How much does it cost to change a toilet seat?

[donna]

Hi All,

This is not a trick question, nor is it an Irish joke!

In our Kapiti Observer local newspaper, there was an interesting article on a new home purchaser's challenge to get the seller to honour their verbal agreement to pay for a new toilet seat.

The contributor is Rob Stock of Stuff so I thought it would be online - but I can not find it so you'll have to trust that I have got this story correct. See the cut-out image of it too.

So how much do you think it costs to change a toilet seat?

$100? $200? More? This homeowner paid $362 to get a new toilet seat. Is this reasonable? Well, there are surrounding circumstances for the high cost.

Believe it or not the actual fee this homeowner paid - including installation was nearly $500! The total cost with installation was $484.05

You may be wondering - why is there an installation fee? Can't you just do it yourself? Yes - you can - however, this homebuyer thought only a plumber could install a toilet seat.

What's also interesting about this case is it took the homebuyer 15 months to change the cracked toilet seat!

The home was bought late 2020 - 15 months passed and once the job was complete the homebuyer sent a txt to the seller saying it cost nearly $500! The seller said they were not going to pay such a silly sum.

Disputes Tribunal

The homebuyer felt strongly that a verbal agreement is a contract so they went to the Disputes Tribunal.

Yes, says the disputes tribunal referee - a verbal agreement has no less standing than a written one. And that the seller was up for the cost of toilet seat not the installation so that's $362.

However....verbal contracts have a time limit - which is 6 months and for this homebuyer that was last April 2021 so the seller did not have to pay for the toilet seat.

The cost to take a case to the disputes tribunal is $45 so the homebuyer ended up paying $530.05 for their toilet seat. I wonder if it's one of those heated seats?



cheers,

Donna

[Kaye]

Good God I'm in the wrong job!!! I install Toilet Seats for free in the Rentals I manage last one I bought was here at home a mere $50!! Could be a Bidet attached Seat hence the high cost of purchase and install?

[donna]

Maybe it's like some Japanese toilets that light up the bowl.



Or play music!

cheers,

Donna

[rambotrader]

No surprise in NZ. We left your market after it became clear tenants were royalty and expenses were all ours,including management which charge close to the highest rate, up to 15%, on the planet but offer a very poor service.
We're happy to be out of what was a hostile market. Good luck to the diehards who remain. Best of British guys. Cheers

[McDuck]

Maybe it's ...

Donna

I've replaced a few.

It's usually just two bolts at the back, and they have a plastic tightening tool included.

Some of the older bowls are a weird spacing, even though the brackets are adjustable..
you still might lose time getting the correct spacing seat mount.
Some of the new seats are totally proprietary,
so there might be a charge associated with the time getting a non standard item.

They usually charge for travel time and van use.. $120 for that.
And GST..
And a minimum hours work ..
And parts..

Seems a tad high..
But without the itemized invoice...

Still remember meeting a plumber at a nightclub in my early days, and being impressed by how much money he made. I said it sounded pretty cool. He said that it was enough to make having your arm elbow deep in poop worth it.
People are brutally honest after a few drinks.

[donna]

No surprise in NZ. We left your market after it became clear tenants were royalty and expenses were all ours, including management which charge close to the highest rate, up to 15%, on the planet but offer a very poor service.
We're happy to be out of what was a hostile market. Good luck to the diehards who remain. Best of British guys. Cheers

Yes we agree but that's our current Labour Government - and they won't be in power forever. Fingers crossed they'll be ditched in next year's election.

While Jacinda has a good rep internationally her party have been pretty appalling on every front. Our foreign minister doesn't like travel. Our tourism minister tells the world NZ isn't interested in budget travellers or mass tourism (Tourism was our largest earner pre-covid). Plus it's the budget travellers who pick our fruit, work in hospitality etc.

Labour loves to bite the hand that feeds them - they are unbusiness-friendly and that includes private landlords who have over the years picked up the slack and provided accomodation for beneficiaries and people who should be in social housing.

cheers,

Donna

[Engineer]

We had 2 invoices from our (ex) friendly plumber this month in Auckland for changing 2 toilet seats at 2 different properties. One around $550 and the other just under $500 including. After some haggling the cost went down to about $400 and the other $350. Both jobs that I’m sure I could have done for about 50 dollars each if I was in the country.

The problem is that they charge about $100 per hour plus a service fee , plus GST.
By the time the plumber measured up the seats, went to the local mico, bought the most expensive seat available that fits, drove back, installed it, it’s easily a couple of hours work.

I find that they eventually get to greedy after they have worked for you for a while. You need to find a new plumber which is a pain if you need something done ASAP.

[annie brookes]

I just replaced three seats in a house this last week. 8 years continuously rented so didn't feel too bad. Shower sliders and washing machine too. Replanted garden. Painted after "diffusers" melted the paint...ants in their forgotten compost heap....I digress... The seats used to cost $90. The same ones two years later cost $150 each.

I changed them myself. Gloves and methylated spirits to clean and sterilize and Joni Mitchell on on RNZ live stream. Took about 1 hour for three.

So I would guess a tradie, for one seat, will charge 150 for the seat, 75 to pick it up (30 mins) and 150 to install (1 hour min plus travel). So $375. Plus Gst = $431

Which is why I do it myself.

Which brings me to two points;

a) No government entity will be able to provide accommodation for tenants even close to the operating costs of the private landlord. Not even close. The public would foot an extraordinary bill for very unextraordinary minor fixes.
b) Large BTR operators will find themselves in the same situation. Commercial savvy will stem their costs but ultimately the rents in large scale BTR must be more. BTR is good but no one seems to acknowledge yet that its good rentals only for relatively wealthy people.

I'm happy that I provide good service and well maintained houses and can do it for less than most.

[donna]

^^ well said. National get it, Labour and co do not!

cheers
Donna

[McDuck]

I just replaced ...

I'm happy that I provide good service and well maintained houses and can do it for less than most.

That's impressive.

Many landlords don't want to bother taking a personal interest in their ventures.

And once you scale up, you really cant afford the time to.

There are definitely merits to the personal touch.
The broad institutional approach does lack that TLC.

it's not a strong argument for cost efficiency though.
You just haven't calculated the value of your time correctly.

A friend of mine used to work for a large government service sector.
He was a useless kid ( I mean that in a kind way).
Due to the size of their operation, they were able to achieve economies of scale
and efficiencies of repetition not achievable with one off jobs.

And they took a boy who was rough round the edges and
trained him until he was a productive member of society.

His first job was to learn how to make a toolbox and make his own tools.

See, you haven't calculated in the wider benefits of governmental activity.

Both approaches have their merits,
But you would be hard pressed to show that one off activity beats scaled repetition.