Call out query

[jollymummy]

A bit of advice pls...

We rent our property out with a managing agent and they organised for a drain company to visit as the tenants noticed a strange smell. The company came out and charged a call out fee of ?120 but admitted they could not locate the issue and left. A second company was called who came out and rectified the problem. My question is, is it standard to make a call out charge and not actually fix anything?

Thanks all!

[Penguin68]

A call-out for as much as ?120 is an issue, it's quite high - as is their failure to remedy - since there was a problem which was remedied by someone I would refuse to pay the call-out - or demand re-payment and threaten the small- claims court. It is legitimate to charge a call-out fee (though ?120 is steep) but if there was no remedial work then undertaken but which was actually needed this is trading under false pretences. If the charge is being made through your agent then they should remedy the situation.

Also - if the cause of the problem was an action of your tenants (for instance a blockage caused by wipes or other things disposed of which shouldn't have been put into a sewer) then they (not you) should pay for remedial work.

However, if you call someone out and the problem is not within their purview (or couldn't be found by anyone) then it is normal to pay a call-out - although at ?120 this is anyway a high charge. [As an example, calling out an electrician for a plumbing problem with central heating would be a legitimate charge, as, even if a problem did exist, it would not sit in the electrician's purview]

[jollymummy]

Thanks Penguin68. I will ask the Managing Agent to hold the payment while I query it.

[JohnL]

Was this insurance, Maybe the first company were looking for the root cause (my insurance did that for a leak - need to fix the leak before replacing floorboards etc but there was no leak as it was bath splatter and seal)

Isn't so obvious - but if someone is dumping something nasty in the drains, or there's some kind of issue fixing it will just postpone the problem.

The root cause couldn't be found so they fixed the issue, maybe.

[Loz]

My experience was that arranging a tradesman via a managing agent was always much more expensive than calling them yourselves. I never quite worked out if the agent was tacking on a percentage, the tradesman was inflating the fees to agents or there was some sort of kick-back agreement operating.

[Billy1987]

As electricians me and my business partner charge ?40 a hour for minor works or we quote it, but if we don't get out tools out we don't charge, but obviously it's normally down to the nature of the job,

For future ref the website is no1sparks.co.uk