How to avoid being ripped off

SMH Small Business Trends

Author: Alexandra Cain

March, 28, 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/trends/blogs/the-big-idea/how-to-avoid-being-ripped-off-20140321-356r3.html

My brother’s about to do up the bathroom in the flat he’s just bought and has been getting quotes from various builders. I’m amazed at the variance in the prices – one guy quoted $18,000, another $12,000 and one guy came in at $8,000.

That’s a $10,000 difference between quotes for what’s ostensibly the same job. So how on earth should he know which one to pick?

Building is complex and there are many variables involved. Which means you need to get numerous quotes.

I spoke to Allen Cetinic, who runs Render My Home, about how to tell if you’re being charged a fair price. He says the process of quoting is a complex one. “The only way you can judge is by making sure you’re comparing apples with apples. Building is complex and there are many variables involved. Which means you need to get numerous quotes.”

Cetinic says there are many ways to approach a job, and many materials and finishes that can be used, which is one reason there’s such disparity in prices.

 “You might call in one electrician who’ll just quote you for a basic job and another one will give you a more comprehensive quote that might include things that need to be attended to over the next year. And that’s where people will go wrong – some will do a basic job and others will quote you on something that’s more thorough.”

He says it’s essential for consumers to do their research and interview people before agreeing to use a tradesperson for a job – it only takes five minutes to get a feel for whether you can work with someone. He also says three quotes might not be enough.

“You might have to speak to six or seven people before you find the right person for you,” Cetinic says.

So how should you compare quotes? One way, says Cetinic, is to be very clear on the scope of work. What does the quote include? Does it cover rubbish removal? How about cleaning up? What about painting? All these factors will influence the price of the job. It’s all about making sure your expectations are the same as the tradesperson’s. Don’t just assume you’ll get exactly what you want.

“Sharing quotes could be a good idea and make sure the quotes cover the same things,” he says.

Another important variable is the credibility of the service provider. Cetinic says: “Look at whether they have an online presence, think about where the referral to the tradesperson came from, how long they’ve been in business, their qualifications and their experience. It’s all about doing your research.”

Cetinic says there are no standard prices for jobs for residential building; there are some for commercial jobs because the scale of work on a square metre basis is usually so much greater than for work done on houses.
“Plus some contractors are opportunistic – when they’re busy they’ll charge a higher price and when they’re slow they’ll charge a lower amount just to get the work. Really, the only way to get the work done at the price you want to a standard that’s acceptable is to find a tradie you have a connection with,” says Cetinic.

Laorence Nohra, CEO at Tradebusters, which offers a tradesman co-ordination service, agrees prices depend on the inclusions and exclusions of a job.

“In general, rates vary from $60 to $90 an hour, which may or may not include a service fee. If someone was charging you $120 an hour that would look wrong to me.”

As to what sort of recourse consumers have if they feel they have been overcharged, Nohra says there’s very little if the home owner has accepted a written quote and that acceptance has been documented.

“Where you do have some recourse is when you’ve been charged extra for variables and what you’ve been charged is very different to what you were quoted on,” she says.

Cetinic says: “At the end of the day, consumers have to take responsibility. It’s not good enough to take a retrospective view. You need to have a paper trail that shows emails back and forth agreeing the scope of work and the price. No one wants to sit in tribunal hearings, so be clear on what you’re expecting and what you’ll pay for that.”

What's been your experience getting quotes from tradies? Share it in the comments below.

I received an inquiry the other day for a ‘small’ remedial job at a commercial property in North Sydney. After meeting the property manager onsite, we closely examined the work and discovered that the job was anything but small!

The first thing that caught my eye was the general poor appearance of the building. There was cracked render pretty much everywhere as well as evidence of concrete cancer coming out of the surface of exposed beams.

Looking up the face of the building we could see exposed concrete slabs on each of the floor levels between the brick walls, that appear to have popped and in the process of falling from off of the building and onto the ground. Not an expansion joint in sight!

Considering the highest point to repair was approximately 10 metres, the emphasis of the remedial work had now shifted to more an OHS risk management exercise, rather than just a ‘small’ cosmetic repair. Any object falling from 10 metres, let alone a chunk of cement render, is likely to kill someone down on the ground.

Now, the question I was asked by the property manager was ‘is it normal for cement render to just fall off a wall, or has something not been done properly during the execution of the work?’

Great question!

The answer is simple, yet for some unknown reason is rarely understood.

It is normal for cement render to delaminate from a substrate such as a concrete structure, if expansion joints have not been installed correctly. Why? Because the forces underneath the render, usually between where the concrete areas meet up with the brick areas, or with some other substrate, are greater than that of the render coating. Any type of natural expansion or contraction in the building WILL result in cracking, and that ultimately leads to delamination and the potential of OHS risks.

Unfortunately, there are hundreds of buildings going up every day in Sydney where this simple practice is not observed by the head building contractor, leading to future remedial work which could have been easily averted.

The problem for the property buyers are that these cracks don’t often surface until several years later, by which time the builder has done the bolt and absolved himself from any liability.

So a ‘small’ enquiry turns out to be not such a ‘small’ job, with the owners now up for about $40,000 to repair the building that should never have needed repairing had someone carried out his job correctly.

It could be much worse though, for if any render were to fall off and kill someone, the consequences would be even more severe!