Payment for fences?

Rollersk8er,

How did this end up for you? I’m one of 3 parties paying for a section of fence – one neighbour is cool about it, the other turned nasty real quick, and I’m paying more than my share. WTF?

thatsnotme said :

Ha! Reading this:

Elf said :

Anyone can put up a shingle saying “fencer” which brings a lot of dodgy tradesman into the industry. Given 99% of jobs go to the cheapest quote, quality tradesman usually find an income elsewhere.

Followed by this:

TheBusDriver said :

Hang on, you people are paying $120 per metre of fence? What’s it made out of? Gold I can understand. Brick or stone I can kind of understand. Fence palings, nope, makes no sense. Colourbond, ahh WTF?
Make sure you get an invoice for exactly what you have paid for because it reads like you’re subsadising your neighbours fence. I bet they didn’t pay $120 per metre for their fence. If they did, then I need to whip down to Bunnings, get some colourbond, posts and a shovel then make me a sign and undercut the tradies out there.

is hilarious.

$120/m was the going rate when we had a fence put up about 4 1/2 years ago. That’s for supply and install of a 1.8m Colorbond fence.

What struck me at the time was just how hard it was to get in touch with a fencer in the first place, and then how much harder it was to get them to show up to do a quote. Seems like one of those areas where someone who knows how to erect a fence, and also has enough nous to run a business efficiently, should never be out of work.

I had the same issue a while back. Fairly easy fencing job (no old fence to get rid of even). Rang maybe 10, 4 showed up.Two quoted. One was ridiculous and the other didnt call me back when I asked him a question about it.Ended up getting a landscaper to do it. On the basis of he’d “have a go”. Turned out really well for half the price.

Ha! Reading this:

Elf said :

Anyone can put up a shingle saying “fencer” which brings a lot of dodgy tradesman into the industry. Given 99% of jobs go to the cheapest quote, quality tradesman usually find an income elsewhere.

Followed by this:

TheBusDriver said :

Hang on, you people are paying $120 per metre of fence? What’s it made out of? Gold I can understand. Brick or stone I can kind of understand. Fence palings, nope, makes no sense. Colourbond, ahh WTF?
Make sure you get an invoice for exactly what you have paid for because it reads like you’re subsadising your neighbours fence. I bet they didn’t pay $120 per metre for their fence. If they did, then I need to whip down to Bunnings, get some colourbond, posts and a shovel then make me a sign and undercut the tradies out there.

is hilarious.

$120/m was the going rate when we had a fence put up about 4 1/2 years ago. That’s for supply and install of a 1.8m Colorbond fence.

What struck me at the time was just how hard it was to get in touch with a fencer in the first place, and then how much harder it was to get them to show up to do a quote. Seems like one of those areas where someone who knows how to erect a fence, and also has enough nous to run a business efficiently, should never be out of work.

Price doesn’t seem too far out of the ordinary. Old fence needs to be removed and disposed of, there’s a couple hours of labour involved even in that 4m, decent materials aren’t exactly cheap (even from Bunnings).
Sure, you could do it a bit cheaper if you did it yourself, but you’d still spend $250 plus your time.

Sounds like your neighbours are real pieces of work…drag you into this and then lump you with the bill.

You’re between a rock and a hard place (cos there is no winning here – you’re correct that you don’t need to pay on this but, if you don’t, you’re stuck with cranky neighbourly relations).

Why are the neighbours refusing to pay anyway? I don’t get that bit.

In these cases, pretty sure there all parties to a contract are jointly and severally liable (meaning they can chase anyone for the full amount) – BUT you weren’t on the contract so they can’t chase YOU for any part of the contract. They just find you more reasonable to deal with (clearly) and are trying to bamboozle you.

Get a receipt for the work and move on. Tell the fencers to chase up the parties to the contract for the balance.

(they sound dodgy anyway – sounds like a lot of $$ for fencing and the way they “mischarged” was poor form)

Feel for you buddy…hope you get it sorted. But they have no leg to stand on so don’t worry about it.

milkman said :

I’ve had a similar issue.

You’ve paid your part, and presumably have evidence to that effect (receipt, credit card statement, whatever), Next time the company/tradie calls, tell them your part is paid and you have evidence of this, and suggest they chase the nieghbour. Advise them that if they hear from you again you will refer the matter to both Fair Trading and the Master Builders Association, etc.

This is the typical lazy Canberra tradie approach of chasing money from the party of (perceived) least resistance. Simply tell them you won’t be paying any more money and the matter is closed. If they do anything silly like trying to ‘take back’ their fence, report them to the police for trespassing and press charges.

As I understand, it is 100% illegal for any works to be removed from a customers house regardless of payments.

Send them a letter of cease and desist, any further unsolicited communication will be taken as harassment.

Hang on, you people are paying $120 per metre of fence? What’s it made out of? Gold I can understand. Brick or stone I can kind of understand. Fence palings, nope, makes no sense. Colourbond, ahh WTF?
Make sure you get an invoice for exactly what you have paid for because it reads like you’re subsadising your neighbours fence. I bet they didn’t pay $120 per metre for their fence. If they did, then I need to whip down to Bunnings, get some colourbond, posts and a shovel then make me a sign and undercut the tradies out there.

I’ve had a similar issue.

You’ve paid your part, and presumably have evidence to that effect (receipt, credit card statement, whatever), Next time the company/tradie calls, tell them your part is paid and you have evidence of this, and suggest they chase the nieghbour. Advise them that if they hear from you again you will refer the matter to both Fair Trading and the Master Builders Association, etc.

This is the typical lazy Canberra tradie approach of chasing money from the party of (perceived) least resistance. Simply tell them you won’t be paying any more money and the matter is closed. If they do anything silly like trying to ‘take back’ their fence, report them to the police for trespassing and press charges.

This is really, really basic.

Ask the company to produce a quote acceptance signed by you.