surprising bill, no cost estimate

Hi,

what is still not clear to me here:
- What exactly was done (work, type of heating, burner, hot water tank, number of tapping points, other components, ...). The scope of the work is not clear to me from your post.
- What is the price for it (as of today)
- What further demands are coming?

Ultimately, an installation is not cheap – what basically counts is whether you are supposed to pay an unusually high market price or if everything is still within reasonable limits. Most likely, the - not quite so neat and structured working craftsman - did not buy at the pharmacy, but at the building materials trade at an acceptable price. That can be quickly clarified based on the delivery notes.

For me, 2 very fit people worked for 10 working days on this installation with a solar panel. 160 working hours. Only the basic installation! One person alone surely needs 10-15% more time.

If you get something like this done: You are very quickly gross at 25-30K with all components. I remember exactly when all the sanitary items for the rough installation arrived for me. Huge quantities of stuff!

And no: No accusation, a verbal order is also an order and I myself also gave trust advances during the construction period. But by chance, I received very decent work with a clear invoice.

So, my advice would be: First of all *stay* very calm and talk to the craftsman without prejudice. Stay totally objective. Show no emotions. That way, you get to the bottom of things. If points are then contentious, discuss how to deal with them. If in the end it’s about 500 or 1000 more or less, you will probably find a solution here. A few follow-up deliveries: financially they don’t “make the cabbage fat” in such an installation.

Starting to argue: Always gets on the nerves and the timeline. You can keep that as a last resort. Often it is avoidable if you keep the emotions out.

Best regards Thorsten

I would also quickly go to the lawyer to see if anything can still be saved? Normally, payment is made after acceptance. If you pay beforehand, the "invoice" is considered approved. Getting the money back will be difficult to impossible. The final payment could possibly be contested if it has not yet been made. But it won't get any further here without a lawyer.

For the new installation of our house, we paid about €35,000.00 for water, wastewater, and heating installation, including appropriate insulation of the pipes. No new boiler was installed because the existing one was still okay. Pumps and expansion tanks for the existing solar system were replaced because they were outdated or defective. Sanitary ceramics were rather in the mid-price range. The house has 2 bathrooms and 2 additional toilets. I honestly still find your price reasonable so far.

However, we had a cost estimate, and with the installment request, an excerpt from the estimate with checked items was provided. That was enough for me. In the end, the final invoice was almost €1,000 below the estimate.

I would urgently consult a lawyer to see if anything can still be saved? Normally you pay after acceptance. If you pay beforehand, the "invoice" is considered approved. Getting the money back then will be difficult to impossible. The final payment could possibly be contested if it has not yet been made. But without a lawyer, it won’t get any further here.

I currently see it differently...

Quite considerable services have indeed been provided by now. It’s not like money has been spent on zero or grossly inadequate performance.

As I said, I would save the lawyer and dispute for last option.

As my predecessor wrote: I still consider the prices quite reasonable... you can go to a lawyer if something really does not correspond to the prices in reality or if there is no initially peaceful solution. Certainly, the commissioned craftsman was not the most structured person before the Lord....okay.

So far, the OP only has delivery notes and does not know exactly what everything cost. But that can be figured out, that’s the OP’s task.
What does he want to do with the current factual situation at a lawyer? The facts must be calmly and very objectively put on the table. Very cleanly and clearly. Before that, it makes less sense – from my personal perception.

So important here again would be to know: What exactly has been done for the price so far... only then can we make a further assessment from a distance... if the entire rough installation was done professionally with the heating system and everything – even if the collector is still missing – from what I see here, there is currently apparently no direct disaster that would require a full escalation. After the facts that justify this are available, one can start such a thing... yes.

Thorsten

one more small note: there is no net price for you as a private person!

nevertheless, many companies talk in net prices. but it is important that every entrepreneur states this clearly. we currently have such a case ourselves. we told the entrepreneur that we act as private individuals and that he should quote us prices including VAT. he gave us price x as an offer price, we agreed, and later he added 19% on top of the price. now the matter is with a lawyer. the difficulty for us is proving this again, he claims he always talks in net prices and never says otherwise. and I said we want to spend maximally x€ gross (because private person), but he means net. it will most likely end in a settlement. it’s not a huge amount, but it shows me that I want a written offer for every little thing and must insist on it. and here I even brought a witness with me, but they simply appointed him as a customer and thus a defendant. the dealings of people nowadays are really no longer normal. I’ll study law if I ever win the lottery and get too bored...

Both would not be nearly enough.