I have been filming in London all this week and today we covered a flat which had been purchased by a 32 year old woman starting out in the property business.

 One of the things that needed attention in the flat was the boiler. The existing one needed replacing so quite rightly our young lady contacted a couple of Corgi Registered plumbers to provide her with a quote for the replacement of the existing boiler with a new one.

 Surprisingly, she found that the amount different tradesmen wanted to charge her for the same work, varied enormously – from £2000 to £6000 for the same job! The higher quote therefore being three times that of the lowest!

 Our contributor said ‘I think they saw me coming…!’ Perhaps as a young female, the tradesmen willing to charge her what seems to be an excessive amount thought that because she was relatively young and maybe didn’t understand the work involved, he could try it on.

 Quite rightly, our young lady contacted the person who had submitted the higher quote and asked him to explain his charges given that she had been quoted just a third of his cost by someone else. Well, believe it or not, the so called ‘professional’ just gave her a rude retort and said that he hoped her renovation project went really badly. Hardly called for I think!

 I’m sure there are other young female property investors who can relate to this story. Its abit like with car repairs. Whilst most tradesman are professional and honest, there are a small minority who will ‘try it on’ and deliberately inflate their costs if they think that the customer doesn’t know any better.

 Whilst this seems disgraceful and scandalous, there isn’t a law against it and it is very much a situation of ‘buyer beware’.

 However, there are a few pointers that you can follow to ensure that you don’t fall prey to this kind of overcharging: 

1. Firstly, always get at least 3 quotes for any work that you want carried out. This way you’ll get a better idea of the range of price that it reasonable. In some cases, you may not be able to compare exactly like with like because some tradesmen might use different materials or employ different methods to achieve the same end, but you should be able to see from the quote what will be the amount of work involved and their labour costs and make a reasonable judgement from this.
2. Always get your quotes in writing. Any professional worth his salts will always commit to a written quotation anyway, on his/her company headed paper. It needn’t be war and peace but the more detailed the quote can be, the less chance there is for misinterpretation and queries further down the line. This is particularly important for more complex works.
3. Seek out personal recommendations or customer endorsements. If you can speak to someone that has employed the services of the tradesman you are considering themselves, then they can give you an honest opinion of the quality of their work.
4. Ask tradesmen if they are members of any professional trade organisations since this will be an indication that they have had to meet certain standards of quality and professionalism.
5. Another reason to get a written quotation is so that you can see where their office address is and their contact details. Never use someone who doesn't have an office address and a landline phone number
6. Be wary of anyone who asks for payment up front. This should raise alarm bells about the individuals cashflow and business ethics unless there is a very good reason why they should require it.
7. Ask to see and any insurance they may have.
8. Always get a completion date if possible.

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