Recently I had an unfortunate and expensive experience.
I am writing this as a warning to the senior citizens of the North Shore who may need to employ trades people to make repairs in their homes.
This summer our sundeck had some rot in the flooring that needed to be repaired quickly. I telephoned a person who had an ad in the paper and asked him to come and give us an estimate for the work. That happened quite quickly and because he could start work fairly soon he got the job on the strength of a handshake and his assurance of how well he would look after us.
My big mistake was I didn’t do any background checks or get other quotes for the job.
His first request was for a cheque to buy materials which I gave him and it was quickly cashed. He finally started the job two weeks later than expected and spent approximately 17 hours on it.
One afternoon at 2:30 p.m. he stated packing his tools in his van and said the job was finished. I wrote a cheque for the final amount and gave it to him. In the meantime, while he was still packing up, my husband and I had a closer look at his work and decided some of it we couldn’t accept and we told him so.
Right away he promised to come back later and replace some of the substandard wood.
A week later on Saturday morning he came back and my son happened to be at the house. My son asked some questions about the safety of the deck then told the tradesman he had done a poor job for us as he had used some third-rate materials and had overcharged for the job.
The reply we got was that the tradesman felt he had been insulted and he left. A portion of the work will now have to be redone at an additional expense by another contractor.
I am not looking for sympathy because at my age I should have known better.
It turns out that I can’t lodge a complaint against the tradesman who did the work as I found out from both North Vancouver City and District halls that he doesn’t have a business licence.
Through this, I have learned the hard way to be on your guard when you employ someone to work on your home.
Isobel Medcalf
North Vancouver
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
