What Can You Do If A Tradesman Wrecks Your Home During Renovations?

*This is a collaborative post on what to do if a tradesman wrecks your home during a home renovation

If you are doing some home renovations and there are jobs that are too advanced for you to do on your own, you’ll need to call out a tradesman. Doing your research and finding somebody reliable is vital because not every tradesman is going to do a quality job.

In most cases, you’ll be able to find somebody good and they’ll do a perfect job. But what if they don’t know what they’re doing and they end up causing damage to your home. This is a tough situation to deal with but you can resolve it if you take action immediately. Here’s what you should do if a tradesman wrecks your home during a renovation.

Take Lots of Photos

The first thing you should do is take photos of the damage. This evidence will be vital if things go sour later on because it shows exactly what damage was done. If you have comparison pictures, that’s a huge help, so consider taking photos of the house before work gets started. You need to be able to prove that they have caused damage if you want to get it fixed. So this is the most important step.

Ask The Tradesman To Fix It

It’s always a good idea to ask the tradesman to fix the damage they’ve caused. They might agree and do it at their own expense. Sometimes, mistakes are made by qualified people and they’ll be happy to tie up any loose ends if you are unhappy. Unfortunately, sometimes a tradesman will be unwilling to fix the damage and they may claim that it wasn’t their fault or there is nothing wrong with the work. In this case, you need to take further action

Find Out About Their Insurance

Every tradesman should have insurance, so it’s a good idea to find out what their policy covers. They should have specialist tradesman insurance to cover any damage that they cause on a job. Ask them whether they have this insurance and if they can make a claim to pay for the damages. It’s always a good idea to check that they are insured before you hire them to avoid this situation in the first place. Hopefully, they will have the right coverage and you can get the money to pay for the work to be done again.

Consider Taking Legal Action Against The Tradesman

If they agree to fix the damage but don’t actually do it, or they outright refuse, you need to consider taking legal action. This is a last resort and nobody wants to go down this route because it’s expensive and wastes time. The important thing in this situation is that you have taken every possible step before going to court and suing somebody for damages. This is where those pictures you took earlier will come in handy. You should also keep hold of any messages and emails you send to them so you can prove that they are not willing to fix the damage.

Hopefully, you won’t have to take legal action but if you accidentally hire a bad tradesman. But, you should be prepared to take action if you need to.