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So the Contractor bid a job and the Customer accepted at an agreed price. There is left over material (board cut offs, short lengths, fasteners, half cans of paint, carpet remnants etc) and the Customer wants a refund on these unused valueless materials?
40 freaking years in the construction business and I still get surprised if not shocked at the things the public comes up with. You have got to be kidding me with this.
If I did not take these materials with me I'd be wrong for leaving junk behind. So what will Mr/Mrs Homeowner do with this junk? The Contractor can probably use scraps for various purposes. The Homeowner has little to no use other then to pester the poor guys who did all the hard work and put up with this kind of attitude.
At times the Homeowner asks me if he can have that extra board or extra cut off. Sure man have at it. Less for me to bring to the dumpster.
Never asked for a refund just that the extra materials be left there for the next job or future repairs.
Dumpster?? You mean you don't bring all that stuff home so you can use it at your cousin's house in exchange for the title to his truck?
Hey Bob long time no hear. Hey coming from we both grew up, and a 10 yard dumpster cost $2 grand, Mr Customer is very welcome to keep all the junk. Oh and lets not forget how we had to hide things in our garbage cans and the Garbage Men were instructed to rummage through it before putting it on the truck. If there was any construction material in a standard garbage can they would leave it without emptying it and place a big red sticker on it.
The issue of leftover materials and also demo'd/removed materials should be discussed before the job starts. Sometimes I do want fixtures that will be removed and sometimes I don't. I don't want leftover materials, in general. But I do want excess paint. This just needs to be managed by discussion and written agreement on the contract you sign with your general contractor.
I may have missed it, but is the OP confusing a general material bill for what was actually either delivered to the job or brought to the job? There is a big difference in some instances. I know some customers want a detailed bill, which I have no problem giving. As an Electrician on the "detailed" bill will be a listing for wire, boxes, etc.... The detail is still pretty generalized and not every single thing is listed separately. I may bill for 450' of 12/2 NM, but bring a new 1000' reel to the job, that doesn't mean the homeowner paid for the full 1000', they paid my selling price for 450'... no way am I leaving the rest. Same goes for the 14/2, 14/3, & 12/3 (all of which I buy by the 1000' reel exclusively.) Fasteners I may list a price for those used (not broken out into individual pieces, but "misc fasteners" as a catch-all place for screws, bolts, nuts, wire nuts, etc...) They sure didn't pay for, or are going to get at the end of the job, the remainder of the packages. All the builders I know are the same way. List materials and break out studs, etc... but always bring more than they figured on (who makes every single cut perfect every single time) to cover the rare mis-cut, or even for unexpected situations where they need a bit more material than quoted. The homeowner sure didn't pay for the extra material and is not entitled to it. I had exactly one customer who demanded I leave every bit of "left-over" material when the job was done. The quote I gave reflected every single bit of material I would bring onto the job site. They thought it was a bit high, but decided to go ahead, I told them I was too busy and didn't want the job knowing what a Pain-in-the-ass they would have been to work with. Not one reputable Contractor in the area took the job and they ended up with a fly-by-night scrub who took them for a ride and left them halfway through the job with no-one who was willing to come in and clean up the mess.
You agree on a quote which is to provide a finished product of some sort. If the price is acceptable, do you really want the leftovers dumped on your front lawn? Contractors quote jobs, but they don't nail you with a surprise surcharge if they used an extra 38 drywall screws, or if gas goes up $0.40/gal since they quoted it, or if they have to pay overtime because a piece of equipment broke. Contractors also factor in damaged materials and human error, because it's not worth idling 3 guys for an hour, because they were twelve wire nuts short of completing a job, or because the 2x4s on the bottom of the pile were damaged.
The reality is, all companies do this type of thing in one way or another. Whether providing professional services, manufactured goods--any product or service--some jobs or contracts have a better margin than others. Certain things are factored into the cost, not calculated out exactly. In most cases, costs which are factored into a job, are slightly overestimated, because the cost of exhausting the supply of any material, is usually far greater than ordering a bit extra (especially in volume). I'm not saying it's right for contractors to over-bid a job for the purpose of buying up extra materials for themselves. But, when you accept the quote on a job, you are accepting the price for a finished product. If the job is finished to your satisfaction, and the price you are charged is the price you agreed upon, then the contract was fulfilled.
Sometimes, you get a great deal from a subcontractor on materials because he had excess from another job. It's not just the sub's cousin who benefits...
Some suppliers will not refund for returned excess. The alternative is you keep the materials, or the subcontractor hauls them away for you. Odds are if you keep the materials, they will sit in your garage/storage area for a few years before you end up throwing them in the dumpster anyway. And, if the subcontractor estimated correctly, it's not like there will be a whole lot of excess to begin with.
I'm beginning to understand how this works. A client has several jobs done on his home that included a lot of material purchases for which he is billed. The contractors take the leftover screws, fasteners, 2x4s, etc. and load them into their truck at the end of the last work day. Then their cousin calls and ask for them to do work on his house in lieu of his working on their truck and voila the declaration in the Title. This isn't right and I certainly couldn't get away with something like this at my office job thus I will start demanding that all unused materials be left at my residence for future projects.
Nickles and dimes...nickles and dimes.
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