Tips for choosing the right tradesperson Part one

Tips for choosing the right tradesperson Part one

One of the hardest yet one of the most critical aspects of building a new home or upgrading and renovating your existing property is the choice of trades people and the homeowner needs to understand what to look for before entering into a contract with them, below is a list of guidelines to follow to help get you this process to ensure smoothly as possible and because there are several areas to understand, this is part one of three.

 The tradespersons licence 

Pretty much all tradespeople will be expected to carry a licence that verifies their position plus in many cases they have also been required to undertake formal qualifications prior to commencing a role but understand it is the licence that is the most important factor not the qualifications. This is because they are ruled by a governing body and are required to follow guideline to ensure the work carried out meet certain minimum standards. Failure to meet these standards may result in a breach or fine that could also include restrictions on their licence and even in some cases disqualification.

Each industry’s governing body should be able to provide for each state the list of registered contractors whereby customers are able to verify if the tradespersons licence is current.

In the electrical industry, they are also required on any form of advertising to list their REC. In trades such as building, plumbing and electrical their qualifications are most often done via a TAFE, and is usually completed through and apprenticeship. The only exceptions to this would be a sub-contractor, such as tilers or pool installers, who are able to work for someone that holds a current licence. 

 A Written Quote

 Where possible when obtaining a quote do not accept and offer until you see on paper exactly what will be involved. Have your contractor list the jobs to be completed or installed, where will this work be carried out (location), what will be involved in this contract, if possible the price per individual task and the total price of the contracted work including GST. We ask for the individual task costs when appropriate as this will give you written evidence should anything go wrong and you find yourself involved in litigation with the contractor. It is not necessary to ask how many nails will be used at what price for the job but the value/cost of the task is enough. Depending on which state you reside the amount of your contract determines what is considered a contract so check with your state’s governing body for each industry.

You also need to ask and confirm with the contractor if the quote supplied is a fixed quote or merely an estimate and does it include a GST amount. Even though you may be convinced your contractor is offering the best value and price for the quote supplied and their reputation is superb always shop around for other contractors and seek several quotes then sit down and compare each one. The importance of doing this provides you valuable information as it gives you a list of items and products included in the quote before you sign a contract making you a better informed customer.

You may find that under certain circumstances there is the need for additional work to be done, ensure your contractor advise you of this as early as possible as often a quote may be altered if works don’t begin on a specified date, they don’t reflect the actual scope of the job, or something unexpected has occurred that requires extra labour or materials. 

 So that you understand the work to be carried out ensure a building inspector is organised throughout the stages of your new project of a building inspection report is complete prior to commencement to understand any issues of your property that may also affect your quote