Tradie Hasn't Sent a Bill... for Two Years!

Switchblade88 on 24/06/2025 - 15:39

Encountered an interesting (ongoing) story recently and I thought I'd query the OzB brains trust to see what you guys think (and possibly an appropriate course of action). I haven't got all the info but I can certainly go and try and get more answers if there's something to be done.

TL;DR
Electrician hasn't sent a bill to their client for over 18 months!

So an associate of mine got some reno work done a couple of years ago. Employed a local electrician, works were all completed (over the course of a couple of months) as expected. Despite repeated requests, no paperwork/quote/invoice has ever been received to even give an expected job cost at the start of the job (obviously a rather big red flag), but even well after everything was complete there still hasn't been an invoice generated. The customer is of the opinion that the outstanding funds are burning a hole in their bank account and wants to reconcile the bill. Turns out this is a repeated occurrence for this particular contractor, and many people have experienced the same multi-year delay in getting any sort of bill (I wish I was rich enough to not need 2yrs of cashflow for my business!).

I guess the major questions arising is:

  • Is this some kind of tax reduction scheme? By bundling all their income into one financial year perhaps?
  • Is there a statute of limitations regarding the timeframes for billing of works/services?
  • In the absence of any written quote, are there valid concerns about the electrician charging 2025 rates for 2023 labour (i.e. the hourly rate has gone up since the works were completed)?

Obviously there's an argument to be made that 'Too late, they missed their chance to be paid, sucks to be slow' but I am uncertain there's a legal basis for this position. Likewise I also don't think you can just go shoot a bill off to a customer two years after doing the job and just expect to be paid either.

Alas, as an outside observer I doubt there is much advice I can offer the client to resolve this situation… but I welcome anyone else's opinions and insight.

Home & Garden

Comments

  • 30year old Camry on 24/06/2025 - 15:49
    +24

    This should be posted as a deal

  • bargaino on 24/06/2025 - 15:51
    +2

    Strange.
    There is a statutory limitation of six years for contract claims, so any invoice after that is not enforceable.
    I'd be interested to know what other regulations might apply.

    • Switchblade88 on 24/06/2025 - 19:55

      Any more info on this? I couldn't find anything more specific, if it might be state or federal

      • bargaino on 24/06/2025 - 23:23
        +1

        Contract law is state. IANAL, just saying that is an upper limit.

        google " General limitation period"

  • jjjaar on 24/06/2025 - 15:51
    +4

    My biggest concern would be whether you have the relevant electrical safety certificates for the work completed.

    • theHMASfriendship on 24/06/2025 - 16:13
      +3

      My biggest concern is the escalation of conflict in the Middle East and the ongoing supply chain and inflationary effects that may arise out of the situation

      • spackbace on 24/06/2025 - 16:36
        +16

        My biggest concern is that Hector is going to be running three Honda civics with spoon engines, and on top of that, he just went into Harry’s and bought three t66 turbos with nos, and a motec exhaust system.

  • Duckie2hh on 24/06/2025 - 16:04

    Another pointless post.

    • Switchblade88 on 24/06/2025 - 19:53

      For a duck, this comment was rather lame

  • geekcohen on 24/06/2025 - 16:14

    Was anything every signed or is there anything in writing about accepting the job? The guy really has nothing to fall back on if there is no evidence.

    • Switchblade88 on 24/06/2025 - 20:00

      Apparently the employees were tracking time + materials via their phones (not sure if it was a specific app or what) so there should be at least some evidence of the job being done - not to mention the presence of GPOs and cabling actually installed in the property.

      That's why I was extrapolating it as maybe a tax thing - dump all your profits (& tax) into one financial year bracket, and somehow cap your total taxes, or otherwise increase the offsets/deductions over the course of several years.

      • geekcohen on 24/06/2025 - 21:04

        I was referring to between the customer and tradie, was there any paperwork/evidence/agreement about accepting the job?

  • stickingly on 24/06/2025 - 17:26

    Could be that whatever billing "system" they have doesn't work properly and you will never get a bill. I had a tradie a few years ago that did a job for me. They were very disorganised and slapdash in their work and I suspect the same with their invoicing, with the result that I never received an invoice. If I had been happy with their work I might have asked, but I just left it….

  • NevC on 24/06/2025 - 18:32
    +1

    The last place I worked at was good at not charging customers. They are out of business now, for not paying their rent on the building they were in. No surprise. We did have one customer walk in one day with a hand full of orders, that he was never charged for. They went back at least a few years. He told them to invoice him for those orders immediately so he could pay. No other customers ever did that.

  • airzone on 25/06/2025 - 00:28

    The sparkie used by one of my old workplaces used to sit on his bills for years… And when he ran out of money, he'd send them all at once.

  • Dollar General on 25/06/2025 - 08:02

    The electrician was paid by another party to install listening and monitoring devices as part of the works

  • Ryanek on 25/06/2025 - 08:35

    Hmmm if they haven't sent you an invoice, technically there is no proof of work done. Doesn't that mean you are in danger of voiding your home insurance?

    • Switchblade88 on 25/06/2025 - 09:22

      If it was a new build, probably would be a risk.

      Given this was reno works and the existing wiring was 50yo, I have no idea how that plays out… I would assume that, same as for any other older house sold without an electrical certificate, there's no liability for the insurer to pursue up the chain to 'blame' if there was a fire etc. Not sure.

  • original15 on 25/06/2025 - 15:53

    Have a mate in the same boat, had some work done, paid initial element, got quote for another bit and was about $2-$3k range
    Yep went ahead
    Asked for bill, didn’t hear back, left it
    Been 2 years

  • Muppet Detector on 25/06/2025 - 21:55

    Have you asked the contractor why he hasn't charged you?

    Have you asked the contractor if he intends to charge you in the future?

    Do you have a verbal agreement? Does it include anything about payment, how much it will be and when/how it is to be collected/paid?

    Do you have a written contract? Same as above.

    Are you trying to pay the correct contractor?

    It seems that at this stage, you do owe that money and apparently, he only needs to collect in within six years.

    Even if he doesn't ask for this money before then, it is still owed to his estate if he dies.

    If this is causing angst,

    1) issue him with a bank cheque for whatever you owe.

    2) keep proof of all attempts to pay the bill

    3) approach xCat to resolve this expense early so it's not sitting over your head for six years or some muppet works out a way to charge you interest or penalty for late payments.

    Might even be able to process the debt as abandoned goods or something.

  • Muppet Detector on 26/06/2025 - 21:24
    +1

    Has anybody checked if tradie is still alive?

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