So your having some work done on your house, doesn’t matter what your thinking of doing from a new conservatory to re wiring the property, building a new extension to fitting a new kitchen some facts will stay the same no matter what your having done. Its your home and normally your most expensive asset, when in your home you would like people to respect you, your space and your property. It’s your money paying for the work and if you work in Ireland today every €100 you spend on the work has been hard won and taken €200 earned before you can spend the €100 .
So how annoying that the builder or fitter turned out to be a cowboy. Its easily done though, the person you meet when they quote for the work was well presented and says all the right things and the ad in the yellow pages was probably one of the biggest. You gave them the go ahead and when work has begun the problems come to light, some guy they sent who doesn’t know his ‘arse from his elbow’ is either trying to tell you that black is white and is disguising it with a lot of trade speak and jargon or they keep appearing and doing a few hours work and then are gone again! All of this carry on is only punctuated with someone asking you for "money for materials". You wouldn’t believe it but this is the lesser of two evils because the fact that you are recognising the signs of problems now has to be better than the person who is under the assumption that a quality job has been done and problems don’t rear their heads until a few years have passed and something serious bursts or collapses etc. It is a window into the values and honesty of some companies and trades people when you hear of customers losing tens of thousands of Euro for deposits they have paid in good faith for timber frame houses and they are left out of pocket discussing their woes on ‘Joe Duffy’.
Bad timekeeping, faulty and cheap materials and bold face lies are the tools in use across the country everyday. Many trades and builders have smartened up some what now as the down turn in the housing and building market has arrived and there is less work out there to go around. This can lead to a host of hidden deeper problems such as, competition for jobs increases and customers trying to get a better deal can start a bidding war between contractors that have quoted them for work. This can lead to a false economy as the company or trades person with the lowest bid might start to cut corners and substitute the materials required for lesser, poor quality materials. This will then remain hidden for years until it manifests itself as a problem for the home owner. There are so many ways for a home owner to sink hard earned money into what can seem like a bottomless pit in the name of ‘home improvement’.
These types of situations and many more like them have been going on for many years now and have given rise to programs like the BBC series ‘Rogue Traders’ where they go under cover to expose cowboy tradespeople and companies who advertise with large ads, claim membership of regulatory bodies, appear at your front door in new vehicles and all the talk and due to the transaction being a civil matter they cannot be prosecuted under the law. The law in fact has so little ‘teeth’ when it comes to pursuing these ‘rogue traders’ they have to be exposed on tv to give the public any chance of spotting them before they defraud you out of your cash.
We started www.conspect.ie to assess new homes by performing snag list inspections and other property inspection and report services. This gave us the idea that the market for assistance was out there before you spend money with the wrong company to work on your home. So we now offer the public and particularly the residential market our professional insight and knowledge with honest independent advice to aid in the process of upgrading, repairing, maintaining or improving a property. We offer an up to date informed selection process as contractors and companies can go under almost overnight, particularly in the current economic climate and take your hard earned cash with them.
So the main purpose of this web log is to link up with and gather current information on dodgy traders in the residential construction and improvement market. Any links to similar blogs are welcome and please post your comments that will help inform us and you about what the builders and trades people or any type of home improvement companies are doing in your area. If you have been a victim of cowboy trades please do add your comments and if you need some professional construction advice visit our web site….
www.conspect.ie
Mike F.
