What to Do if Your Contractor is Messing You Around

When you hire a construction professional to handle your remodelling project, it’s important to find the right person for the job. No matter how much due diligence you do though—checking their reviews, getting a fixed quote and agreeing a timeline, for instance—things can still go wrong. This can be very stressful. So, what should you do if you think you’re being messed around by your contractor or tradesman? Let’s take a look.

Contents

Contractors who take too long

Contractors who don’t turn up

Contractors who don’t do a good enough job

Contractors who don’t finish the job

Contractors who steal from you

Contractors who take too long

If your remodel is taking too long, it can be a huge inconvenience. Especially if you’re fixing up the whole home and are forced to continue paying for rented accommodation until you can move in. Or it might be a case of one tradesperson taking so long on the job that their work isn’t finished in time for the next tradesperson to start theirs. (The bathroom fitting can’t get done until the electrician has done the wiring and the plumber has done the piping, for instance.) So how do you handle this situation?

First of all, try to keep calm. If your contractor is messing you around, it’s likely they’re messing their other clients around too. So, they’ll be used to people getting angry with them. Don’t give them the upper hand by losing your cool. Rather, try to make sure timeline communications are done in writing—either by email or WhatsApp—so you have a record of promises made that you can quote back to them, if and when they say, “But I never promised to finish by so-and-so date.”

When you do communicate, do so in simple terms relating to agreements, for example:

• “We agreed you would be finished by X date and this is pushing the project back.”
• “I need you to speed up so you can pull back some of the time lost.”
• “Let’s agree a new deadline with a safeguard in place to ensure it’ll be met.” (A safeguard might be something like agreeing up-front that there’ll be a financial penalty for taking longer than promised, subject to unforeseen issues with the building.)

Whatever you do, don’t be accusatory and don’t make threats. Avoid statements such as:

• “You’re the worst builder I’ve ever worked with”
• “If you don’t speed up, you’re not going to get paid”
• “Don’t expect anything less than a terrible TrustPilot review”

The idea is to get your contractor to speed up. Not to make them as angry as you feel so that they dig their heels in even deeper and refuse to speed up.

Contractors who don’t turn up

One of the reasons your building contractor might be taking so long to finish the job is because they’re simply not showing up when they say they will. This can also be infuriating, especially if they’re going to other jobs during time allocated to fixing up your home.

It’s important to remember, though, that—even though they’re definitely in the wrong—this is your home, not theirs. To you, every day counts. To the builder or fitter, though, it’s just one of a number of jobs they have to do. And it’s rare to find a tradesperson who’ll take the work as seriously as you do.

The best thing you can do is to be there every day, yourself, to oversee the remodel—or to have someone you trust implicitly act as project manager (e.g., a retired relative who has the time to go and check in each day).

If the team doesn’t show up, wait half an hour and then text your contractor with a simple message, asking, “Are you guys planning to come to the job today?” If you don’t receive a reply within fifteen minutes, give them a call—but don’t call more than twice, if they don’t answer. Endless missed calls will make you look enraged—and this will give your contractor the upper hand. Rather, send a follow-up message fifteen minutes after your second call to say that you’re frustrated that they haven’t showed up and would like to set in place some attendance benchmarks with agreed financial implications.

Sometimes, it’s not possible to be there to oversee a job—usually because the homeowner has to be at work and has to put their trust in the contractor. If you notice that work is progressing at a glacial pace and suspect the team just isn’t turning up, start each day with a text or WhatsApp message, asking the contractor to drop you over a list of the day’s “to do” jobs so that you can check back to ensure they’ve been done at the end of the day. If they refuse to comply with this perfectly reasonable request, you can safely assume they’re not turning up and can follow the above steps to address it.

Contractors who don’t do a good enough job

You hear a lot about “cowboy builders” and “builders from hell” to describe contractors who don’t do a good enough job. These derogatory terms aren’t helpful—they just make homeowners nervous that builders are not to be trusted with their homes and this makes the whole remodelling process tense and stressful from the very beginning. Our advice is to hope for the best and to remain optimistic even if and when certain things go wrong or aren’t done to the standards you demand first time around.

That’s not to say things will always go right first time around. A cheeky contractor may try to get as much money as possible for doing the minimum amount of work needed. Or they may end up doing a slapdash job of fixing, fitting, plastering, tiling, plumbing or wiring. If this happens during your remodelling project, you simply need to address it matter-of-factly to get the job done to your standards.

Don’t be insulting about the quality of work. Don’t be angry. Don’t focus on the past and the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” of what’s been done. Focus firmly on what’s needed to remedy the work, for example:

• “Please go back over the plastering to ensure it’s consistently smooth and without trowel marks and bumps.”
• “The tiling is much too uneven and needs to be done again—we will need to repurchase the tiles as the original ones can’t be re-used, so can we assume we’ll deduct that from the final price or will you buy them, yourself, if I give you the details?”
• “The shower panel is 5cm closer to the wall than agreed, so there’s not enough space. You need to remove it, replace any damaged tiling and re-fix it.”

One hugely important detail is not to pay your builder 100% of their fee up-front. Generally, they will expect a percentage payment at the beginning, another one during the project and a final one upon completion. This final payment is the one you can comfortably withhold until work is completed to your satisfaction. If your builder or tradesperson does not agree to complete the work to agreed standards, they should be willing to forfeit this money. This will rarely happen—most contractors are very conscious about maintaining a good reputation, so they’ll want to make sure you’re happy with the result. However, it’s a good safeguard in case they do decide to just walk off the job.

Contractors who don’t finish the job

Rarely, but on occasion, the relationship with a contractor will break down to the point that they simply refuse to come back and finish the job. This is something you should try to avoid at all costs by following the above recommendations.

Looking for a replacement contractor part-way through a job is a huge hassle and can significantly add to your project timeline. Plus, some builders and tradesmen will not want to pick up on other people’s work because they will be nervous about having to finish what they consider to be “shoddy workmanship”. So, whatever you do, try to maintain a good working relationship with your contractor.

If your contractor doesn’t finish the job and does just walk away, however, there are a few things you should do:

• Try to put a stop on any pending payments made to them with your bank
• Ask the builder to return your keys and—if they fail to comply—change the locks
• Do not stash the builder’s tools as “ransom” to ensure their continued work or your returned money—it is still their property and staking a claim to it could have criminal implications
• If you have spent more money than you feel is equivalent to the work done, consider contacting a solicitor in order to get that money back—you are entitled to what you paid for.

Contractors who steal from you

It is incredibly rare that a contractor will knowingly steal from one of their clients. These people are professionals and make their living from going into people’s homes. As soon as their reputation is called into question, their business will suffer, so they will be at odds to protect it. So, first of all, don’t be paranoid about leaving your belongings around your construction team. However, if you have items you’re particularly protective about, simply lock them away in a safe place and don’t give the contractor access to that space.

Sometimes, if you have tools of your own lying around—ladders, sanders, saws or even electrical extension cables—a contractor may mix it up with their own tools and accidentally take it away at the end of the day. If this happens, don’t immediately assume that it’s theft. Give them the benefit of the doubt and drop them a text or a WhatsApp to say, “My X has gone missing—looks like one of your guys has accidentally taken it. Please return it tomorrow. Very important.”

The contractor may come up with an excuse, such as, “It was damaged, so we threw it away.” However, no one other than you has the right to throw your things away. So, tell them, “Please don’t throw anything else out without my prior agreement and please bring a like-for-like replacement.”

If personal items—i.e., not tools—go missing and you’re in absolutely no doubt that they did so during the contractor’s watch, then this is much more serious. First of all, inform your contractor so that they can address it with their team. The best outcome is that the item turns up the following day—maybe it had fallen down the back of a chest of drawers or maybe it had been stolen. The main thing is that it’s back.

In the unlikely event that your personal items go missing and are not returned or replaced by the contractor’s team, simply contact the police and advise them of the situation. They will advise you of what to do next.

Whatever happens with your contractor and their team, you should be able to resolve any and all issues to your satisfaction. Just remember to stay determined, stay calm, be insistent on getting what you pay for but be nice. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as the saying goes. Good luck with your project.

Looking for something else to read? Check out our article on Installing a Luxury Bathroom.