Thanks steampowered for the response, I take on board what you are saying re the £285 - I can see how the job could have costed out 2 men/6 hours @ £20 an hour and then £45 for materials - I don't think they used top quality materials. If you take into account how long it would take things to dry between coats/washing - there is an argument for charging that (just!). The fact that things didn't pan out like that I think was due to the weather and possibly the professionalism of the guys doing the job (I can see someone else has complained about that aspect on yell.com so we haven't been alone in questioning the workmanship), they just wanted to get the job done as quick as possible before the downpour in the afternoon. We may have agreed to the £285 estimate but they had their side of the agreement to keep to expect this payment for the service they were providing, we expected a professional job to be completed with reasonable care and skill and I feel we didn't get this. Interesting point re the shed - if it was costed as whole why charge more, we haven't been charged extra for the spindles/handrails which were allegedly left off the original quote. I've asked for it writing why he feels my offer is unreasonable. as a secondhand conversation from the letting agency telling me he'll take it further is not really acceptable. I put my offer in writing so think it is only fair that I have his side of things as a written response, that was 2 days ago, still waiting............

Thanks it was driving me mad as I couldn't see where I was going wrong - hate it when you get block text, puts you off reading.

I’ll and try and keep this short but would value some advice if whether the contractor has a case to pursue us legally. Last May we received an estimate for some gardening work – the estimate was for £285 for painting 2 garden fences (6 – 7 panels per fence – 1 coat) and to clean and paint the decking 2 coats (it is not a large deck). I did think it was a lot of money for a not particularly skilled job but as it was estimate I thought that was a worst case scenario guess at the cost. Apparently the estimate did not include the shed which we asked to be done at the same time – no price was given for this. As we had arranged this through a letting agency I said to the agency to request a breakdown of how the cost was split between labour and materials. The work was undertaken in July and took 3 hours to complete - strangely the spindles and handrails on the decking were left untouched. Unfortunately it then rained which washed away the paint on the decking leaving a mottled mess. The contractor was not happy to return and rectify the work at first – initially he blamed the heat and then asked if we had used a pressure washer to clean the decking, he seemed to be unwilling to take any responsibility for the poor workmanship. The spindles and handrails were not painted as we were informed that they hadn’t included in the initial estimate. After a lot of negotiation between the agency and the contractor, he did return and re paint the decking and the spindles/handrails. Fast forward nine months he has just remembered he didn’t bill us for this debacle – not only have we been charged the original £285, £60 has been added for the shed and £20 for additional paint. I just find this is a totally unreasonable cost for what amounted to 3 hours work which was rushed and of poor quality. I accept it was rectified but not before we were accused of sabotage. Lastly having to wait 9 months for the bill to turn up speaks volumes for the professionalism of this outfit. He has refused to split bill between labour and materials stating that the job was costed as a whole. After speaking with a friend who has previously worked as a gardener, I have made what I believe is a fair and reasonable offer for the work as it was my understanding that an estimate is not legally binding. I have offered £230 – (Labour 2 men @£25 an hour - £150, Materials £60, Contingency £20) – this has verbally been turned down and I’ve been told that if I don’t pay in full he will take us to court. I was wondering if we had a case to argue the costs were unreasonable if he did take us to court or do we just have to bite the bullet and pay, lesson learnt..... Thanks I'm really sorry this has not posted in paragraphs - tried a number of times now.