Plumbing Work: Who’s the Boss?

If you get the job done on time, to budget and with a quality outcome, everyone is a winner. A happy client is good for business, but you need to be sure you are making the right person happy.

Who is your client?

If you are working for the owner of the premises, then that is easy. Your client is the owner.

However more often you will be working for a builder or perhaps a main contractor. In those situations, you need to be careful who you take instructions from. Taking instructions from someone who is not your client can be problematic.

Before we get to that, a brief reminder that you should have a written contract for any work you do. The contract will tell you who your client is and it will also describe the scope of work.

If the scope of work is changed, the price and the time for completion of your work will likely change. Those changes should also be recorded in writing before you go ahead. This makes everything clear to all involved.

There is a very good chance of trouble if you take instructions from the wrong person. If you do that the right person (your client) may be unhappy.

For example, imagine you are working on a domestic kitchen installation. Your client is the builder who has subcontracted you to do the plumbing work. The price and scope are agreed and you have a written contract. So far, so good.

The owner of the home is generally around the place while you are doing your work. A very friendly person who offers cups of tea and biscuits and offers to help you whenever it looks like you need a hand. The owner asks you to do some work in the laundry – “a quick job while you are here”.

You want everyone to be happy so why not?

It turns out that the tap in the laundry that was a “quick job” needs to be replaced with other incidental work and a quick job turns into an hour and a half of your time plus materials.

After you have finished the job, you invoice the builder for the variation, right? The builder didn’t ask you to do the work and tells you they won’t pay. It was that nice owner. So, you send the owner the bill. The nice owner turns nasty – “I don’t have a contract with you, send this to the builder – he’s your boss”.

You have now got yourself caught in a classic no win situation. Unhappy builder and unhappy owner. You will probably sort it out but it could leave a nasty taste.

What should you have done? Let’s change the story for the best outcome.

The owner asks you to do some work in the laundry. You have a look at it and say “Sure, but I will be working for you on this, OK? Let me call the builder just to make sure he/she is OK with this.”

You call the builder and explain. The builder is happy for you to work for the owner direct as long as you are sending the owner the bill. You report to the owner, “Builder says, no problem as long as you understand that you are paying for this laundry work.”

The owner agrees and everyone is happy. At that time, you should give the owner an estimate of the cost to do the work. The owner doesn’t necessarily know your charge rate so better to find out before you do the work if the owner thinks it might be more than they want to spend.

If you are not going to have a written contract for this work, at least make a note in your diary (or on your phone) of the scope, the estimate and the approximate time of your conversation so that later, if there is a dispute, you will have good evidence to support your position.

Also, if you are into the work and the scope changes (need to replace the tap), tell the owner and revise your estimate.

If you follow this advice, you will greatly reduce the chances of unhappiness and a disputed invoice and you will increase your chances of further work from both the builder and the owner.

Michael Hutton

Partner

Lynch Meyer Lawyers

Ph: 8236 7612 Email: mhutton@lynchmeyer.com.au