Household Bills |
|
Your Money > Household Bills Articles > What to do...
|
|
By Sarah Modlock
Last week I looked at how to avoid cowboy tradesmen so that you can prevent headaches in your home. But if you're picking up the pieces from a bad experience with either legitimate or dodgy tradesmen then here is how to turn things around... Consumer Direct, the government-funded advice service averages around 20,000 complaints a quarter about builders and tradespeople. It recommends that homeowners only use tradespeople who are registered members of the TrustMark scheme who have been independently checked through on-site inspections and will have also had their records checked: trustmark.org.uk. In June last year, Abbey published research revealing that cowboy builders cause damage worth £3.9bn a year, affecting a fifth of customers. One in 10 suffer damage worth more than £1,000 and almost half of the botched jobs are paid for by the customers. Making a complaint... In most cases, the person or company which has carried out the work will still – hopefully – be around. In which case: 1) Don't lose your cool. No matter how bad the problem or where you think the blame lies, getting aggressive or rude will start things off badly for everyone. 2) Act quickly – it's best to highlight any problems as soon as you discover them – preferably while the work is ongoing. 3) Check your contract and plans – did they miss something or did you fail to ask for it? Make sure you have all the paperwork to back-up your complaint. 4) Make your complaint in writing to the owner of the firm. Keep copies of everything and make notes of the times and dates of any phone calls. Send letters recorded delivery if you want additional proof. 5) You cannot reasonably withhold payment unless you can prove that the contractor is at fault by referring to the contract. If, for example, 90% of the work is finished to your satisfaction, you should generally pay 90% of the bill, not 50% – unless getting things put right will cost you that proportion of the overall total. 6) Getting the original workman to make good a fault they are responsible for within a reasonable period should not cost you anything. If the terms of your contract are broken, or the tradesman fails to act with reasonable care and skill, in a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost (required under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982), give him seven days to resolve the problem before calling Consumer Direct on 0845 4040506 for advice. 7) If the tradesman belongs to an assured trader scheme or trade body, contact this too, because it may have procedures in place for complaints and usually a guarantee for the work, supported by the member's professional liability insurance. The Institute of Plumbing, for example, offers Plumbsure, a six-year guarantee of workmanship if the plumber is incapable of rectifying problems because, say, they have fallen ill, lost their qualifications, retired or gone bust. Plumbsure also offers cover for loss, damage or theft of contract site materials, purchased by either the customer or plumber, and covers the plumber "walking off site". Institute members using Plumbsure will be required to hold a minimum of £2m public liability insurance. This sort of guarantee is now common among the larger representative bodies, but the details vary. If the tradesman refuses to help.... 1) If you can track down the tradesman but he refuses to correct the work or refund your money then your options are more limited. Start by contacting his trade body to see if there is any dispute resolution or complaints service you can access. 2) Whether he is a member of a trade body or not, you can notify the relevant organisations of his details and the problems you have had so that they can take them into account if he subsequently tries to join. 3) Notify your local Trading Standards office – they take rogue tradesmen complaints very seriously and may have further advice for you. They will investigate and may prosecute on your behalf. Trading Standards also record patterns of bad behaviour so it is worth reporting all bad practice, even if you do not intend to take legal action. 4) Going to the small claims court, which can be a long, expensive process, is generally a last resort. For further information, look at: . If the tradesman has disappeared....... Case studies The jailed builder Last December, incompetent builder Martin Gumbrell was jailed for 18 months after ripping off customers in Dorset. Found guilty of obtaining money by deception, he had been commissioned by two wealthy clients to build homes in the Dorset countryside and in Poole Harbour near the exclusive Sandbanks peninsula. But Gumbrell had lied about his qualifications and experience and neither project was completed. One couple paid him £417,000 to build their seaside house, only to be left with a “shell” that cost a further £450,000 to finish. Gumbrell was a carpenter who had set up his own construction company. He told clients that he had a university degree in building, had won awards for his work and was a member of the National House Building Council. His literature boasted that his company specialised in “the art of fine building”. The washing machine repair man held hostage In January this year, housewife Tracey Fox of County Durham kidnapped a visiting engineer after managing without her washing machine for three weeks following a string of failed repair attempts. Locking the doors to her three-bedroom terrace home she told the workman:“ You might as well dial 999 because you're not leaving until it's fixed.” Her problems began in October when she called out a service engineer to look at her malfunctioning machine. But just days before Christmas it broke down again. "The repair man eventually came out on January 2 and I was told again that it was a problem with the computer and that the motor may need replacing," says Tracey. "He left and I was fuming. They said they'd be back on the 9th, but they rang that day to say they wouldn't be coming back until the 13th. That made me even more angry. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown by that point." Mrs Fox, who said she does as many as two loads of washing every day, had to rely on friends and family to get her clothes clean. When the next engineer told her she would have to pay for repairs despite the machine being under warranty, she flipped and locked him in. The repairman, who was held for 15 minutes, called his office who alerted the police. No further action was taken and Currys eventually provided Mrs Fox with a brand new washing machine. Don't try this at home. |
| ||||||||||||||||