my best friend's dad is a plumber and he always has jobs. charges whatever he wants and does a great job. i suppose if they can charge, they will.

There's doubtless plenty of good, honest plumbers out there who will do a good job for a fair price, but there's also loads of dodgy ones who do the opposite and give the trade a bad name. And if you can't get a recommendation from someone it's really difficult to know who to call, especially if it's an emergency. I once had a water tank split in the middle of the night and fifty gallons of water came through the ceiling. The plumbers I called turned up but charged me a fortune and also managed to set fire to the roof lining with a blow torch they left alight in one roof space while they worked in another.

No we only just had a new one fitted last year...

No, we have only just had a new bathroom installed.