From one who makes a virtue of rubbing others up the wrong way himself, that's absolutely priceless.
Nice one nausey!
Am I being unreasonable?
- Thread starter iffy100
- Start date
From one who makes a virtue of rubbing others up the wrong way himself, that's absolutely priceless.
Nice one nausey!
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D
Deleted member 174758
Well the first item should be covered by a schedule of works - a part of the contract, I'd say, but bear in mind that in domestic works the best you'll often get is an estimate.
Personally I think that you have the right to know who is doing the work as well, although I have the right to decide how much contact (if any) you have with them. If I'm employing subbies they're my employees, therefore my responsibility
I carry £2m public liabibilty plus the same amount of indemnity cover for myself and any directly employed sub-contractors, so once again I can see no issues in letting you have copies of my certificates, but only once the contract is signed, I'm afraid, because there are far too many people who want my personal details who to my mind have no right to them. I'd expect any competent tradesman to have something similar in place
If I'm not part of a trade body, then I'm not going to be part of a resolution scheme, obviously, although having PL and PI insurance should automatically cover the same ground. If you are dealing with individuals rather than large firms then this is normally the case, but then the price will be lower
I have certificates to prove my technical qualifications, but some of those are pushing 40 years old and if I'm asked to produce them I generally tell the inquirer where to go (politely, but firmly) because I find it downright insulting (impertinent) TBH. My competence, in fact the competence of any tradesman is far better proven by checking 3 or more references and possibly going to visit a job or two I have done. If you ask me for the qualifications papers of my employees I'd definitely refuse because they are my employees, my responsibility in law and not yours. There are obvious exceptions to this, namely you may need to have more than just verbals or references for work requiring Gas Safe or electrical certificates (there are legal requirement), but if those trades are working for me then again it's my business to ensure that I've complied, isn't it?
That should be dealt with in the agreement under a heading such as "Duty of Care" or "Precautions" and the precautions to be taken should be in writing (I actually have standard Terms and Conditions which cover this and have been checked and approved by my insurers). To be on the safe side I always make clients fully aware that I photograph jobs before, during and after and that the photos are kept on file for my insurers for up to 7 years. Just in case a claim is made. I also specifically state in writing that the removal of valuable items such as Persion rugs, wall hangings, etc is the sole responsibility of the client as loose stuff like that often falls outside of any insurance.
Like many tradesmen I'm not part of any trade scheme how can I guarantee anything? Your guarantee is really that the I (or anyone like me) have the appropriate insurances and have supplied good references which you have checked - if you want a firm with "guarantees" you'll end up paying a lot more to employ a bigger firm where the employees probably care a lot less about what sort of job they do IMHO
I'm with the others, though. If you were to confront me with that lot before we'd started then I'd not go any further. The way you've put things you make yourself sound like one of the awkward squad. Someone who won't pay and will bitch and haggle at every opportunity. Absolutely nobody wants a customer like that, hence people being turned off by your approach. Softly, softly and treating tradesmen with a modicum of mutual respect works a lot better, because at the end of the day I'm the guy who did a 4 year apprenticeship and has the skills, tools and experience to do the job. Oh, and Dom L isn't always right either, y'know
D
Deleted member 174758
Well the first item should be covered by a schedule of works - a part of the contract, I'd say, but bear in mind that in domestic works the best you'll often get is an estimate. Personally I think that you have the right to know who is doing the work as well. I carry £2m public liabibilty plus the same amount of indemnity cover for myself and any directly employed sub-contractors, so once again I can see no issues in letting you have copies of my certificates, but only once the contract is signed, I'm afraid, because there are far too many people who want my personal details who to my mind have no right to them. As for the resolution scheme, if I'm not part of a trade body, then I'm not going to be part of a resolution scheme, obviously, although having PL and PI insurance should automatically cover the same ground. If you are dealing with individuals rather than large firms then this is normally the case, but then the price will be lower
I have certificates to prove my technical qualifications, but some of those are pushing 40 years old and if I'm asked to produce them I generally tell the inquirer where to go - my competence, in fact the competence of any tradesman is better proven by checking 3 references and possibly going to visit a job or two I have done. If you ask me for the papers of my employees I'd definitly refuse because they are my employees, my responsibility in law and not yours. There are obvious exceptions to this, namely you need to have more than just verbals or references for work requiring Gas Safe or electrical certificates (there are legal requirement), but if those trades are working for me then again it's my business, isn't it. On the score of carpets, etc that should be dealt with in the agreement under a heading such as "Duty of Care" or "Precautions", although personally to be on the safe side I always make clients fully aware that I photograph jobs before, during and after and that the photos are kept on file for my insurers for 7 years. Just in case a claim is made. I also specifically state in writing that the removal of valuable items such as Persion rugs is the sole responsibility of the client as loose stuff like that often falls outside of my insurance. As I'm not part of any trade scheme how can I guarantee anything? Your guarantee is really that the I have the appropriate insurances and have supplied good references which you have checked - if you want a firm with "guarantees" you'll end up paying a lot more IMHO
I'm with the others, though. If you were to confront me with that lot before we'd started then I'd not go any further. The way you've put things you make yourself sound like one of the awkward squad. Someone who won't pay and will b1tch and haggle at every opportunity. Absolutely nobody wants a customer like that, hence people being turned off by your approach. Softly, softly and treating tradesmen with a modicum of mutual respect works a lot better, because at the end of the day we're the guys who've done 2, 3, 4 or more year apprenticeships and have the skills, tools and experience to do the job. Oh, and Dom L isn't always right either about tradesmen either, y'know. We're not all rogue traders - but "Good Traders" doesn't make good TV, does it?
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