Not paid to sign off?

[Buckosteve]

This is a weird one and I'll try to summarize as best I can:

We recently did a bit of work (about 4 weeks) on a commercial building including building a new cafe area, new toilet area, moving and rewiring office and function room and fitting 2 new single and 1 new 3-phase board. All was dead tested okay and the circuits that went live were all tested okay too.

So far so good, but we were on a day rate (don't ask) and the client has now said he will have to hold fire until he has more money for the rest of the work it needs and to finish any form filling.

I wondered where we stood legally on having to complete installation certificate if we are not getting paid for it?

I am presuming I have to fill forms to complete the existing job in my own time now but has anyone had anything similar? He will not pay any more and has become a little awkward.

 

[telectrix]

job is not finished at client's request, so as it's not complete, you can't prepare a certificate, can you. also he's in breach of contract. you can sue him for the cost to finish the job.,

 

[trev]

You will need to complete the relevant paperwork for the installation. You do know what that is right? Apparently we are not allowed to withhold this pending payment although most do. Tel doesn't completion of certs depend on whether anything is grafting yet?

 

[Guest55]

its the schemes ( nic , eca , etc ) that recommend to their members to always issue certs even if theres problems with the money.

however , if youre not in a scheme , then hold onto the certs , its your only stronghold over the customer till payday.

 

[Sintra]

Just to clarify have you been paid for work completed so far or not

 

[Richard Burns]

Dear Sir
As the installation does not have a completed installation certificate then the installation is not finished and cannot be energised.
Please advise when we are able to complete the appropriate safety certification, until then no warranty for the work is yet valid.
It is our professional opinion that it would be dangerous to employ the installation until the work is complete.

 

[Buckosteve]

Just to clarify have you been paid for work completed so far or not

Yes, all paid up so far.

Some circuits are not tested and are left out of the board in the trunking below.

And there is not really a contract, we went in only to check a few things out originally, and in an old (100 year) building started to correct and add to for the opening day. Now open it seems not important to them anymore??

Am happy to walk away but I don't like to leave things like this...

 

[Sintra]

If you are paid to date can you not complete certs to cover the works that have been paid for. If they have all been tested and results recorded give them a cert as a good will gesture.

 

[telectrix]

agreed. that's the best you can do. you can't complete cert/s for work that is not tested and energised.

 

[Redvanman]

Yep give him certs for works completed and note which circuits were wired but not connected.
its called covering your arse

 

[MTI]

I had this recently and it was domestic so would involve my part p scheme. I actually used the job as my annual assessment and I wrote a letter and attached it to cert for works done to date. I wrote page numbers on cert (this cert contains x pages) and in non conformances box I added see letter so and so. My assessor accepted it. We viewed the job on the day and client had finished work himself and plumbers ran a nice gas main with inches of an external light! nice of them. Assessor said lets check out his work - loosened cooker plate which was just a joint box when I left it and we ckecked for sleeving and did r1 r2 for the sake of it. We walked away as he had voided his cert effectively and that was that