One in five of the 18 million British homeowners who employed tradesmen in the last year have had to have at least part of the work redone, at an average cost of £600 per household, it revealed.
Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-2595877/Bungling-tradesmen-cost-homeowners-1-9bn-year-says-TrustMark.html#ixzz3RGsKalEP
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The pain do not stop there as some will quote a low price only to start the work and then advise you it is more work than anticipated and they will need to re quote for the work. As if that is not enough to put you off many trades people (luckily not all) will carry out the task and a few months later you might find the work is not to standard and the trades person is nowhere to be found.
The shocking statistics that unskilled tradesman can cost as much as 5 times as much as insurance claims for burglary is then not too farfetched.
What can you do as home owner or commercial property owner to avoid these pitfalls?
Here are 5 top tips to gets the best tradesman for the job!
- Be very clear on your objectives
- Source your trades-person in the right way
- You will not purchase your next family holiday from a one liner advert on Gumtree
- Why would you entrust your home or commercial premises to someone you found from a posted note on a lamp post or from a business card stuck into your card windscreen while out shopping
d hours calling tradesman to arrange to provide you with a quote for work around your home or workplace only to find most of them not returning your calls others not turning up and of those that do turn up only a hand full do end up sending you a quote
- Ask friends and family for referrals
- Use the internet to source contractors and then use the internet to dig a bit deeper.
- Do a background-check.
- Do they have a good internet presence – Do they have a presence on Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin and Twitter (if so they very likely take pride in who they are, have worked had to establish a presence and will not disappear overnight or go into administration just to rid themselves of the commitments to projects that might have gone wrong)
- Look at their website – Do they have well designed sites that would have cost a sizable amount of money – Gain they will unlikely invest in this if they do not plan to be around for a long while
- Do you find any testimonials from other clients? – Not just on their site – Look at Google Local listings (also known as Google +) – Many contractors use youtube for video testimonials from clients
Ask Questions
When the trades person only offer to provide a quote over the phone the alarm bells should start to ring – How would they know your needs if they cannot visualise what you require doing??
Always insist for a quote in writing and ask for terms and conditions
Insurance: Ensure the trades-person you hire has adequate insurance and ask to see a copy of their current insurance certificate. Also ensure the insurance is fit for purpose. If you require carpet and upholstery cleaning ensure the cleaner’s insurance overs “Treatment Risk” this means that if the item they work on gets damaged during the cleaning process their insurance will cover this – Though do take note that Treatment Risk insurance will not replace on a New for old basis. Some home owners has found that if carpets shrink insurance companies will pay out to the value of the item so if the carpet is 10 years old with a life expectancy of 15 years you will only get 50 – 60% of the value for replacement.
Training and experience: This this where you have to choose your contractor well to ensure they have the right training and experience. Ask for Certificates – If they claim they have been cleaning carpets and upholstery or sanding wood floors for 20 years – It is totally possible they might have been doing it wrong for 20 Years – Regular Professional Training is essential
Guarantee: Ask about the guarantee’s they offer with their work. If the contractor face this question and start to hesitate it is at this point that you need to investigate further – If they hesitate
When you ask the question before the work is carried out – How much more will they hesitate once the work has been completed
Listen to that little voice in your head
Lastly – If something sounds to good to be true it likely is. Do not risk taking on the wrong person for the job. It is sometimes better to get one more quote than to claim on your insurance for a bad job your tradesman has carried out or pay the next tradesman to put his bad work right.
Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in:
Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.
