We verbally agreed for a civil engineering report for flooring. It was a fixed price "contract". The problem was everything was verbal. I discussed the situation before and offered to send photos which they declined. The representative came out and said there was nothing they could do without removing the lower floor ceiling to see the exposed beams. That would have cost thousands to repair. Later, my housemate suggested the flooring be lifted as it was going to be replaced anyway, a suggestion Tyndall, if experienced would have made.
We had areas exposed by the GC and Tyndall returned and issued an invoice. I paid in full and received the electronic report, more than 60% of which were just photos of the house as filler. As a result of them having to return for another site visit, due to their inexperience, they charged another fee, almost equal to the report. This is dishonest. However, I offered to cover some of the second site visit costs which they refused.
Contracts listing the scope of work, even in a brief email, would have prevented this double dipping. I trusted their professionalism. That was clearly misplaced. read more
