Hourly rate

[parkmoy]

Does anyone know what sort of hourly rate repairers charge? My MH is having some water ingress work done under warranty and the insurers are quibbling about the number of hours being claimed for.

The guy who is doing it is a one man band but comes highly recommended by the largest MH dealers in the area - he used to do their work until they got their own workshop. He charges £20 ph which seems cheap to me, I'm sure Brownhills for example, charge more.

I've managed to broker a deal with them meeting me half way but it will still leave me with a couple of hundred to find and I will be having a go at them for that later so I could do with some ammunition.

 

[Clive]

David,

If your repairer is only charging £20.00 per hour he is not charging enough to stay in business and maintain his premesis and insurances.

I charge more than that for driving a computer from home! (Excluding MMM which is for love and qdos).

Seriously if the insurance company are quibbling about the RATE then they are taking the proverbial. If they are quibbling about the TIME then this is another matter. I would have hoped that you got a quote for the job first and gave this to the insurance company who have said yes??

 

Or is it one of those jobs "where you don,t know how far the problem has spread until you take it apart" .

 

Suggest you take some regular stage photographs of the progress of the repair as these will make a powerfull arguement for you to the insurance company.

 

Good luck with the quest.

C.

 

[fred grant]

i is currently chargin £74.50 ph to service tracters, but that is cornwall rates my biddies. ubderstand tis nearer 90 in the far east (sorry sath east). how much to service alice? well that is anyones guess me ansums.

 

forkliftfrendlyfred

[Geoff Cole]

I agree with Clive £20ph for a garage is not economical labour rates at most garages seem to range from around £35 to £50ph or more and I think that Brownhills charge around this. I have sealed the scuttle on my camper myself plus fitted extra drains and bonnet seal, it took a good day to do the work properly, so taking the above rates into account the cost could soon mount up. I have postings on the forum about this problem. Just sealing the scuttle and drilling holes at each end does NOT cure the water ingress problem.

Geoff

[Brian Kirby]

parkmoy - 2008-03-20 5:48 PM Does anyone know what sort of hourly rate repairers charge? My MH is having some water ingress work done under warranty and the insurers are quibbling about the number of hours being claimed for. The guy who is doing it is a one man band but comes highly recommended by the largest MH dealers in the area - he used to do their work until they got their own workshop. He charges £20 ph which seems cheap to me, I'm sure Brownhills for example, charge more. I've managed to broker a deal with them meeting me half way but it will still leave me with a couple of hundred to find and I will be having a go at them for that later so I could do with some ammunition.

I agree that the rate is not an economical rate for a business.  However, you said the quibble was over the number of hours, and not over the rate. 

I assume some kind of open ended agreement has been made?  If so, I'm surprised if an insurance company accepted that basis for proceeding. 

It might be reasonable to charge on that basis for exploratory work, but once the nature, and extent, of the work is established, a competent and experienced tradesman should be able to estimate his costs to complete the job and convert any estimates to a fixed price offer basis. 

Why not speak to the insurers and ask them what is worrying them?  It could be that they think it is you, or a family member who is doing the work, and dressing it as being by a bona fide repair business, that just happens to work at uneconomic rates so as not to arouse too many questions!

[davenewellhome]

I run a one man band business and have to charge £30 per hour (plus VAT) just to make a living. I've just moved into a bigger unit but my property costs (rent, rates, water rates etc) have doubled in total (do you realise we pay not only for the metered water we use but also for measured roof area for collection of water (which they then sell back to us) and we get charged again for the same volume of water we receive going back down the drain (which they then sell back to us)!!.

 

Insurance is a killer, many motorhome owners on here have commented unfavourably about paying much above £300 a year for their motorhome, my insurance bill comes with three zeroes! Yes it costs me thousands of pounds just for insurance per year! I don't see how any serious business can legitimately charge less than £30 per hour unless they're a bit dodgy somewhere along the line, perhaps they don't have full insurance, I don't know :-S .

 

D.

[derek500]

Here in Valencia, my official Fiat dealer charges 29€ per hour and my SEA motorhome concession charges 32€ per hour. Both plus 16% IVA.

 

I've read on here and other forums of people taking their MHs abroad for servicing.

[parkmoy]

To clarify one or two points raised. I live in N.Ireland and wages generally are lower here. Overheads are also lower. The guy is a one man business with a large workshop behind his house.

 

There are not many people around here who do these sorts of repairs. I originally took the MH to the largest dealer in the the province for a damp check which they did, but stated that they had so much work on they couldn't help me any further. They recommended the guy I took it to because before they had their own repair shop he did their work and they spoke very highly of his expertise. He also was snowed under with work and I had to persuade him to take the job on, starting after Easter.

 

He quoted for the job to the warranty insurance company and they sent an 'independent' assessor out. OK the assessor wasn't an employee of theirs but just how independent can you be when you rely on insurance companies giving you work? Following his visit they contacted my repairer and said they would only pay for 45 hrs work rather than the 56 he quoted. He says it can't be done in their timescale and refuses to do what he says would be a shoddy job. They also dispute his estimate of sealer, glues and screws needed for the job, reducing that amount as well.(eg. £5 less for screws!)

 

I have managed to get them to agree to meeting me half way and paying for 51.5 hrs but it will still leave me £200 out of pocket. Their suggested alternative is getting other quotes but as I explained to them there is no one else available I can find. As it is, the repairer is 100 miles away from where I live. He now regrets putting in an honest quote and, probably quite rightly, suspects that had he padded it out or increased his hourly rate they would have cut the estimate to what he really wanted in the first place.

 

As everyone agrees, his hourly rate is very cheap(they must know this) and if he had quoted Dave Newell's still very reasonable rate, their 45 hrs would have made him more than the 56 he wants at £20 ph.

 

My gripe really is that they fail to acknowledge this and the fact that it is a very reasonable quote overall for the amount of work being done. My problem is I can't get other estimates so I am just having to bite the bullet and pay up. You never win with insurance companies :'(

 

Perhaps when they offer me warranty renewal I should have it assesed and offer them less (lol)

 

PS To be accurate I should add that the £20 is plus VAT.

[Wills Wagon]

Early last year Brownhills Newark and Autoworld at Chesterfield were charging £80 per hour plus VAT. I had a warranty claim at Autoworld and MBC who used to be responsible for AutoTrail warranty work would only pay out on £40 an hour, so I had to pay the difference. I believe that Brownhills no longer use MBC as their warranty firm, not because of price but because they were slow to authorise warranty work.

[Brian Kirby]

David

I don't know what conditions your insurance contract imposes on a) what they will repair, b) the means by which a repairer is to be found and c) whether they will pay for the repair, or only part of the repair.  However, doubtless you do!  If they have undertaken to pay for repairs, as opposed to only paying for a percentage of the repair cost, then that is what they are contractually bound to do.  If the agreement says they will meet reasonable costs, then they have to show why your man's costs are unreasonable, and that, in my opinion, means they have to find an alternative repairer, whose work they will accept as being of a proper standard, and offer their price for the job in lieu.  If they say they cannot do this, they are in no position to argue the costs you have been quoted are excessive: they should accept them and allow the work to proceed.  It might also be worth pointing out to them that a leaking motorhome is not improved while standing around, at their insistence, unrepaired.  I therefore suggest you give them the chance (in writing) to come up with an alternative repairer who can do the job at a cost they will accept, or accept the price you have been quoted and allow the repair to proceed.  If they say they will not do this talk to your Trading Standards people about whether the insurer is in breach of his contract.  On the face of what you say above, I think they may well be, but you'll need the written proof that they have refused to accept your quote and refuse to offer an alternative remedy.  Motorhome repairers do not grow on trees: your van is not old, they insured it, and the risk is theirs.  They are merely seeking to evade their contractual responsibility.

[fred grant]

retail work must be quoted including vat my biddies, so there is no such thing as £80 per hour - its £94 per hour. you dont pay woolies 50p plus vat for your sweeties, or comet £300 plus vat for your washing machine do you? so freds rate includes vat (plus a small bit for upkeep of his orchard) me andsums.

 

 

fixitfred

[Patricia]

I have obtained two almost identical quotes which itemises the labour charges but I have no idea how long each job takes. To fit a cambelt kit £87.50 and a full service including front brake pads £122.50 both plus VAT and parts of course. How much an hour would this work out at do you think? I thought the quotes seemed reasonable but I am new to sorting out repairs and servicing.

[parkmoy]

Brian,

 

I agree with all you say but how long will it take to get the insurers to agree as well? Meanwhile I won't have use of the MH (They would argue that further use worsened the problem). As it is, allowing for drying out, getting the necessary bits etc. and my repairer actually being able to start the job I'm looking at the end of April before I get it back. The thought of starting the saga from the beginning again is off putting to say the least.

 

I've decided to risk the £200 and try appealing to their better nature by means of a follow up complaint through the arbitration procedure provided in the policy. I know my chances can be summed up in two words, snowball and hell, but it's worth a try, and at least I'll be able to get away in the MH when I feel frustrated!

 

Sometimes it's easier to accept that life just aint fair *-)

[Mel B]

Before you do anything, put in writing that you are not happy with this, that way they cannot say that you have happily agreed to it.

 

Do you have citizens advice type places where you are? It could be well worth your while having a chat with them. Also, what about the Insurance ombudsman? It would appear that they are being very unfair in their treatment of you. The problem is that if you accept what they are offering you will find it very difficult to make a claim against them later unless you do something to make this clear to them now.