Tradesman sends invoice 6 months late – I have no recollection of job?

Tradesman sends invoice 6 months late – I have no recollection of job?

9:32 AM, 14th November 2017, About 6 years ago 12

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I have a few properties in London; I manage the properties myself mostly, and so I often engage the services of various handymen.

As you can imagine, most handymen are most insistent on being paid as soon as the job is completed. Naturally, I pay handymen immediately (or the next day at most), and since I use bank payments, I have a perfect audit trail as to whom I have paid, how much and when.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I got an email from one handyman I had used in the past, saying that his accountant had informed him that he did not bill me for a previous work – carried out six months ago!

He has now sent me an invoice for that date and a work schedule; I have no recollection (or indeed proof – other than his invoice) of this.

What (if any) are existing laws that cover contesting/refuting this bill?

Many thanks

Oliver


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Comments

Paul Kaye

9:34 AM, 18th November 2017, About 6 years ago

My second comments are,speak to the tenants of the said property and ask them what was done,approx when,how long job took etc
All this is beyond me,I have never ever experienced this in all my years of being a Landlord.
It should be really easy to establish if a job was done,go look at the job and meet the tradesman at same time and have a good chat.

John Dunt

10:14 AM, 18th November 2017, About 6 years ago

I am in the business of Fire Alarm and thus I deal with many landlords.
I would ask the following questions:
1) Was a quote/estimate for the works provided?
2) Was a signed acceptance of quote/estimate given?
3) Was an agreed start date given?
4) Was a jobsheet signed on the start/access to the property works in question?
5) Was, on completion of works the jobsheet signed off as completed by both the trades’ person and yourself/representative.
And, thus copies of each document are held by each party!
The above are always carried out by my business and this provides a paper trail that is un-refutable and stands up in court if necessary.(I have proved that) It also ensures you have the documentation to back-up things when there are queries that require answering by either parties.
Do you have any documentation reference to the advised works?
If you have none of the above then there is doubt that the job existed.
Can the trades person produce any/all/some of the above. The last two items will/would be the most important documents to verify that the works were indeed carried out
If you do not have such a paper trail, then put one in place for the future!

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