On 10/08/2019 12:24, Chris B wrote:
On 10/08/2019 11:02, ARW wrote:
On 10/08/2019 09:29, Chris B wrote:
On 09/08/2019 19:31, ARW wrote:


Thanks for the info,Â* We have just been presented with a "surcharge"
bill of over £250 (+VAT) by the builder because his electrician
installed 3 LED downlights.Â* Surely a basic ceiling light must have
been included in the cost of a new bathroom installation (costing
several thousand pounds), and upgrading to 3 downlights (which we
didn't ask for) cannot cost this much.

Also £100 to provide the wiring and connect up a mirror which we
supplied and fitted.

Bear in mind that electrician had full access to the room before the
ceiling was put up and walls plasterboarded.

Although we have been presented with the building control approval
cert I am struggling to get a minor works cert for the electrics.

My gut feeling is that all of this is a bit unreasonable, but I am
trying to get a second opinion from those with more knowledge, before
I go in to battle.




OK so our firm would probably have charged £96 plus the cost of the
downlights for the job I described. And LED downlights cost less than
£10. So unless they had a much harder job to do or you are in an
expensive location the only things I can think of is they took a long
time to do a basic job[1], they charged travel time and they had to
make two trips not just the one I did.

But visits for first fix and second fix should have been part of the
original quotation surely?


I cannot say if £250 is too much. However I do agree that a basic
light and light switch should have been included in the original quote
and changing that to 3 spotlights for £250 is a lot of money unless
there are things we are not aware of.

I think I have listed all that is relevant.Â* Having challenged the
charges I have been told "those are our standard charges".



Do the lights in the bathroom have RCD protection?

The whole property was rewired last year (separate contract) to replace
old rubber cable, and the electrician who did that job was made aware
that a new bathroom was planned for that area of the house. So in answer
to the question yes they do.


Any idea who the electrician was? If you know then you can find out
which scheme, if any, he is registered to.

I know that the main contractor (who employed the electrician) is a
member of the FMB.

The FMB is just a trade organisation that people pay to join. It serves
no use other than taking sides with the builder, a bit like
check-a-trade



[1] We sometimes do jobs that are paid by the hour and are not quoted
for. The builder wants only a select few of our electricians to do
those jobs.