what thing he do? main contractor? total cost of reno?
how u get this contractor?

i also dont have black and white with my contractor, he have start the work without asking me any deposit too.

???

the "free stuffs" cost 150k?

Legally,
There is nothing that he can do to you since is all by verbal and not in writing.
Even he promised to fix the thing for a fee, and no receipt has been issued for acknowledgment, is still FREE. Even in your situation where he promised to fix it for free, and he ask for a fee after that, is still FREE.

Slow talk,tell him what u've told n agreed with him,as long as u're confident with ur words,contractor cant beat ur words.trust me

Total cost of 150k????? You building a brand new house? Either that or you are a walking water fish and I would encourage the contractor not to take just 5k from you but maybe 10k or more. Honestly in the past I have heard of contractors not being able to get the full sum, you are the first I have heard that the contractor can get more than agreed price.

What is the extent of renovation we are talking about? Just move in and don't bother with him. I believe if it was me, the contractor would be afraid of me rather than the other way round.

legally, he cant do anythign to make you pay, as no black and white regarding the free stuff. so he was wrong to do it for you without documentation.

on another hand, if you could spend 150k on reno... to save the trouble or fear of him getting gangsters to interfere, just pay him and let him leave.

you'll be lucky if he didnt come back and ask for 10k or more. and perhaps you're already very lucky he didnt run away with your money half way through the reno.

also, the "extras" he did for you, is it really worth 5k?....if yes i suggest just pay him la. sometimes ppl do business also wanna make some money, maybe material price DID increase midway through the reno and cause him to work at a lost.

therefore, like i said...5k, just pay and move on. lesson learnt.

Tell him,whether thts out of his calculation or profit,thts none of ur business,what u know is,u agreed with tht price and there it goes,if he insisted to force u,then lodge a police report.

I don't understand this.  Either you contractor is the most stupid contractor or the most honest one.  To me, I can't understand the logic of asking RM5k for a total of RM150k job.  This is like, what 3.3%???  If he can't make enough to cover even 3% margin, I am not sure what is he doing.

You should know roughly whether so called "free stuff" really worth RM5k as well.

the prob is u got no choice now. u r left with 2 options
1) pay what u 2 had agreed on and move in
2) pay him additional 5k

since u r afraid of option 1, u r left with option 2 only

assuming the task is less than 5k again

tell him to finish it off before talking about $$. if he dun wan, end his contract and get another

my 2 cents.
5k out of rm150k is no big deal. as another bro mention, 3.3%.
besides this, you did mentioned you have requested him to do multiple things. in which one of it included a freaking staircase. am not sure how much an additional staircase would cost but i would have presume it cost quite a fair bit.
tell him to finish the task at hand. tell him you are going to hold the rm5k balance further to check for defect. i did this to all my contractor. a 6 months liability period before i release full amount.
on the additional sum requested, you need to be objective about it. did you add a whole lot of task or requested for a lot of rework? eg. even though bad workmanship, did you pointed out at him during the process or you wait till it's completed and requested for a rework? it makes a lot of difference.
am not saying the contractor is right but if he really did a good enough job for me and did extra of what i requested, i would do a evaluation and top off a little. in fact i think you are lucky that he only requested an additional rm5k.
and before you repeat the statement of you HATE people who do not stick to their word, please bear in mind you also 'lied' to him about the scope of works. you added a whole lot of works and requested it to be done for free.

Since u said he is the cheapest, the additional RM 5k for the free stuff is kinda fair, just pay him to avoid getting problems. But.. he might ask for more in the future.

WHen u shop for stuff like buying a Johnson Suisse toilet bowl, Yes u can survey 10 shops and buy from the cheapest shop provided that you are getting the full set and original parts. But for contractors, do not get the cheapest but should get a reliable one. U might get a cheap contractor, they purposely quote u cheap like a RUGI job that no contractors would take. WHen they got the job, they slaughter u slowly, ask for money, reduce the quality, steal ur stuff and etc.

Would suggest forumers to get a reliable LYN contractor. If they do any bad stuff, forumers will write bad about them and they can say good bye to their online biz. PM me if u need some contacts.

It's just RM5k. Not a huge sum.

Can't blame the contractor sometimes, material price fluctuate & this past month (since the removal of diesel rebate), hardware stuffs went up 10-15% on average.

So maybe now after the contractor did the calculation & found out that he's "not doing" well. He request for additional RM5k, which in my opinion is the cost to make good ur main gate pillars.

Now ask yourself, till now, is his work acceptable to u? U haven't move in, u haven't discover any defects. Nowadays, small job nobody bother to entertain u. U might need to call him back 1 day.

I'd suggest u to pay him a small amount say RM2k, let him finish up all the undone work 1st. Then only u decide what to do next.

No point saying his' a liar or thinking about the consequences of not paying now.

Ed,
I guess you already decided not to give the extra rights? Just tell him you only will get the RM5K (the balance), the rest on own....

But if he does do a good jobs...you may want to consider as extra reward, which may make you feel better...

Is your contractor looks like and behave like a ganster or gentleman look? Does he has a family? If he has family and not really look like a ganster then ignore him. Because family man 'normally' they wont do illegal things. If not then maybe u tell him that both party give way and pay him extra 2.5k to solve things out.

Edward,

In my opinion, u shouldn't pay the RM 5K. How would u know that he will not ask u for another 5K again and again and tell u the same reason (rugi). Then u will have the same worry (kacau u, etc.) and it will back to the square again. Very difficult to come to an end.

Tell him that everything have to go as according to what been agreed earlier regardless of written or verbal. He cannot create a story just like that. Can i tell him now i got no money coz i rugi in business, etc and pay him less? How can he quote u a cheap price to get the business and charge u back later? Does it make sense? No need to let him know that he is the cheapest among other contractors u have compared.

Tell him that ur reno budget is very tight. And tell him that u have already spent RM 150K for the reno, over the years, for sure u will need to do some repair & maintenance and for sure u r going to give him more business. Tell him that u have some friends/families that are going to buy house and looking for contractor to renovate their house also and for sure u will recommend him to them. Give him the impression that u intend to work long term with him so don't spoil the relationship with the merely RM 5K. Ask him to just give and take. Tell him to be more professional and for long term, he is going to earn many many RM 5K. Tell him that u have some plan to do some extension for your house, etc but not now coz u need to save enough money first and he will get new business again. So come on lah, why u want to charge that RM 5K to spoil all this. Tell him those extra work is some good service that u expect from a good contractor.

But whether u will work long term with him or not or to give him business or not is another matter.

TS,

IMHO, you are penny wise pound foolish.

A) You are in no position of negotiating at this moment...  There are some works need to be done.  Until that is done, how could you say no?? If he leave the work undone, can YOU get someone else to finish this for 5K??

B) You change the scope of work and want it done for free.  Now, he is asking for 5K more.. You did not keep your part of black and white but you expect him to do the same???

Do not be penny wise and pound foolish.  Get him to finish the work and pay him the remaining 5K first.  Tell him that you will pay him extra 5K after one month if you find no other problem.

Now, if you mess this up, serve you right...

Life is a 2 way street.  You want something extra from others but you refuse to give something back.  Then, you trying to justify your action by claiming someone else break their promise?? This is NOT RIGHT.  If I know this about you, I will not be interested in dealing with you at all...

Dreamer

i am agree~!!!!~~~~ my contractor also tell me like that " Nothing is FREE in this world" and if everything want the cheap maybe someone can given but got to compare the quality~~~`   so i also over my budget~ 

There is not much difference between

1. whether you ask the contractor to do the additional work for free before he start the additional work; or

2. Asking the contractor to do the additional work for free after he completes them

Both boils down to having the contractor doing the work for FREE.

Be realistic. How do you expect the contractor to subsidies your reno work. Come on. Wake up 

So what exactly is your extension? Honestly RM150k is a lot of money. Put it down in black and white here and we will tell you if the contractor is really pulling a fast one.

that's where your problem lies..