Should I Renegotiate My Painter's Contract?
Question:My painter told me he underestimated how long prepping my deck would take and said that his workers spent half the day working on it. He asked if he could renegotiate the contract price to $500 more.
Answers:
I would say that you do not have any legal or ethical obligation to pay more. Having said that, it may mean the difference between getting a good job or something less.
On one side of this coin, it is comforting that they put in the time to do prep work instead of doing less when they figured out it was more difficult than anticipated. The other side would be you were given a price and you were not hiding anything. An experienced painter should have been able to figure the job properly.
The size of the job would have to figure in also. If you were quoted $500, I would not be ready to pay $1000. If the number were more like $2500, I would be a bit more willing to pay $3000 for a good job.
I guess this really comes down to your impression of the painter and how generous you are feeling. If you feel like the painter is just trying to extract money, I certainly would not pay. If you feel like this is an honest mistake, I would give it consideration.
*** Bit of an update ***
I saw the question about tipping the painter and felt that it had sufficient answers. Did not put together that this is the same guy until Sensible mentioned it. That certainly changes things.
Sounds to me like this guy has been trying to extract more money from you from the start. As I said, I would base the decision upon your impression of the painter, but that fact would certainly give me a poor impression. I would not even consider giving more. No renegotiation, NO TIP!
That is his job to know how long these things take, and if he left the job for his workers to do, then it is his loss and should not be yours. I would say no, their should be no renegotiating. I have a brother who has a painting business and has told me many a story of losing money due to workers slacking and taking too much time to do a job. But that is up to you, but that is not a way to do business, especially at that price. He should have been checking in on his workers while they were prepping. His loss, not yours (or should not be yours). That is part of being in business, sometimes we have gains and times we have losses, and this is one of those times.
No..do not negotiate to a higher price. If he is the one who underestimated then he is the one who should eat this loss and be better at estimating when he goes to the next job. It is very unprofessional to ask someone for more money AFTER they have accepted your proposal and you have started the job. I wouldnt hire him again in the future.
You are not obligated to pay more. $500 sounds like quite a large "under estimate". Thats $125 per hour mistake in his figures. Did you see what was happening that took so long for the prep? Were the workers playing or actually working? It's really up to you but I would not pay that much more. Especially from a guy that keeps mentioning "tips".
More Related Questions & Answers...