# Dodgy trader - advice please



## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

We had blocked drainage in our house. I called a British drainage specialist from Benalmadena who came and spent 3 hours trying to fix it. At the end his high pressure hose burst. It seemed he managed to fix it though so I paid him €326 for his services.

However, a few days later the same issue occured - the drainage was blocked again. I called him once more and he said he was on his way to England so he couldn't come to fix it. I had to call a different specialist (Spanish) who found out there were roots in the drainage. He cleared it and it has been fine since then.

My Spanish landlord refuses to pay the invoice for the British guy. I asked the British guy to return at least some of the money because he took money but hasn't fixed the issue. He is not responding to my emails. 

I will call him but I'd like to know your opinion - is the money lost? Should the landlord pay it anyway? Is there a way I could get some money (say €200) from the drainage guy? I suppose I could report him to Trading Standards in the UK but I'm not sure what to do here.

Please advise. Thanks.


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

sadlybroke said:


> We had blocked drainage in our house. I called a British drainage specialist from Benalmadena who came and spent 3 hours trying to fix it. At the end his high pressure hose burst. It seemed he managed to fix it though so I paid him €326 for his services.
> 
> However, a few days later the same issue occured - the drainage was blocked again. I called him once more and he said he was on his way to England so he couldn't come to fix it. I had to call a different specialist (Spanish) who found out there were roots in the drainage. He cleared it and it has been fine since then.
> 
> ...


complain to OMIC - it's the Trading standards equivalent here

did you get a proper invoice with his NIE/CIF & his address on it?

ideally you'd ask him for his complaints book - but if he isn't responding to e-mails etc that could be difficult - but even without that OMIC should be able to help


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## sadlybroke (Jun 19, 2012)

Thanks xabiachica. I have an invoice with his address and CIF on it. I found the local OMIC office details on the internet, too. I'll contact him again and will request a response. Thank you!


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

sadlybroke said:


> Thanks xabiachica. I have an invoice with his address and CIF on it. I found the local OMIC office details on the internet, too. I'll contact him again and will request a response. Thank you!


tell him in the e-mail that you want to use his complaints book - that should get his attention


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## Dunpleecin (Dec 20, 2012)

Making complaints to authorities is all well and good but if he's hopping back and forth to the UK it might be difficult to to catch him.

I would worry less about this guy and concentrate on getting the money off the landlord. Obviously I don't know what your tenancy agreement says, although I assume there is some element of if anything needs doing, you get it done and then he pays you back given that it's his property. It seems to me that you paid this guy in good faith to do a job you couldn't do yourself as it required professional expertise. The fact that he either botched the job or didn't do it satisfactorily is neither here nor there, you took reasonable precautions to hire someone in the trade and you paid him the cash pending a refund from the landlord. I would suggest that part of it cannot be in dispute. What happened after was unfortunate, but for me I would be getting the money off the landlord and letting him chase the tradesman.


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

Personally (and I know I'll get a lot of stick for saying this), I can't understand why Brits insist on calling British tradespeople to do work for them.

We live in Spain, help the Spanish economy, please.


The other major point is that so much of this sort of thing is done in a particular, Spanish way (building in general, plumbing specifically). Surely a good Spanish person will have a better idea how to fix something than a British person who may want to do things the 'Brit way'.


... just my thoughts and observations and having seen so many people ripped of by rogue 'experts' from UK.


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

> We had blocked drainage in our house. I called a British drainage specialist from Benalmadena who came and spent 3 hours trying to fix it. At the end his high pressure hose burst. It seemed he managed to fix it though so I paid him €326 for his services.


Over €100 an hour?? Good work if you can get it! No wonder everyone wants to come here to "work".


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## mrypg9 (Apr 26, 2008)

snikpoh said:


> Personally (and I know I'll get a lot of stick for saying this), I can't understand why Brits insist on calling British tradespeople to do work for them.
> 
> We live in Spain, help the Spanish economy, please.
> 
> ...



Agree entirely. Use Spanish tradespeople wherever possible. It seems a lot of British immigrants miraculously become plumbers, electricians etc. the moment their feet touch Spanish ground at the airport.,


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

snikpoh said:


> Personally (and I know I'll get a lot of stick for saying this), I can't understand why Brits insist on calling British tradespeople to do work for them.
> 
> We live in Spain, help the Spanish economy, please.
> 
> ...


Not a problem round my way as I never see Brits serving Brits, but from what I have read here no one on the forum is going to disagree with you!


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## anles (Feb 11, 2009)

Dunpleecin said:


> Making complaints to authorities is all well and good but if he's hopping back and forth to the UK it might be difficult to to catch him.
> 
> I would worry less about this guy and concentrate on getting the money off the landlord. Obviously I don't know what your tenancy agreement says, although I assume there is some element of if anything needs doing, you get it done and then he pays you back given that it's his property. It seems to me that you paid this guy in good faith to do a job you couldn't do yourself as it required professional expertise. The fact that he either botched the job or didn't do it satisfactorily is neither here nor there, you took reasonable precautions to hire someone in the trade and you paid him the cash pending a refund from the landlord. I would suggest that part of it cannot be in dispute. What happened after was unfortunate, but for me I would be getting the money off the landlord and letting him chase the tradesman.


It would depend on the agreement with the landlord. Did the landlord authorise that person to do the job in the first place? If you look at it from the landlord's point of view, it could be a scam with the tenant's knowledge. Usually landlords have their own people they prefer to use to do maintenance work. Unless the landlord refused to sort the problem out in the first place or gave the tenant "Carte Blanche" I think it would be unfair to expect him to pay out for the first bill. I think the best route, by far, is the one Xabiachica suggested.


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

anles said:


> It would depend on the agreement with the landlord. Did the landlord authorise that person to do the job in the first place? If you look at it from the landlord's point of view, it could be a scam with the tenant's knowledge. Usually landlords have their own people they prefer to use to do maintenance work. Unless the landlord refused to sort the problem out in the first place or gave the tenant "Carte Blanche" I think it would be unfair to expect him to pay out for the first bill. I think the best route, by far, is the one Xabiachica suggested.


I agree. I am always telling people that you are more likely to get ripped off by another expat than by a local tradesperson. The expat can upsticks and off since he/she quite often has no real ties to the place whereas a Spaniard, in most cases, will have property and a family that tends to keep him there if he has work. If the landlord hadn't agreed to it and you organised the failure to repair satisfactorily yourself, then it looks as though it is your loss and hopefully will be a lesson well learned. 

Look at it from the other side of the coin - if there is a problem with, say, the roof and the landlord decides to have some cardboard put on it to stop some rain coming in and it doesn't do so, what would your reaction be to being asked to pay for something that you hadn't agreed to, especially if it didn't work.


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## JoCatalunya (Mar 16, 2011)

I think that money is lost personally. 

I also think your landlord should have been the one to instigate repairs, not you. Now he could have told you to get someone in, but fact is, how are you going to prove he did? Unless you have it in writing that he will pay for all repairs you instigate successful or not then I think you will have to face it, that money is gone. Especially seeing as he has paid for a repair job after the Brit has bodged and scarpered. 

Sorry.

What can you do in future, well, in my opinion it is pretty simple and straight forward.

Next time there is a problem relating to your rented property get your landlord to phone the repair people, organise them to come round and more importantly give his NIE to the repair guy and vice versa so you are not left holding the bill if something goes wrong. 

Sorry you have had this happen to you. It sucks.


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## Pazcat (Mar 24, 2010)

I'm not sure what the rule is for Spain but is a landlord really responsible for blocked drains?

I mean if our sink is blocked and we called the landlord he'd tell us to stop wasting his time as it's not his responsibility, that said barely anything is the landlords responsibility in Belgium.
Now that is fair enough but if on the initial call out or second one for that matter it was discovered that roots are the problem it then shifts to his responsibility.

I guess what I'm saying is a think the first call out guy did his job, poorly but like you said you were happy to have the drain unblocked. I think you have to chalk that one up to experience and maybe complain that the job was a poor one.

Any further repairs should be at the landlords expense, that's just my way of thinking whether it is the case or not I don't know but you are hardly responsible for tree roots breaking pipes.


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## Madliz (Feb 4, 2011)

I'd say that roots in the drains were the landlord's responsibility and also that it is up to the landlord to agree a strategy to fix the problem. If tenants have taken it upon themselves to arrange repair and it goes wrong, you can't expect the landlord, who may have been kept in the dark about there being a problem in the first place, to suddenly cough up - twice. It seems a lack of communication has caused this unfortunate situation.


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