 13:15

  +3

  You can take him to fair trading, if he cannot afford to pay you back the money, then take him to small claims, and in the end force bankruptcy on him. He will have something like 7 years to pay it back, and you can garnish his wages.

  • 

    robbyjones on 17/12/2017 - 15:19

    All this for $1500, less what he has already done?!

  • 

    mysterytal on 17/12/2017 - 15:32

    +1

    I would think going that far would be pointless. The debt needs to be $5,000 or more to petition for bankruptcy. The debt is potentially no more than $1,500 and if it can be proven that 25% of the work has been completed to some standard then the debt is, in relation to bankruptcy figures, minimal as the original quote was for $3,000 so the debt is probably no more than $750.

    The guy doesn't have wages…he is self employed and I'm sure from my own experience of being self employed that he is showing NIL income or at most less than equivalent Centrelink benefits and nothing can be taken from that.

    • 

      garetz on 17/12/2017 - 17:36

      +3

      When you go into a contract with a tradie, it doesnt work like that, % completion means nothing, you entered a contract to do a job, 100% of a job, for a 100% of a certain price, if the job isnt completed you are entitled to 100% of your payment returned. Especially if you can show incompetence or dereliction of duty.

      In fact alot of the times its more expensive to get someone to take over the job, as it could mean additional work for the new guy, like removing the existing shoddy workmanship and starting from scratch.

• 

  tomsco on 17/12/2017 - 13:21

  If you are willing to wait it out, maybe pay it back in kind and take 10+ weeks to pay him the final payment.

  • 

    cwr4024 on 17/12/2017 - 13:56

    I am thinking of this as well haha but just worried if there might be any legal actions he can take for it?

    • 

      tomsco on 17/12/2017 - 14:55

      I'm sure it would take more than 10 weeks for it to get to any legal stage.

      And unless the invoice has payment terms, if you get to small claims court, "the plaintiff and I verbally agreed upon the debt being repaid over a 3 month period".

• 

  lost in transit on 17/12/2017 - 13:27

  You should have waited the neighbours generally have to pay half the fencing cost, I know this doesn't help your cause tho, goodluck…

• 

  Google Chrome on 17/12/2017 - 13:55

  Had an issue with a guy building my carport too, disappeared for 2 months then somehow decided to come back abd finish the job. I then proceeded to pay the remaining balance over a period of 2 months - he wasn't too happy but was very apologetic.

  • 

    cwr4024 on 17/12/2017 - 13:57

    good that he was apologetic, mine is just straight rude troll :(

    • 

      Google Chrome on 17/12/2017 - 14:08

      If he does decide to comeback, I think you should troll him too

• 

  myusername on 17/12/2017 - 14:09

  get a chain on his leg mate, by the sounds of things if his online footprint is disappearing then i guess he will next with whatever cash he has

• 

  Rifraf on 17/12/2017 - 14:25

  +2

  I feel for you OP, that would be upsetting

• 

  try2bhelpful on 17/12/2017 - 16:06

  I ususally put my requests up on the Master Builders website and then people contact me to give me a quote. So far, knock on wood, we've had good builders and I'm hoping it is in the Master Builder's interests to vet their people. Sounds like you might have an issue here; he might finish but I doubt it - I also doubt he will give you any of your deposit back either.

  We got some painters recommended by Manfax many years ago. They were terrible; scratched up our windows removing the paint they put on them, left their scaffolding at our place for so long that we threatened to leave it in the street if they didn't come get it. They put paint on the walls, and we paid them for it, but I would never go near them again.

• 

  ShannonN on 17/12/2017 - 17:16

  +2

  Take photos of his car, truck Ute whatever he turns up in make sure you get the number plates when he asks what ya doing say mate you're as dodgy as they come and I think you are going to do a runner and leave me in the shit.

  This is insurance to have my Son-In-Law, David, a Policeman track you down and fix any problems, now when did you say you'll be spending 8 hr days here doing what we paid you for?

• 

  WreckTangle on 17/12/2017 - 17:41

  +1

  Has he left the materials? When i built mine the guy left the colorbond panels on my lawn til he was ready for them. If so, you might have $1500 worth of materials there…

• 

  Stevek1960 on 18/12/2017 - 08:41

  -1

  thought this would have been mentioned before this…..

  Bikies ;-)

• 

  natacon on 18/12/2017 - 12:36

  +1

  If he's sunk all the posts, fixed the rails and left the sheets behind I would contact him and tell him not to come back. Either finish it yourself (it's not hard - getting the posts right is the tricky bit) and save the balance of the quote or get a mate to finish it off for you for $1k.

  I have a fencing story that beats this one though. Had a former client who owned a limestone company approached me to do a contra to build a limestone wall around 2 sides of our home. It took months longer than he initially said it would then midway through the job with our front yard destroyed and covered in plallets of limestone blocks, he pulls his guys off site, tells me he's having financial trouble and no longer wants to do the contra and that I'll need to pay an extra $5k by the morning or he's walking away from the job completely. This was by phone call as I was next to my wife's bed in hospital about to deliver our son. I negotiated to pay him the extra $5k and reduce the price of the work I was doing for him (website, various marketing campaigns etc.) by 50% and got him to sign an agreement to that effect. We just needed the job finished at that stage. Fast forward another 6 months and after more demands for extra money our wall is finally finished although there's a noticeable difference in the colour of the mortar where the job stopped for 3 months or so. 10 years later it's all water under the bridge, but the wall ended up blowing out from an initial $35k plus contra work to $52k in cash and I basically built his site for free. About 2 years after this, he needed some more marketing work so he came back and offered to do another contra for a limestone driveway. I entertained him out of curiosity and got him to quote and he came back with about $30k - I had already had comparison quotes at around 7k. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. I signed over all his website maintenance/hosting etc. and we don't speak anymore. It's a great wall though :-)

  • 

    garetz on 18/12/2017 - 17:54

    Wow you really got taken for a ride here, too bad you didnt stop payment and sort it out legally, it propably would of saved you a great deal of money, and he would of foot the legal bill on top.

    • 

      natacon on 18/12/2017 - 19:01

      Yeah, in hindsight maybe I should have. The timing was particularly bad though - we had one kid who was 2yo and another born in the middle of it all so things were all over the place. I remember the day my son was born I came home from the hospital and the fence guy gave me a big hug and said congratulations completely oblivious to the drama he had caused. I guess some people just go through life ignorant of how their actions affect others. Meh.