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Unsure if its right forum to post so mod please move it if necessary

I am in bit of bother.
I got a tradesman to a job for us, due to nature of the job (long story) he could not give us a quote but he suggested that its best for him to work on daily basis and we pay him cash. The work started but towards the end we felt it was dragging a bit. We sort of made our feeling known, even sent emails expressing our concern and highlighting that our budget is exhausting so unable to continue with current arrangement and asked him tell us how many more days to finish the job?
He acknowledged our concern and told us that he will complete the job in three days. We were relieved to see the end. Obviously he did not complete the job in three days instead took six days to complete the work. He then sent us a mail asking us to pay for six days work sighting various technical issues (non-issues really) which took him longer than he estimated.
We reminded him about his estimation/quote but he is saying that our agreement was that he should be paid based on days’ worked. Although he is right that we did agree to pay him on number of days worked but towards the end that we did ask him to estimate/quote for the remaining work and he did confirm number of days required via email.
We sent him a mail back saying that we shall only pay for the three days, as that’s what he told us and its unfair to expect us to pay for his underestimation or for taking longer to complete the job.
He came and collected the three days money and now sent us another mail saying that we must pay him for remaining three days otherwise he will send us full VAT invoice for the work and will take us to the court?
We are concerned that we don’t really have a record of the all payments, some payment were acknowledged via email and don’t know the implications of taking us to court?
I would be grateful for some help/guidance, I purposely kept the message vague here as I would not know who could be reading here.
cheers

Best answers:

• Not cut and dried imo.
  While I feel he should have - once you voiced your concerned about cost and him giving you 3 days until completion - made you aware it was going to take longer, at the same time it sounds as if he has possibly given an estimate rather than a quotation (they're two different things btw).
  Why did it take longer? Were those reasons within your control or his?
  Did he not give an estimate before beginning the work on how many days it would take?
  Did you get estimates/quotes off any other companies and were they in line with this guys (either his estimate or the actual time taken)?
• so he,s pulling the extra 20% trick , pay me or I will have to charge you VAT.
  he knows that if it goes to court and it is spotted that he is vat registered , but did work "back hand" fashion , the tax man would come running.
  did he give you ANY receipts , or on the emails did he show a vat payment .
  did he give you a receipt for the final 3 days money you paid him?
  and more to the point , is he vat registered?
• Email back to tell him you feel aggrieved by his lack of planning on time and would he mind if you checked with the VAT taxman regarding his work? BTW, these !!!!!!!s are much more aggressive than the taxman.
• But you sat back whilst he did 6 days and said nothing about not paying him..?
  what problems did he encounter
• Thanks for your input.
  Quote:
• he might be vat registered , however he has failed to charge/disclose or indeed tell the vat man that he has charged vat (or not - ILLIGAL)
  were you going to be given a full and final invoice , or (as you state) where you just getting recepts for daily work?
• if he is vat registered , he should be charging vat .
  by paying him cash without a fully headed receipt , he is easily able to not pay tax on those earnings .
  maybe he is fiddling , maybe he is,nt.
  however he does sound like an unconfident person , who is unable to give estimates.
  ask him for a full breakdown of work , detailing dates and times and also listing the payments made by you ,
  you want this on letter headed paper , not an email some excuse like your bank manager wants it for overdraft reasons , or insurance , make something up that sounds plausible for the work.
  see if there is a vat number on this letter