Dealing With Disputes

With any kind of work going on in the home, there is always the possibility of mistakes or accidents happening. In the event these problems, it would be recommended that both parties, the customer and tradesperson discuss and come to a suitable solution for both. If this is not possible, we have some recommendations to resolve any disputes.

Trade Associations

For a tradesperson, if they are part of a trade association or professional body for their respective industry, these are organisations which can assist with these problems using their existing complaints processes. Any customer can check with the organisation that the tradesperson is registered with them. The organisation will be able to provide the customer guidance to go through the complaints procedure and resolve the issue with the tradesperson.

Citizens Advice

If you have used a tradesperson who is not a member of a trade/industry organisation, you can instead contact Citizen’s Advice. Citizen’s Advice will be able to provide advice and help you with options that will be available to you. They will be able to explain your rights for any work being done. They can be contacted by phone or by visiting their website for more information.

Hiring Checklist

Often, disputes can arise when there is a lack of clarity between your requirements for the work and what the tradesperson understands are the requirements. To avoid this, it can be best to assess the work requirements and the available tradespersons before hiring them – this can ensure you pick the best suited tradesperson for your work and that your requirements will be met by them. Below are some areas to consider before hiring a tradesperson:

Qualifications And Registration

For any tradesperson that you hire, you should always check their qualifications and membership to any organisations.For example, checking that a gas engineer is registered with the Gas Safe Register – to ensure they are legally allowed to conduct gas works or that an electrician is registered with the government-approved Part P building regulation schemes – ensuring they are allowed to conduct the work and correctly certified. We check our tradespeople’s registrations and certifications when they sign up and conduct biannual checks for their registrations to organisations. Despite our checks, we recommend that you check yourself, in the event that a tradesperson is no longer registered between our checks. Similarly, make sure to check that the tradesperson has public liability insurance – in the event of any problems that could occur.

Past Work And Reputation

You will be able to see previous customers reviews on the tradespersons profile – which should help give a better idea of their quality of work. Additionally, you can request the tradesperson for a portfolio of past work, for you to see their past work. If this is unavailable, you could request references from previous customers.

Agreement And Contract

Quotation – ask for a quote on the work before hiring the tradesperson, so you are aware of the cost of the work. The quotation should details the price, payment schedule, specification of the job being completed, clarification if VAT is included in the price or not, any conditions, and any other pertinent details for the work.

Deposits – this deposit should be agreed upon and documented in the invoice. Typically, the agreed deposit should be no more than 20% of the overall fee for the job, but should be sufficient to cover the tools, materials and travel required for the job.

Guarantees – tradespeople will provide a guarantee for their completed work for a specified period of time. This should be clarified in advance and that it is available to you in the documentation as proof – if it is ever required to make a claim at a later date.

Subcontractors – a tradesperson should clarify in advance about the use any additional contacted workers to assist with the work. This would allow you the opportunity to find out about the legitimacy of the subcontractor if you wish.

Review Tradespeople

On MyJobQuote we provide you the option to review tradespeople you have used. This is beneficial to users who may be considering tradespeople for similar work.

Steps to review a job you have posted:

• Visit your jobs page
• Find the chosen job, then select the tradesperson who completed the job
• Enter your review and input your star rating for the job
• If you have any problems inputting your review, please contact the myjobquote support team to resolve this.

TRADESPERSON

For a tradesperson, we have some recommendations to lessen the need for any disputes with customers.

• Ensure that you have understood the job – if this requires discussing further with the customer and having details plans made, this can ensure that both parties understand the objectives and agree upon the plans.
• Be sure to let customers know ahead that you intend to use subcontractors – letting a customer know ahead gives the customer time to conduct any checks on the subcontractor, for their own peace of mind and likely will trust you more as a result.
• Take on jobs that you can complete – if there is a job that you are not certain that you can complete, do not undertake this work. Any customer who is paying for work that find the tradesperson cannot complete will be understandably unhappy and will likely act if required.
• When a customer is paying a large deposit, this is an even greater issue – no customer wants to feel deceived into paying considerable sums for uncomplete work.
• Be clear about timescales – the customer will want an estimate for how long the work should take and the timescales should be agreeable to them also.
• Be clear about materials – specifically if you are sourcing any materials for the work or if they will be providing you materials
• Be clear about waste removal – is this something that you will be handling on their behalf or will they be handling any waste from the work?
• If there are any issues with the customer – be sure to listen to any issues that they have and consider if there is a solution that suits both parties.

If you have any significant issues with customers, such as payment for completed work, remember that you can always go to the small claims court.