FEATURE LICENSING
Dodgy builders waste clients’ time, money and emotions, leading to consumers’ distrust of builders – but it doesn’t have to be this way RIDDING OF THE ROGUES
why they had their doubts about costs as his company was doing the whole project from design to build. But the clients made a mistake. “We soon saw the terrible workmanship,” McAllister
explains. “My business partner, Qatipi, fired the
tilers and they weren't even working for us. He fired them on behalf of the customer because he had to get them off site as fast as possible. They were spending money and they were ruining the tiles. Every time they adhered a tile they were chucking away like £50.” McAllister called the clients to the site to show them what was going wrong. They saw the trip hazards from uneven tiles and poor workmanship and understood why these
A lot of construction clients want to spend less money but get more for it. This drives them to seek out tradespeople on the cheap, which more often than not leads to shoddy work being carried out and wasted resources. Seán McAllister, Director of Pencil & Brick Ltd, says people have a “primal desire” not to part with their money. “All that hard-earned cash
– clients are very right to be following their intuition to save money. But this is why we're talking about a mandatory licensing scheme for the building industry: just because it’s their intuition doesn't mean it's right.” A previous client of McAllister wanted to cut costs on a project. Pencil & Brick was the designer and builder, but when it came to the bathroom the client wanted a cheaper option –
despite McAllister warning them against it. “They were wondering whether they were being taken for a ride and I'd be lying if I said no other clients thought similarly. They’re thinking, ‘Why am I trusting this company with all of our finances?’ So the clients hired a separate contractor for tiling.” McAllister says that despite feeling a little hurt that the clients didn’t trust his advice, he understood
rogue tilers had to be banished from the site.
Delays inflate costs “We had to rip up all those tiles,” McAllister says. “Day by day, it dawned on the clients that we couldn’t keep what was there because of damage. And then they discovered the very expensive, gorgeous pigmented tiles were out of stock.”
The benefits of licensing construction A mandatory licensing scheme in UK construction would: 1 Remove incompetent and rogue 3 Increase construction output to boost
2 Off er greater consumer protection by ensuring builders work
4 Boost quality,
5 Improve health
6 Enhance the image of
professionalism and productivity in the industry by enabling a continued personal development scheme.
and safety compliance
the industry by attracting new entrants to a more professional and higher quality sector.
traders from the industry by enforcing a basic level of competence at entry level.
the economy by improving confidence of homeowners and other consumers .
by making health and safety testing an entry criterion for a licence.
to higher standards and providing recourse for poor work.
28
Master Builder
www.fmb.org.uk
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator