Home owner or tennent?!?

[mitchellplumber]

I've just got back from a call out. Broken down Potterton suprima. Got to job, customer showed me boiler. Quick and easy fault find (fan). Ok, told customer, problem and I should be able to get one tomorrow. Customer turns out to be a tennent who could not get hold of his landlord and called me out anyway. He's asked me to contact his landlord in the morning to discuss. I've told him, no problem but if Landlord don't accept the bill caller (tennent) will be responsible for the bill. What do you think? Do I need to ask every customer that calls me if they are the home owner? Bit sneaky if you ask me!

 

[SafeGasInstall]

difficult situation ,just explain to land lord and hopefully he will understand and cover your SUNDAY night call out charge and repair of boiler

 

[dontknowitall]

A tricky one.

Your contract (in good faith) is with the tenant for what you've done so far. They called you out, you responded, they need to pay. They need to phone the landlord about the further work and it's up to them to claim off the landlord for this first job.

In my opinion.

Usually though, these problems are sorted out in the wash with everyone happy in the end!

 

[Halesowen1]

On a Sunday night I would be telling them you have a Call out fee to be paid before going out.

 

[Halesowen1]

A tricky one.

Your contract (in good faith) is with the tenant for what you've done so far. They called you out, you responded, they need to pay. They need to phone the landlord about the further work and it's up to them to claim off the landlord for this first job.

In my opinion.

Usually though, these problems are sorted out in the wash with everyone happy in the end!

Unless of course its Mr Ali the Landlord then you have a chase for anything as his brother will be round the next day to bodge the boiler.

 

[tamz]

On a Sunday night I would be telling them you have a Call out fee to be paid before going out.

This is the best way to deal with stuff like this.

 

[mitchellplumber]

Your right, It probably will be fine and landlord will pay up. Just got my back up a bit that he never explained on the phone he was a tennent, give me the option first. Maybe he tried another plumber first who refused though lol

 

[mitchellplumber]

On a Sunday night I would be telling them you have a Call out fee to be paid before going out.

Good sound advice, think I need to start doing the call out up front thing. I was looking at the mobile payment terminal dooda's for card payments but i'm not so sure its worth the extra cost.

 

[Mbear]

Call out fee plus diagnosis fee. Ie dont tell them what's wrong until u see the colour of his money.

I'd be raging if I told them whats wrong only for the punter to buy a fan and then I lose the uplift and repair charge

 

[Dan]

I would expect it to be in the tenants contract with their landlord that all repairs are to be reported to the landlord and carried out or organised by the landlord, who then pays the bill directly. Even in an emergency you'll find many can still report it at any hour, whether it gets fixed is another thing.

Though whether that is in their contract or not, the tenant has requested your services and is liable to pay the bill themselves if they cannot forward that bill to their landlord for whatever reason. Whether there is a reason or what that reason is, isn't down to you and shouldn't be your problem at all. The customer (ignoring who they are) is the customer, and they called you, so they pay you.

What you might find if the customer is claiming the landlord will pay, is the landlord just refuses to based on the fact they didn't get their own contacts in to fix the issue. Which often they'll make a few quid on themselves.

That's not your problem though the person that called you should be liable.

(Obviously always seek advice from professionals - I'm just a web techie).