Possible Rogue Trader

Sammysmiths

Well-known member
My 80 year old mother in law had a plumber round that was sent by a friend. She had some new bath and sink taps that needed swapping for some old ones, and a new toilet flush inside the cistern. The lad was there about 2 hours, the only spares needed came to less than £24. It was a simple in/out job with no complications. The lad then sprung a £290 bill on her. She reluctantly wrote a cheque and the lad took the old taps away and cleared off. He asked for the cheque to be made out to himself, not his company name. He supplied a very vague receipt with "supply and fit" , no VAT receipt, no official invoice, and when we've looked, the company name does not exist on Companies house. He had the cheek to charge her for fuel costs to go to Screw fix for standard parts that any plumber would have on his van.
We only found this out this morning and when we have gone to cancel the cheque, hes already cashed it. Which makes me think he knew there would be repercussions. We cannot get hold of him now, although we do have his details as his website lists his business address as his home.

Does anyone know if we are within our rights to pursue recompense, or how we go about complaining?
 
After a bit of research, plumbers rates are approx. £40-£60 an hour. £80+ in London. I would have thought this job would be priced around £150 max.??
 
Citizen's advice are your best bet : 0808 223 1133
Even if they can't help directly, they will advise you on who can.
 
Set him up to come to your house for a job... then present him with the invoice and challenge him... tell him you work for the BBC rogue traders
 
Phone trading standards they will give you the legal view and options you have. Also check with bank and find out if you can get 'cashback'.
 
Sorry to say you’ve no real hope of recompense. You’ve got his address, sock full of dogshït through the letter box would seem like a reasonable course of action though.
 
Unfortunately there is the far end of not a lot can be done.

However, your mother in law is clearly vulnerable and you need to look to address that in case other persons come round fishing for work.
 
I hate scum like this. That's why I've got a group of tradespeople I use, and will only put in touch with people. I know this is no good to you now. But if anyone in future struggles. I can help put u in touch, with plumbers, gas engineer, brickie, chippy etc
 
There's too much of this with trades nowadays. I had a concern regarding my roof, 1st quote was £600, 2nd quote was £260 and the final quote was from a trader my parents have used for years - £0 - nothing needs doing at all the roof is fine.

The difference is staggering, the £600 quote was from someone I'd used before and thought I could trust.
 
There's too much of this with trades nowadays. I had a concern regarding my roof, 1st quote was £600, 2nd quote was £260 and the final quote was from a trader my parents have used for years - £0 - nothing needs doing at all the roof is fine.

The difference is staggering, the £600 quote was from someone I'd used before and thought I could trust.

I went to a leak on a cylinder a while back a national company had told them they needed a new one , all it needed was a drain off nipping up 🤷🏻‍♂️
They would of been charged over a grand for .
 
A decent son in law would have changed the taps himself! you can pay 50quid for a set of taps and 20quid for internals. With labour included and possible new valved pipework it is possibly somewhere close for a tradesmans price.
 
knee caps smashed its the only way.

thankfully I have started to get a couple of decent contacts for work being done on my house and some of them live on the same street as me. if I'd been up there as said previously I would have put you onto them. boils my p1ss that there are people out there who are willing to rip off people no matter how vulnerable there are.
 
Back
Top