We came across this film on YouTube – It’s an edited video of electrical disasters put together by Seansy59. It would be funny if it wasn’t so scary. We are sure you already know that electrics are not to be messed about with – get a professional in if you don’t know what you are doing!!
Watch and be horrified!
Jason Costner of Saltburn, North Yorkshire was jailed after leaving one pensioner with no water in her bathroom for five months and another with a hole in his roof over Christmas – in the snow.
The Daily Mail reported yesterday that a rogue trader has been jailed for leaving a trail of destruction and misery in his wake, not to mention the financial pain he inflicted. You can see their full story by clicking on the photo above.
Costner gained the confidence of people by offering his services free or for very little money, and then started to charge large sums of money, before turning abusive and threatening. He even managed to pocket money received from an insurance claim without completing the promised work.
He was arrested for fraud in September 2011, and received an 18 month sentence on Monday.
DIY Doctor wants to eradicate Cowboy Builders
We have been working on various ways to arm yourself against getting caught by Cowboy Builders. We continually update this information as we develop new advice and products to help keep you safe.
On the main website you will see a button ‘HIPS’ which stands for Home Improver Protection Solution. OK so we know that isn’t as catchy as it could be, but the information in there is invaluable if you are having work done on your house. The information is free and so are most of the products. (Where something is not free we clearly say so).
What’s new?
Lots of sites give you advice on avoiding Cowboy Builders, but we also give you some tools to weed them out and help you choose good builders.
The latest addition to the website is a product called Price Doctor. The basic product is Free and takes about five minutes to use.
Price Doctor allows you to find out how much your extension should cost you before you speak to your builder, or if you already have quotes from builders it allows you to check that those quotes are reasonable.
How often have you heard the advice ‘get three quotes and pick the middle one’ but how do you know any of them are right? They might all be too much or,worse, too little.
How can a quote that is too cheap be a problem?
You might think it is great if you get cheap quotes but if the builder gets to your job and realises he hasn’t quoted enough, he will need to find ‘extras’ to charge you, and these can be hefty.
A good and experienced builder will quote you based on his knowledge of similar jobs, and so any extras will be legitimately unforeseen things. (In our building days, we once found an old Morris Minor buried in a garden when the diggers went to dig the foundations for a conservatory. That is a legitimate extra, it could not have been foreseen by anyone!)
Check your quote with Price Doctor before making your decision
If you know your builders quotes are about right you can be sure they are pricing correctly which means they know what they are doing and they are fair about what they charge. This is a good sign!
If your preferred builder has quoted significantly more you can ask him to look at the Price Doctor quote with you, you could even go through the process together. He might have a good reason for being more expensive, but at least it gives you a tool for negotiating with your builder.
Some builders are using our full level of Price Doctor to prepare their building quotes, in the knowledge that Price Doctor provides a clear and transparent quote for the homeowner. The more comprehensive versions of Price Doctor do cost money but for £20 you get increased choices for your build, a ‘shopping list’ of materials and you can also get a professional model which allows you to build in profit margins and trade discounts on materials.
What else do you have that protects me against Cowboy Builders?
We will continue to add to this list as time goes on but these are the main areas to help you avoid cowboy builders so far.
Go to DIY Doctors Home Improver Protection Solution section to see all our advice, products and information to help you find a reliable builder and avoid the cowboy.
To try Price Doctor for yourself please click on the banner below, and do let us know how you got on with it.
The National Homebuilding & Renovating show 2013, will be held at the NEC in Birmingham, and will run from 21-24 March.
As always there will be lots of interesting things to do and see, for anyone who is embarking on a building project, whether self-build, or employing a builder.
DIY Doctor will be appearing on the Tricks of The Trade stage again this year, so please do come along and see us. We like to meet our users, and we are always happy to answer questions after each show.
A full rundown of what is showing, and when, is available on the National Homebuilding Show website. In brief it consists of our most popular demonstrations:
The organisers of the Homebuilding & Renovating Show are very keen to keep the show relevant to its audience, so all the stands and speakers are likely to be of interest to you if you are about to start a building project.
We find that visitors to the show always comment on how useful it is in terms of inspiration and finding the right fittings and equipment for their build.
If you do not already subscribe then why not sign up for the DIY Doctor newsletter? We do not bombard you with loads of information and we often get some free tickets to give away to our users.
If you are planning building work this year we recommend that you draw up a contract with your builder.
There has been a lot of talk recently about Cowboy Builders, and what a drain they are on our economy, but not so much focus on what you can do about it. Regulation and Government intervention can only work so far, the most effective vehicle for change is to use market forces which are driven by consumers, so DIY Doctor decided to make it their mission to help eradicate Cowboy Builders by giving homeowners the tools they need to avoid them.
There are things you can do to help you find a good tradesman and avoid the Cowboy Builder. We have a section on the site called HIPS which stands for Home Improver Protection Solution. This section is dedicated to helping you avoid Cowboy Builders by providing you with useful information to arm yourself with before you choose your builder, then it gives you valuable information on how to choose and contract a builder and finally keeping control of costs and processes throughout the build.
What is HIPS?
There are five main sections in our Home Improvers Protection Solution (find out more by clicking here):
Price Doctor
Online software that allows you to get a costing of an extension before you meet your builder to discuss prices, the free version will arm you with a rough figure so that you can tell if your builder is quoting a reasonable figure. There is a paid version which allows you to put in a much more detailed set of choices and will break down the costs of materials for you into a ‘shopping list’ which is ideal if you are planning your own build.
Desired Outcome Contract
This is a contract, written by DIY Doctor and checked by legal professionals, which has been designed to make it clear what you expect from your builder, and what he can expect from you. Disputes often arise over unreasonable expectations on either side, but if all stages of the build and payment are discussed at the beginning then this leads to fewer arguments.
If a Cowboy Builder is presented with a contract before they start work they are much less likely to take the job on. Even better it is provided free to DIY Doctor users.
Desired Outcome Contract – Notes
By reading through the accompanying help notes you will know which questions to ask to make sure you have a legitimate builder eg. are they insured, how long have they been trading, can they provide references for similar jobs. You will also be prompted to ask for proof of the answers to these questions.
Third Party Payment Plan
We recommend you use a third party payment plan. They are designed to hold the money for the build securely for you. This will reassure your builder that you can pay for the job, and will release the money in pre-agreed stages such as: on delivery of materials; on completion of first fix; and on completion of the build but with a percentage held back against ‘snagging’. They often have warrentees and dispute resolution procedures attached too.
Trustmark
Trustmark is a Government approved body which lists tradesmen who are insured and belong to trades bodies. Although this is not a failsafe method of choosing a builder it will rule out any fly-by-night traders who do not want to join trades bodies because of the way they do business. The attitude of a builder who bothers to get insurance is much more professional, and trades bodies often have dispute ombudsmen attached to their organisations. You can easily check the details out online.
For more information on how to make a Desired Outcome Contract work for you when you are planning building work, please watch this explanatory video.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has expressed concerns about
installers of energy-efficient products using high-pressure tactics to ensure that customers sign up.
Following their investigation the OFT have written to fifty leading installers of energy-saving products to insist that they improve their practices.
The OFT found various problems which ranged from, paperwork issues, to staying in a customers home for up to three hours, to failing to provide information on the customers rights to cancellation.
Energy Saving Installations expected to increase because of the Green Deal
As the Green Deal comes into effect this month this sector of the building industry is expected to experience growth, while the rest of the building industry is suffering from contraction. So it is vital that steps are taken to improve consumer confidence in installers of energy-efficient products.
The Green Deal will allow homeowners to have energy saving work carried out on their house and then pay for that work by adding the cost to their energy bills. We have written more about the Green Deal in our Projects section.
How to Avoid Cowboy Builders
DIY Doctor has been working to help consumers avoid Cowboy Builders for years. we do this with a variety of measures listed under our Home Improvement Protection Solution (HIPS) section of the website.
The information is free and includes a ‘Desired Outcome Contract’ designed to be used by homeowners who are employing builders and installers, there is also information on finding reputable tradesmen through Trust Mark. To help protect your payments there is information about Bond Pay which securely holds the money for the contracted work; only paying the contractor once each stage of the work is completed.
If you are considering having energy saving work on your house, then you can read through the information in our Home Improver Protection Solution section to help you employ the right installer for the job. As a brief guide to avoiding a situation where you feel pressured into buying energy-saving products follow these steps:
There is more information on our HIPS package here.
If you want to find out more about the Green Deal we have project pages under our Green Living section which you might also find very useful.
