What's fair?

[Nefarious]

OK guys, you can be my moral barometer...

About 18 months ago, we did a full refurb on a flat, including a wet room. But the water didn't run right on the floor, so we redid it at my cost. On the redone version, the client moaned that the grout lines were a bit uneven (the grout lines on the shower tray section of a wet room *need* to be a little uneven to make the angle for the water to run right). I thought it was a bit pernickerty but agreed to redo again, this time using watercut giant tiles to remove the grout lines altogether. But by this point, we'd been in their house for 3 months, and they asked if we could come back in 6 months to redo instead. Fine.
But in the meantime, the upstairs neighbour had a flood and ruined quite a lot of our work...including the bathroom (wet rot on joists, whole thing needed ripping out).
So (after nearly a year of messing about) this has meant the whole thing is now getting redone by the insurance company's contractors.

I've already bought all the materials (specifically, the custom-cut giant tiles) and donated them to the client, but now there's a questionmark over whether or not I owe the client a week's free labour in lieu of the work I promised but didn't have to do.

What's fair?

[Sundayjumper]

Eh ? Of course you don’t.

He’s also making a profit selling those materials to the insurance company.

If you do another week’s work he’ll just complain about that as well and it’ll turn into a month’s work.

Tell him to do one.

[mik]

In the words of Matt Goss - you owe them nothing (whoo-aaargh) in my eyes.

You did a job and were paid for it. It’s immaterial now that you didn’t remediate their complaints, as someone else is now going to do so at no cost to your client. I think you’ve been really generous donating the custom tiles (accepting that they’re probably of no use to you).

[jamcg]

Not your fault that this has happened. You were putting something right out of your goodwill, solving an aesthetic issue that didn’t affect the correct operation of the room. Now this has happened I’d say you’re off the hook for doing anything and owe them fuck all, unless they paid you for the new floor in advance

[Nefarious]

You guys are basically echoing my gut feeling. You paid the money and, by hook or by crook, you got what you wanted, job done.

I should add that these aren't completely random clients (but acquaintances rather than "friends"), so I feel I need to leave it with everyone agreeing its fair, rather than me just *telling* them it is and buggering off.

[Rich B]

if their insurance company is sorting it, then surely everyone’s happy and the job is getting done.

[GG.]

No - you don't owe them any further if the jobs gets done - certainly from a moral perspective. If the insurers contractors stuff it up or don't do it to the standard you would have done it, then... perhaps.

[dinny_g]

You are a Landlord - therefore you are loaded so you should probably just give him the flat by way of redress because you can afford it.

Just go out and buy another one because, well, you’re loaded.

Or some such…

[240PP]

If I was them I wouldn’t be chasing anyone for a week’s free labour, I’m getting my wet room, job jobbed.

Have they actually raised this with you?

And if I was the mate in the middle I’d be pretty embarrassed.

[Marv]

if their insurance company is sorting it, then surely everyone’s happy and the job is getting done.

Yep, the change in circumstances and the insurance getting involved essentially wipes the slate clean, IMO.

I think it was already very generous of you to agree to have it redone again when the complained about the grout lines being uneven - anyone of a logical mind would understand that the slope to the waste inherently means the tiles will sit with a slight V in them.

Getting stuff like this redone is horrendously expensive/ time consuming, so you've already taken several massive hits!

[DeskJockey]

What everyone else has said. The problem is being addressed, and the labour you were offering was related to this specific room/situation. It isn't a blank cheque they can cash for anything else they want done.

If you have to throw something in the mix, offer them a discounted rate (assuming you want to do further work for them) on a week's labour for another job.

However, if they've asked for the labour, then it sounds like they're trying to play on the acquaintance bit, hoping you'll agree to avoid future awkwardness.

[Jimexpl]

You’ve dropped the tiles off even though an insurance company is now doing work. Sleep happily in the knowledge that you’ve already done more than needed.

I’ve got a problem client at the moment (an Essex builder/developer). Agreed to £30k of work on a pre-sold new build. Added £3k of variations that the client wanted a couple of months later. He paid us the first two invoices, totalling £20k, which covered the design, some first fix work and the main hardware for 2nd fix. Move forwards eight weeks when we’ve bought the hardware and he informs that his client has changed his mind and doesn’t want it.
I try and be helpful saying that we could look at reducing the final spec and list everything already procured which is his, then I don’t hear from him for three months (aside from giving me 24 hours notice to attend a site meeting, which I offered to do on teams as I was on holiday), and now he’s decided that we’ve done £1k of work so far and should return £19k to him…

[DeskJockey]

That's very generous of him to decide for you.

[dinny_g]

The neck of some people.

I watched a you tube clip recently of a RestoMod job on a Bronco in the states. $120k worth of work over a 6 month period. The customer wanted to back out completely about 2 weeks before delivery because they'd changed their mind (and also quoting that it was 3 weeks late)

Contract was Iron Clad - he owed the full amount but he tried to talk his way out of it (Usual Crap "You can just sell it to someone else to get your money back etc)

[Broccers]

Sounds like you are being too nice.

[Gavster]

You guys are basically echoing my gut feeling. You paid the money and, by hook or by crook, you got what you wanted, job done.

I should add that these aren't completely random clients (but acquaintances rather than "friends"), so I feel I need to leave it with everyone agreeing its fair, rather than me just *telling* them it is and buggering off.

Seeing how they're acquaintances, I'd mention how they're getting everything sorted by the insurers so looks like we can leave it here. However, I would also offer to provide a specification or guidance for the insurance contractors, given how the client appears to have very specific standards, to ensure that the final work is done to the standard they desire. I realise that's over and above, but in this specific case it could be appropriate.