Help! We Engaged A Lousy Renovation Contractor!

[grace teng 0]

We engaged a contractor to renovate our new house. The payment scheme is 40% upon commencement of work, 50% upon Wet Work and 10% upon completion. There was no completion date stated in the contract as the contractor said it is not his practise to list down. However, he did commit verbally that it is about 4 - 6 weeks time.

The nightmare started on the 4th working day. The contractor was furious that we did not want him to do the electrical job. The next thing was he called up asking why are we asking the electrical contractor to take out the old air con as we promised to let him do it. The call took place during the most busy working time, I had been confused by him and agreed to let him do so with no costs. Later I confirmed with my hubby and realized we did not agree to let him do so. He was fast enough to remove the old air con and ready to sell it. My hubby demanded him to bring back the set if not we will lodge a police report. The air con was sent back next day.

Ironically the same day, there wasn't any worker report work, and the work stopped for another 2 days due to weekend. 3 tiling workers came on the next monday, they started to lay tiles in kitchen and WCs. My dad is almost on site watching them everyday, (he was formerly a renovation contractor too). He saw one of them laying the wall tiles in the kitchen all the way to the floor and asked him why he did not put any waterproof stuff as required by HDB. That guy answered him no need. My dad kept pressing us to pursue with the contractor and the contractor said they had put. Then he was challenged to knock off one piece to see any waterproofing stuff on it. The contractor knew he has caught and agreed to knock off the whole row near to the floor.

At the same time, he complaint to us that the workers are not happy with my dad's presence and asked my dad not to talk to them, anything can just go to him.

Today is the 17th day of renovation, they have yet to complete the floor tiles of 1 kitchen, 1 wc and 1 living hall. Worst still, only 1 worker per day for the past 2 days.

We raised our concerns to him by writing email. He has never reply our daily emails and called up my hubby not to write to him on such thing as the contract has no time line listed. In a way it is like he can take as long as he want.

Our package is not just tiling, others like plastering the whole house, painting, kitchen cabinets. We see no progress at all.

What should we do? Anyway to make this guy to speed up the process and gives us less trouble?

[zirhk3355 1]

Confront him directly (maybe together with your dad since he also know abit about reno?) and ask him to lay down a schedule. He will surely argue got "unforeseen circumstances" and whatever nonsense, but tell him firmly that you need to see at least a schedule.

No need to abide strictly by it, but at least with the schedule you can narrow down to the details and have a good argument - otherwise it seemed as though you are picking at the contractor over nothing.

Press down to the details, eg how long he needs to do the tiles, the plastering, which date, etc. Question him on who is doing what on which day, why certain days got nobody, etc.

Lastly, erm, emails are really quite ineffective in this industry lah, simply because they are not desk-bound. Pick up some courage and confront him directly. Not to be rude, just firm and let him know you cannot be pushed around.

[grace teng 0]

Confront him directly (maybe together with your dad since he also know abit about reno?) and ask him to lay down a schedule. He will surely argue got "unforeseen circumstances" and whatever nonsense, but tell him firmly that you need to see at least a schedule.

No need to abide strictly by it, but at least with the schedule you can narrow down to the details and have a good argument - otherwise it seemed as though you are picking at the contractor over nothing.

Press down to the details, eg how long he needs to do the tiles, the plastering, which date, etc. Question him on who is doing what on which day, why certain days got nobody, etc.

Lastly, erm, emails are really quite ineffective in this industry lah, simply because they are not desk-bound. Pick up some courage and confront him directly. Not to be rude, just firm and let him know you cannot be pushed around.

We tried many times to ask a schedule from him. Like what you mentioned, he kept repeating the nonsense and refused to provide one. We used both hard and soft approach but still he refuses. Running out of ideas to deal with this guy.

My hubby talked to him yesterday. First he asked my hubby not to write to him anymore. He kept challenging him that there is no timeline listed in the contract. Then my hubby asked him if there is anyway for him to start plastering concurrently, finally he leaked out his concern, we need to top up $$ to start this plastering job. But, wth? We paid him 40% before any job was done! He has the cheek to ask for $$ to start new job?!

Seriously we think seeking for legal aid will be the ultimate way to handle this chap...

[grace teng 0]

mind me asking if the 40% is a big sum? from the looks of it be ready for a nightmare renovation. if i were u i will bail immediately instead of risking another 60% which is a far more larger sum and to be stuck with poor sloopy workmanship.

also legal aid dun come cheap..trust me i have plenty of encounters with laywers and before u can seek any justice, be prepared to fork out quite some amount of cash and of course, like any other cases they have handled, they still cant promised u that u will win the case even if you have the evidence! might as well save the trouble, headache and $$ and put into a reliable company. here are many company which are renowned and trustworthly.

We thought of terminating the job with this chap, however, some fine prints of T/Cs behind the contract stated there is a penalty of 20% if we cancel this agreement. Looks like we are stuck!

[raincole 0]

You can do like:

You make a diary of the work. Date xx, do what and what.

This will be your record and your tracking of each progress.

Eg. 1 Aug: 1 man is doing tiling work, cover 50sqm in the kitchen. Start from 9am to 3pm.

3 Aug: Arrange for plumber to come at 3pm but no show.

Since your father is around and he knows the work, should be able to help you.

Then with this, maybe your contractor will start to take note that you are SERIOUS about wanting to complete the reno.

YOU come up with the schedule and see if ur contractor is able to complete it on time. And mentioned that the chq will be written with the expected date (post-date chq) and you will not be changing it if he delays the work further. I think chq got expire date if never cash-in.

Get all the contacts from him. Get his hp and his office ph. What happens if he never pick up call or reply sms, so get a backup no. (maybe his boss or collegue).

MUST MUST get a schedule and also compensation if fail to hand-over on time. Don't you have to move out by xx date? If so, then this is urgent and critical that your new place is completed by then. Then can start to arrange for your furniture, mover, etc.

[babyQ 0]

We thought of terminating the job with this chap, however, some fine prints of T/Cs behind the contract stated there is a penalty of 20% if we cancel this agreement. Looks like we are stuck!

this contractor is really very chialat - all the T&C are all in his favour! i hope more experienced reno forummers can advice you further on how to deal with him since you have tried all ways and nothing seems to work. seems like he is happy to take the 40% and going to take his time to drag.

i hope you can resolve this soonest possible!!

[leen 2]

hi,

erm... why in the first place you guz didnt get the contractor to state the date of completion or the duration of work, eg. if dun put date coz duno when can get loan to start renovation, he can put "duration of work: 6 - 8 weeks".

like wat raincole advise, do record down daily site work progress. ask your dad, he being in this line could understand why you want to do all these. these are to safeguard you.

record:

- all telephone call conversation by black and white juz like meeting minutes, even if its only 5 sentences (handwritten also can)

- all meeting minutes and what both side had said (handwritten also can)

- all pictures of work and number of workers at different days

file:

- all written emails, letters, meeting minutes, pictures properly

and like wat diva say, you can dun pay them 1st.

with all the above records, if go to court, usually court will judge and access, eg. if do 17 day, wat have they done and how much have they done, number of workers per day etc. and also the above records serve as evidence. remember, in law, everything must be in black and white, verbal is hard to prove and serves not much use.

if worst come to worst, you will be require to pay wat they have done so far if the cut off day is on the 17.

in contract law, there is this clause stated that the employer will have to pay watever the contractor had done as of that cut off date. the rest that are not done, can dun pay or if they cause delay which resulted in undesirable results, they can be order to pay a penalty or if they causes damage eg. waterproofing did not do gd enough thus causes leak, they will be charged also.

maybe you like to call HDB to see if they can help and for water proofing, if you are worried, you can ask HDB if they hv surveyor to assess such work.

if HDB caught them like that, 1st they will be given a warning to re-do, if cannot improve, their license will be suspended.

Edited September 19, 2007 by leen

[eneri 0]

We thought of terminating the job with this chap, however, some fine prints of T/Cs behind the contract stated there is a penalty of 20% if we cancel this agreement. Looks like we are stuck!

Hi Grace

What is the status now?

We had such bad experience before but the only different is that we had terminated him before they started the reno. Our deposit was being forfeited. We had a hard time at first as they refused to let us go and had threatened us because the contract has also stated penalty charge of XX% if we cancel the agreement.

I think you have to be very firm. How much you have paid this chap?