Dealing with poor workmanship we have paid for

This is my husband’s pet bugbear as so often we have paid for a job to be done, only for him to have to re-do it or recall them. Nowadays he does most things himself as he works from home and can fit jobs in around his paid work, but some things we still have to get done professionally. Our new double glazed windows are a case in point - one of them has had a pane of glass put in the wrong way round. We will eventually get round to calling the company and asking them to make it good, but the faff factor is frustrating.

I live alone, so I have to call someone to do the simplest of jobs. However, my d.I.l.’s father has contacts in the building business, so I go by his recommendations. They are not cheap but I know they will not rip me off.

We only use people we know or have been recommended by friends. Depending on the job, we either buy the recommended materials, or pay the person the receipted price up front, full payment is made on completion.

It seems that locally people put their problems with trades on Nextdoor and 'Out' them.. I personally have never had a problem as I always use word of mouth recommendations and then pass them on.. I did however have a builder who quoted £180 for filling in some outside cracks and then took an hour to do them. I refused that much and he dropped it to £80 cash.. all a bit iffy but he did a good job..

I forgot to say that I have never paid upfront for a job, except when I had my attic converted and that was paid in installments..

When you are paying for a "big" job its always wise to have a proper contract with a final payment to be made only on satisfactory completion of the work. This is the problem with some of these cowboy builders who knock at the door and offer to do your drive or your roof.

I see a lot of them outed on the local network but there are also small companies and tradespeople who are recommended (possibly by their mates).

There was a gang around here recently (with very strong accents of a certain kind) offering to wash down roofs. No logo on their scruffy old van. They "noticed" that one of the neighbouring houses had some tiles missing on the roof (oh what a coincidence) and needed some work doing. Well you can imagine the rest of the story.

I never open the door to these people and if they ambush me in the garden I just tell them its a rented house and they buzz off pretty quickly.

Our really good roof man retired and recommended someone else who made a complete hash of the job. We threatened them with the small claims court. It worked.

Then the butcher gave us the name of his man who put right the original work. We have used him ever since.

In my area, there are a couple of FB pages that have recommendations and warnings about tradesmen in the area - the warning page is really 'well policed' and anyone wanting to post has to provide evidence to Admin' i.e screenshots of communications / pictures etc....this avoids complaints which aren't genuine.
I think this helps in finding decent workmen, is there anything similar in your locality?
Also...word of mouth when you can.

Join the Club, the problem we had when we had our garage roof and extension roof replaced was that we got a 10 year guarantee then the year after when we had a problem, the company had gone bankrupt so no comeback. I am a widow and absolutely dread anything going wrong especially roofing because there is no way you can check what work has been done. I wish there was a government owned company that you could pay for the wok to be checked before handing over your hard earned money but it seems we are on our own and it is pot luck whether you get a decent workman or a cowboy.

We never pay anything in advance and always use local tradesmen. We are fortunate that in our village we have plumbers, heating engineers, mechanics, electricians, domestic appliance repairers, painters and decorators, builders etc. if they did shoddy work word would soon get round.

My neighbour is a right skinflint (even though she owns 3 houses) and always takes on workmen from miles away because they’re cheap. Invariably their work is poor and they won’t come back to put it right. I have told her over and over again to use local people but she doesn’t listen.

A guarantee is useless unless backed by insurance WonderfulLife. The damp proofing industry used to operate like this, handing out guarantees and going out of business.

There is no substitute for employing a local tradesman or company who has been recommended. They have a reputation to maintain. Reviews on websites are meaningless - could have been posted by friends and family.

Paying by credit card isn’t necessarily helpful as you have received the service you asked for but some while later are not happy with the quality of the work. In the absence of a proper written contract - and how many bother? - it’s rarely worth pursuing the tradesman or company.

Germansheperdsmum
I disagree and in fact I have been successful taking a tradesman to the small claims court for bad workmanship and winning my case, but it's something I can really do without.

Many have insufficient assets to satisfy a judgement Madwoman.

If anybody asks you to pay anything upfront - don’t!! Some live hand to mouth and will ask for money to buy parts or materials. Avoid. If they can’t sort out their cash flow, they shouldn’t be running a business.

We never pay upfront either. No one reputable would ask, though some want a small deposit which is fair enough.

Not at all. Small claims courts are affordable to most

Madwoman, I suggest you read the current thread about the person who has obtained judgement but is having difficulty getting the money from the defendant.