Shady tradies are on the rise
An Official Information Act (OIA) request has revealed customers dealing with construction tradespeople who falsely claim to be licensed is a fairly common problem.
Over the last year, consumer watchdog Commerce Commission has fielded nine complaints from property owners who hired electricians, plumbers, and builders who falsely claimed to be licensed building practitioners (LBP), master builders, or members of other industry groups that required licensing and formal training.
More commonly, consumers who discover they have hired someone unlicensed complain to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment.
The Ministry received 38 complaints about non-LBPs in the 2016/17 financial year, it said.
Andrew Maloney, a Christchurch builder, was fined $10,000 by the Christchurch District Court this week for claiming to be a LBP when he was hired by a construction company in July, 2016.
Maloney carried out work that was restricted building work and required under the Buildlng Act to be done and signed off by an LBP.
Construction tradespeople who falsely claim to be licensed are in violation of the Act and the Fair Trading Act.
But even licensed builders can leave customers high and dry.
Consumer New Zealand chief executive Sue Chetwin said that the resolution process for construction tradespeople was not clear to customers, and there was often a lack of accountability.
New Zealand certified builders’ chief executive Grant Florence said the licensing scheme run by MBIE also had ’’major shortcomings’’.
Florence said it may surprise many customers that the LBP scheme allowed builders without formal trade qualifications to hold a licence.
He called for more ‘‘robust minimum standards for training and skills’’ to be developed, a ‘‘formal standardised training pathway’’ linked to the licencing that included more business acumen.
Many of the complaints to the Commerce Commission in the last year regarding construction services involved billing issues.
Some builders failed to include GST in initial quotes, left unexplained charges, or charged consumers full price for secondhand parts. The majority of the rest of complaints referred to shoddy or incomplete work.
Narrowing the field to complaints to the services of tradespeople, found the construction boom has ushered in a rise in these kinds of complaints.
In 2013 the commission received 20 complaints regarding individual tradespeople, which more than doubled to 53 in 2016.
So far this year, the commission has received 47 complaints about individual construction tradespeople, excluding complaints against service providers.
The recommendations in the Department of Internal Affairs Rules Reduction Taskforce Report included ‘‘getting serious about lifting the skills of the building sector’’.
Florence said work on implementing these recommendations ‘‘[appeared] to have come to a grinding halt’’.
Building Act reforms from 2015 include a requirement for there to be a written contract for residential building work over $30,000.
It also added requirements around disclosure of guarantee products and warranties for defective work, but stopped short of introducing mandatory guarantees, he said.