Question about contractors

amys325 · May 2012

I am head of our condo association and I recently hired a company to come out and clean/stain our decks/stairs/front porches. I received a quote and signed a contract saying they were going to charge us $X and that included all labor and materials.

It did specify on the contract that it would take 2-3 days. It ended up taking 4 and a half days to finish and a lot more supplies than they originally planned for.

maratea · May 2012

I vote you pay them what's stated in their contract. If they are an established business, they should know how long and how much in supplies they'll need for your decks/stairs. If they had any stipulations in their contract about paying extra if it was needed, then I'd say pay them for the extra materials and time, but not in this case.

kd.joseph · May 2012

You are under no obligation to pay extra costs. The contract is there just for this very reason. They cant ask for more than the contract states.

LP11509 · May 2012

This might make me sound like a bittch, but their inability to correctly estimate time/supplies needed is not your problem and you shouldn't have to pay extra because of that. I would pay the contracted rate.

dmiller9274 · May 2012

I picked the first option, but that only applies if you are really happy with the work they provided. If they did a good job, I would be happy to throw in some extra $$.

chelseamb11 · May 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_question-about-contractors?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:7e3ee1a6-eec4-4e2d-9963-d54c3c239fe5Post:81bd87c0-36f7-4420-8082-4b8ba420ba20">Re: Question about contractors</a>:
[QUOTE]I picked the first option, but that only applies if you are really happy with the work they provided. If they did a good job, I would be happy to throw in some extra $$.
Posted by dmiller9274[/QUOTE]

This is what I was thinking. If they did a great job, maybe "tip" them a little to make up for a bit of what they lost. I don't think you should feel obligated to do so, though. They should know how much any given project should cost

amys325 · May 2012

Thanks everyone.

I really hadn't even thought about paying more until my dad said something about "helping them out." So I'm just trying to see what other people thing.

Ultimately it's not really my decision whether or not I can take money out of the Association that's goes above and beyond what the contract rate is. I just figured I might as well take a poll and see what other rational people think.

And DMills, the work is great and I'm happy with it, but they weren't exactly the most easy people to work with. They didn't communicate very well and wouldn't keep me posted on what was going on. I had to probe them for information.

However, while the management sucked, the actual guys that worked on the decks were really nice. I just hope they were compensated even though management underbilled.

cheeseandrice · May 2012

I think it would depend on if they communicated it to you. If they said "hey, it's going to take longer than planned and we'll need more supplies" and you said 'ok', then I'd take that as a verbal agreement.

If all of a sudden you were surprised with a higher final bill, nope.

Regardless, LEGALLY, I don't think you have to pay anything above the contracted price, though.

[Deleted User] · May 2012

Amy, I do care about this, a. lot. We've had a bunch of work done to the house and my FFIL is a general contractor. This is true for anyone you're in contract with but if there is a change in the terms of a performance of service agreement after its been entered into, the onus is on either of the parties to bring it up before the service continues. I don't mean to make that sound all small claims court-ish but if they've got extra work to do with extra materials and the expectation of being compensated, it's on them to let you know that. Have they mentioned wanting extra money?

amys325 · May 2012

No they haven't brought up wanting any extra money.

I just hadn't even thought about it until my dad said something and then I felt like a horrible person. This stuff is new to me because our condo association is small and new and we haven't really had to do anything to the place.

Again, I do appreciate the different POVs and I might bring it to the other owners.

allisong23 · May 2012

I wouldn't pay them any extra. They were responsible for providing you a correct quote. Also, if the job came in under budget, you know they wouldn't return the difference to you.

NuggetBrain · May 2012

At the most I would have tipped the guys who actually did the work, since they're the ones who might end up out an extra day's pay if the company decides to short them somehow to make up for the difference. But you're not obligated to do anything but pay what the contract says.

Winnertag1 · May 2012

My FI is currently a contractor, so Ill give my side (although it may be bias). The owner of the company goes to the houses/customers & quotes the price then sends my FI to do the jobs (or his other staff). FI usually isnt paid on the hour but rather commission, so he is paid say 40% on one type of job, 50% on another or something. A lot of the time, his boss underquote the job for whatever reason, usually because his boss didnt realize exactly how long it would take/more work is required than expected. FI has showed up at jobs where by the quoted price it was supposed to take only 4 hours but then ended up taking over 8+ and he sitll makes the same amount as was first quoted, although to his boss it doesnt really matter because he still makes the remainder and did nothing except the quote. Even though the job had been underbilled and FI worked significantly longer than he was supposed to (he usually has multiple jobs a day depending on the type of work and if one job goes longer the others get pushed back/cancelled and he loses a good chunk of money), he does not get compensated for the time.

You are under no circumstance to pay them extra, and you should not feel like you had too. I'm sure the workers would love it if you paid them more. I would recommend that you tip the workers instead of giving the owner/contracter the money if you were to pay more because the contracter would take a big cut out of it, but he probably doesnt for tips (which is the case for my FI) They usually dont bring up the extra cost because its unprofessional to do so.

azdancer8 · May 2012

My FIL is a contractor. It's his job to know how much time and money things will take. If he takes too long or miscalculates supplies, it's his fault, and it eats part of his profit.

Unless you had them do work that was not specifically in the contract, I'd say pay what you agreed to. It's their fault for not bidding more appropriately.

rachellola77 · May 2012

Legally since you signed a contract to complete the job, you don't have to pay the extra amount unless it was above and beyond what was in your quote (ie if an extra portion of deck was added or an upgrade in stain) which from posts above sounds like nothing was added. Personally I wouldn't pay the extra amount. It sucks for them but sadly that's part of business.

Look at it this way, if they had completed the work in one day would you be asking for a refund?

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