Hello and Happy New Year to everyone.
I am seeking opinions please.
I quoted for the repair of a fence at a property, managed by a property agent and the quote was agreed and authorised by them for me to proceed. I have purchased the materials required for the repair and had the job booked to start on the 5th January 2015. The property agents have now emailed me to cancel the job. In my quotations, I advise that materials must be paid for in advance and a cancellation fee of £50.00 will be charged for such events. (Mainly to try and discourage this activity).
I have asked why the job has been cancelled, but I am yet to receive a reply which will probably be next week. I am reluctant to force them to proceed with the job, or make payment of the materials, or cancellation fee, in the event it affects future business with them, as I am a self employed sole trader.
I would welcome any views or advice please.
Thank you.
Anthony
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Replies
Anthony, the new consumer legislation gives the customer (your Property Agent) a fourteen day period from the signed date of agreement for the work, to cancel the work completely without any charge (cancellation charges are illegal). If they have asked you to start work within the fourteen day period and then cancelled, you can ask them to pay any delivery costs but not for the materials. If you started the work after the fourteen day cooling off period and then they cancelled you can charge them for the materials (if you have ordered them) and delivery charges. Hope this helps in some way?
The situation appears to be a Business to Business contract and thus falls outside of the 2014 Consumer laws ?
What are the entities involved ?
What contract is in place ?
What are your T&C's ?
Interesting foot note in above link relating to Sole Traders only....
In respect of Comsumer based contracts, I agree...
Thanks for the replies, they cancelled the job after the 14 day cooling off period. I have purchased the materials but not yet physically started the job. So I guess I will have to absorb the loss.
Why - you've grounds to recover the 'loss' (even if can return materials for credit) but you do not want to ?
What was your desired outcome then ?
Hi
I guess I have to consider future trading relations with the property agents and the second issue is although the work is through the property agent, it is mainly on rented property which means a Landlord is involved and the agents payment terms are stipulated as the "responsibility of the landlord and not the agent" even though, the agents pay it out of rent held on account. Therefore, I have an issue with who to pursue as one will blame the other for who is responsible, unless I was to pursue both the landlord and agent as a joint action which could become costly. The agents always withhold the Landlords contact details too.
The materials cannot be returned for refund either as they are purchased by cash payment and I doubt that Travis Perkins etc would take them back.
Contractually; that is not a very nice place to be in and would suggest 'Contract Wars' would decide who your contract is with (despite what the Agent states) and thus liability.
If you undertake larger works, do you ask for upfront payments ?
Watch you do not get hung out to dry on future works
Hi Gary
Yes, on the larger jobs requiring a considerable amount of materials where costs get expensive I do ask for payment of the materials in advance as a safeguard. The property agents don't seem to have an issue with this as I make it clear I am a sole trader and cannot fund this sort of expense. Typically on the one job I have purchased the materials they have cancelled on me!
I'd probably look to return the materials if possible. If the suppliers charge a re-stocking fee / handling fee or whatever they want to call it I'd look to recover this from the client. If it wasn't possible to return the materials I'd be looking to recover the cost of them from the client.
If it is a property agent then they are business people and should understand. I bet they wouldn't hesitate before charging their clients or tenants for something similar. More than likely they've found a cheaper quote and cancelled you to go with that one. So why should you be out of pocket for them doing the dirty on you. If it is just that their client has decided not to proceed with the work, then I'm sure they will just pass any charges from you on to their client (probably with some profit for them on top).
Hi Chris
I guess I have to consider future trading relations with the property agents and the second issue is although the work is through the property agent, it is mainly on rented property which means a Landlord is involved and the agents payment terms are stipulated as the "responsibility of the landlord and not the agent" even though, the agents pay it out of rent held on account. Therefore, I have an issue with who to pursue as one will blame the other for who is responsible, unless I was to pursue both the landlord and agent as a joint action which could become costly. The agents always withhold the Landlords contact details too.
The materials cannot be returned for refund either as they are purchased by cash payment and I doubt that Travis Perkins etc would take them back.
I guess however I would be perfectly justified in charging a cancellation fee and to recover the material costs from them?
I have no doubt that Travis will take the materials back, I used to work for them, it was very common, for people to get the wrong colour, size etc and return for a full refund, no problems.
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