Dear Readers,

How is everyone once more? All good? That’s excellent… I’m ok too. I’m still on the antibiotics, but I feel pretty good, so I’m not complaining! I’ve been quite frustrated about how I can’t play football. However, a quiet friend of mine said to me “your health is your wealth mate… take your foot off the gas”. It was so sweet, considering how he’s normally very laissez-faire. I guess with all my whinging he felt he had to say something. It really put a smile on my face, and I am even trying a little harder to relax…

(“Trying a little harder to relax”? You’re not well mate…)

Do not worry though dear Readers, today we talk about a stress-free topic:

Dealing with builders! (Or contractors, tradesmen etc). 

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Dealing With Builders

Now, those who frequent this blog may remember a previous article which talks about dealing with builders (more or less). Here, I’ll tell you a couple of stories about the different approaches people can have when it comes to dealing with builders. 

Damp Story

We start with a story about damp (as in “rising damp”). A young friend of mine bought a property a few years back in London which had some rising damp. He got some quotes to fix it from local, reputable builders. They wanted thousands though. Tons of money! So, he opened the yellow pages (i.e. he went to yell.co.uk) and started calling builders who claimed to fix rising damp. He’d describe the issue on the phone, and some people would give him prices, even though they hadn’t seen it. He got one price, which was significantly lower than the rest.

When that happened, he asked them (the builders) how come they could do the work at this price? They said that they were based in Sheffield so they had lower costs. 

(What…?!)

“Great” thought my friend. “Come on down then and fix my damp!” 

(No, he’s not going to have any issues at all…)

Now, just to be clear, for people who might not know, Sheffield is a 4-hour drive from London. That’s 170 miles, or 270km if you prefer. 

So the contractors from Sheffield left there at 6 am, and got to London at 10 am. There were 4 of them. They started work immediately. They put in some damp proofing, they removed the plaster from the walls, and they replastered. At around 5 pm, they were finished. 

The Guarantee

Upon completion of the work, the head-contractor gave my friend a 5-year guarantee for the work, saying “keep this with the House deeds mate. Don’t lose it! Otherwise you’ll lose the guarantee…”. 

My mate took note, and put the guarantee somewhere safe. 

About a year later, humidity started to reappear on the walls. So he opened his files, found the guarantee and called the number on the guarantee.

The number was disconnected. 

(You don’t say?)

He looked for the company name, to see if he could find different contact details, but no luck. The company had disappeared altogether. 

(If only there had been a way to see this coming…)

The Other Extreme

And now, we go to the other extreme. Another friend of mine was buying a house a few years back (he was around 28 at the time). Now, this friend is one of those super-meticulous (some might say annoyingly so) characters. As if that wasn’t enough, his parents are people who have bought “lots of properties” (I don’t know how many “lots” is… but he told me “lots”), so his parents kind of know everything (which reminds me of a joke I’ll tell you about in a bit…).

So his super-meticulous character made him read 10 books on how to buy a house, and that, along with the repository of knowledge that his parents had built up over the years, meant that he was going to do everything right.

He found the house he wanted, and he was going to check every little last thing (cos that’s how it’s done). 

Every Little Last Thing

So, having found the house, he found some reputable surveyors from his local neighbourhood. Not cheap folk, but this is money well spent. Due diligence now is much better than nasty surprises later.

And so off they went to check the house.

The Carpet

When the surveyors were at the property, they called my friend and told him that this house had the carpet glued to the floorboards. They “could not remove the carpet without damaging the floorboards” (meaning they could not check the floorboards). 

My friend was not impressed. Don’t forget dear Readers, that he knew everything! The floorboards might have termites, they could have dry rot, and he wanted them checked. The surveyor lady could tell that he was not going to let it go. So she said “ok, get a letter from the seller that says we can remove the carpets, and we will come back and do so”. A few days later, he got the letter, he gave it to the surveyors, and off they went back to the house. 

That evening, they then called him and said “we couldn’t do it because we would have damaged the floor. Also, you should beware, because the carpets should not be glued to the floor. Also, don’t worry, because we found some other defects which you can use to lower the price…”

“Excuse me?!”

My friend was furious. His face turned red. His ears started steaming. But he held himself together. They say a true diplomat is the one who thinks twice and says nothing. That was my friend on this occasion (though admittedly he looked more like a tomato and less like a diplomat). 

EVERYTHING!

How could they speak to him like that? They thought he didn’t know anything? He knew EVERYTHING!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVERYTHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

OF COURSE YOU CAN GLUE A CARPET TO THE FLOOR!

(Especially if it’s a super-cheapo carpet). Just type in “carpet glue” in google, and you’ll see what’s what! 

And he doesn’t care about reducing the price. He wants a house in good shape! Due diligence! DUE DILIGENCE YOU PLUMS!

Still, he’s a diplomat. 

“Just send me the report.”

How To Deal With Builders (When You Know Everything)

The surveyors sent him the report. He read it in detail, and then he went and checked the floorboards himself (with his parents in fact). They were fine. So he bought the house. 

At one point shortly afterwards, the bill came for the survey. He threw it in the bin, and that was that. They sent a few reminders, they tried calling him, but he wasn’t having it. He wasn’t paying “those clowns”.

Discussion

Above, we can see two extreme approaches to handling builders, tradesmen etc. On the one hand, you are negligent, and you let them play you. On the other hand, you get them to work for you, and then you play them. Needless to say, as a man constantly searching for “equilibrium”, I don’t particularly agree with either approach. 

On the damp side of things, it’s entirely possible, that there are perfectly good firms in Sheffield, who serve the South East too. However, randomly picking one from the yellow pages, who are way cheaper than anyone else is simply asking for trouble. You must have a better defence than that. 

On the floorboard side, we’ve seen what can happen with good firms too. You ask them to do a task, you run around to get approval for them, and then they still don’t do it. As if to rub salt in the wound, they try to sell you some silly story about how things “should be”. Was my meticulous friend right not to pay them? Some will say yes, but I’m not quite sure.

The surveyors went, saw the house and wrote up a report. Yes, there was a small section missing, but 90% of the work was done. If you are supposed to do 10 hours of work, but you only do 9, shouldn’t you get paid for the 9 hours? Maybe you get paid a little less (5 hours worth maybe?), because you broke your agreement. However, to get nothing? It’s hard for me to agree with that. 

Conclusion

As you can see dear Readers, there are extremes. Perhaps what’s more interesting, is how easy it can be to end up in an extreme place. For me, the middle road is probably the best road. We must be diligent about the risks we face, but we must also be fair to the people we work with (even if they let us down). The response must always be proportionate, and we should avoid going to extremes (as much as it is possible). 

At least, that is what I am doing in my search for equilibrium! 

And you dear Readers? What do you think? Do I have a point? As always, let me know with comments below! 

All the best,
SJ

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