How much may the price on a contractor's invoice differ from their quote?
Contractors that carry out work in our homes are obliged to provide their customers with as much detail as possible about the price of their services in advance. It is only if a job entails unexpected extra work, carried out with the customer’s consent, that a contractor is allowed to charge more than the price they had originally quoted. Deviating from the price given on an estimate is allowed, as long as the price increase remains within reasonable limits.
Imagine that a building contractor has provided you with a a quote to carry out work in your home. The contractor provides what they believe to be a realistic estimate of the cost of the work.
You except the quote and a contract is signed. However, once the work has finished the price on the contractor’s invoice suddenly turns out to be much higher than the quote. Is this legal? Sadly, the answer not not so clear cut.
What the law is very clear about is that a company is obliged to disclose the price of its services in advance and that it must do this as accurately as possible. This is the only way that a customer can make an informed choice. Customers may also ask for a quote for a “non-standard” service. However, in this case the company may charge an additional fee.
A contractor must always inform their customer in advance of the full price, including VAT and extra costs related to any “additional services” that have been requested, of any work that is to be carried out.
Lien Meurisse of the Federal Economy Department told VRT News that "This is what in legal terms is called an “active pre-contractual information obligation”. “Companies that provide a clearly defined, homogeneous service, for example, car maintenance or the installation of solar panels, are also legally obliged to indicate their prices in writing”.
Drawing up a quote
For certain services, it is often not possible to determine the final price in advance. Some repairs may require further investigation first, and calculating the price of large-scale projects advance is often simply not feasible. In this case a company can provide an estimate of what they believe the final cost will be.
Lien Meurisse of the Federal Economy Department told VRT News that "In the estimate, the company has to list in as much detail as possible all the things that can determine the price. It makes an estimate of all the costs that will be incurred.
A consumer may ask a company to prepare such an estimate. The company is also allowed to charge a fee for the estimate providing it has informed the the customer in advance that it intends to so.
"Company is obliged to inform you”
Nevertheless, there is often a difference between the price listed on an estimate and the price charged on the final invoice.
Ms Maurice told VRT News that if the price discrepancy is “reasonable” there isn’t an issue. After all, an estimate is,…an estimate”. However, the question is what is “reasonable”?
If while carrying out the job it suddenly becomes apparent that that additional work is needed in order to complete it, the contractor is obliged to inform the customer of this. Any additional work of this nature must be such that a professional contractor could not have envisaged its necessity prior to stating the job.
In any case "Only with the express consent of the consumer may the additional work be carried out and charged for”, Ms Meurisse said.
However, "If the work is carried out without permission and the consumer is subsequently saddled with unforeseen higher costs, the contractor is in breach of their obligation to provide their customers with sufficient information. In this case a court may decide that the consumer does not have to pay the additional costs or that the consumer is entitled to compensation."