Hello Dear Reader,
What a day! My bank and my solicitors don’t speak the same language. Yesterday, my bank, you know to company totalsoddin’liars.com told me they had faxed everything over to my solicitors and I believed then. My bad! Today,I was informed by solicitors that nothing happened yesterday.Next, my solicitors informed me that the bank wanted to see the hard copy of the survey. I had then to phone the bank to be told they didn’t know what the solicitors were talking about. We were supposed to exchange contracts with all parties yesterday! Today, my legal firm utterlyincompetentidiots.co.uk told me to come in an we would sort everything out. I could pass the phone to my solicitor and everything would work like a well-oiled machine. The outcomes, after some technowizardry, the surveyors saw the survey for real, they told the middle men and the middle men told the bank and the bank told my solicitors. Dairymaids, Alderneys and a bit of butter comes to mind! You would think everything would be up and running by then but no! utterlyincompetentidiots.co.uk then went to lunch leaving me with all confidence that the exchange would take place today. So, with great expectations that something had actually been done, I phoned back after lunch to be told that the solicitor and his secretary never work after 2pm on a Friday…………………NFC as we would say round here…………normal for Cornwall! I think their waterworks were definitely on the blink as they were definitely taking the ****!
If you think highly trained lawyers, brokers and bankers can louse up your day, just think of the consequences if a someone in trade can do when let loose on your house! I am lining up work to be done on my new house. Some of which needs to be done as soon as possible. I need a new toilet and sink installing downstairs in a large cupboard in the utility room and I need the boiler and gas fire serviced before I will use them.
In fact, if you think my legal debacle is long winded my experience with a plumber in my previous home makes that seem painless. We bought our previous house for a pittance and then proceeded to spend more than it was worth making it livable. When we moved in, there were three boilers in the house all of which were totally antiquated. We decided to have everything ripped out, new boiler installed and the central heating system updated. We didn’t know any plumbers and relied on the previous version of Google called the yellow pages and phoned around for quotes. We found a plumber who was totally proficient who turned out to be totally officious in our home. It started badly with him referring it as a being ‘on site’. We were in the way, the kids were a nuisance and the dog barked. My thought being ‘so what’, we live here and so do two kids and a dog!
He made our life a living hell and we counted down the minutes until he left. Now days, his reputations would have gone round the net with reviews and we could have made a decision that he may not have been flexible enough to work around us and could have looked for someone else. We’ve been really lucky since and have used the Internet to find reviews and recommendations and can make an informed choice. I can also check out the legalities of the documents that trades folk need to carry such as a ‘Gas safe’ card and public liability insurance. Most trades can now produce a folder of all the legals and want you to check them.
We recently checked out a recommended plumber who could come and install a new toilet and sink downstairs for us and were able to feel quite at ease after checking www.watersafe.org.uk.
I found these facts on their website
• When choosing a plumber, 69% state cost as the deciding factor
• 23% have been the victim of a rogue plumber, while 23% know someone who has
• Of those who have been victim of a rogue plumber, the average cost to put it right is £426
• When looking for a plumber, 68% ask family or friends, 27% ask their neighbour, 25% go on the internet
• Only 21% go on to check the credentials of their plumber.
We had a wood pellet boiler installed 5 years ago for hot water and central heating and have had nothing but trouble ever since. I must add that we didn't choose the plumbers; the wood pellet boiler engineer said he had to choose them as he had trained them especially to install the plumbing for these 'new boilers'. It took them twice as long as they said it would, during which time we couldn't stay in the house as floorboards were up everywhere! On the few occasions we did have contact with them, they were carping off about the engineer non stop (team work?) and the larger plumber was having trouble getting under our floorboards and was effing and blinding like nobody's business (in front of my young son). When they finally left, they forgot to put the upstairs carpet back. Later that night we discovered water dripping through the bedroom ceiling. A few days later the hot water tank overheated and vented/sprayed water all over the airing cupboard soaking everything!
The heating has never worked properly because the plumbers have used microbore pipes downstairs which are too narrow, and a wide pipe to carry hot water to the upstairs radiators, so it's a battle to get the downstairs radiators hot as all the water naturally goes upstairs (I don't need heating in the bedroom!). In 5 years we have gone through 4 pumps which is costing us a fortune to replace. So now we need to carry out more work to avoid burning out these pumps every year.
Oh Froogs, I can sympathise. Like you, we have now found a friendly plumber. Good luck! x
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How bloody frustrating about the bank and solicitor. Imagine if teachers walked off after lunch and said, “Oh, we don't work after 2pm.” At the very least they could have told you earlier, or seen the job through!
As to tradies, we had a guy break a huge number of tiles on our roof. Yes, they were old and fragile and needed replacing, but he didn't need to walk on them. Cost to us, as he disappeared: $10,000 for new roof. Haven't costed the internal repairs to the ceiling yet.
Luckily we don't need a boiler for heating, and our hot water systems are kept outside in Australia, so most leaks or dead hot water systems don't take much to replace or repair.
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A lot of our debt was caused by a workman who came in and did some work for me, he charged by the hour but was not a professional. The new kitchen and bathroom looked great when he had finished but months later water was leaking from under the kitchen sink, he had not plumbed the disposal in properly. The overflow pipes froze in the winter and the shower he had put in for us leaked.
My daughters friend from school who was an apprentice plumber on £100 per week, came and fixed it all for us. Did a great job. Hes now qualified and hes the first person we call on.
Hope you get your house move sorted out soon.
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no problem, just tell everyone who won't work after 2pm that you don't pay after 2pm!
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It is soooo annoying that you have to pay solicitors to do the job when quite often you end up doing half the work of go-between yourself. Its often the same with estate agents too. How can businesses that are so incompetent make so much money? I do hope everything gets sorted out quickly for you and that you'll soon be all settled in your lovely new home.
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Froogs
When your solicitor took you on they should have provided you with a client care letter (known in the trade as a Rule 2 letter confirming your instructions and the advice given and the fine print is usually contained on the Terms of Business document. These are Law Society requirements. Friday is always a busy day in a solicitors office as it is usually when they have the most completions but also Exchanges of Conract binding all parties to the conractual agreemen and it is when tempers get frayed as people want their keys so that they can move in. At the firm I work for we usually let the client know if their Lawyer is not going to be around on the day set for completion and they usually leave in the capable hands of a colleague. Having a Friday afternoon off seems a bit bizarre. If you are unhappy with the service that you have received speak to the solicitor/lawyer who has dealt with you and ask for a copy of their complaints policy (if you put this in writing the solicitor will have to deal with it within a very short period of time or send a letter to the Senior Partner of the firm outlining your concerns based on the information that you had been provided with and expressing your concern about not being told that the solicitor was not contactable on a Friday afternoon. At the least someone else within the firm should have dealt with your concerns and got someone to contact you back. After all you are paying for a service and most lawyers take client care extremely seriously.
Word of mouth is the way we these days choose tradesmen. A personal recommendation is worth its weight in gold. Living in rented accommodation where the landlord provides tradesmen who are employed to do a job as cheaply as possible we have seen some horrors over the years and would not employ one of them.. Finding a good one is to find a treasure hold on to them and share them round your friends. I hope the problems with the house resolve themselves quickly.
Pattypan
x
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My mum had a friend of a friend and trained plumber come and install a new shower about 10 years ago. He had all the documents and did it at a good price and in good time. We only found out a few months ago that the job he did with wiring it up to the mainboard, was so bad, it could have caused a fire at any time.
So scary to think what could have happend
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Blimey Froogs, I hope you manage to get it all sorted, maybe you should charge them an hourly rate for your time in this matter! Sending you a big cyber hug!!
San xxx
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As our current mortgage is a “self build” mortgage we only had a choice of five lenders. Then once we asked if they would lend in Northern Ireland it brought our choice down to one!!!
We completed our house in 5 months from the day we got planning permission. The mortgage took 4 months to pay out the first drawdown! So frustrating when you have builders working for nothing.
Luckily we knew all our trades men, they were mostly made up from friends Our plumber is a relative so plumbed our house with great care and attention - after reading your story I am feeling very lucky!
Five of our radiators started to rust and as we hardly have them on we called Mr Plumber and he arrived the next day took them away and had them replaced with brand new ones the day after! Shame your on the mainland or I could of shared his number.
Hopefully Monday will bring better news of professionals (using this term very loosely) actually doing their jobs efficiently! x
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Froogs, most people expect the vendor to undertake and pay for a boiler and fire service before they will exchange.
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1. When we were selling parent's home that we owned, the lawyer called to tell me I was dead and husband was bankrupt. Well at least we all thought it was funny thankfully. He took care of it over the weekend and the check was deposited in our account without delay.
2. Here in our part of the US, we have a company called Angie's List that gathers service reviews for a huge number of service providers. It is considered an honor to be a Super Provider. We pay a fee to join and get recommendations graded A-F with details. Got the best siding and window guy that way.
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When we were selling a house in New York, the lawyer called to tell us I was dead and my husband was bankrupt. Thankfully we all got a laugh out of it. The lawyer took care of it over the weekend and the check was deposited in our account.
We have a huge referral service here where I live in the US called Angies List. You join and can get all the service reports for hundreds of categories, even doctors. People compete to get Super Service Provider rights.
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A year ago we bought the house we were renting. Considering we were already living here, keeping everything in the house and there was no chain this should have been simple. But it took 4 months to complete - no idea why. Like you, we got told one thing by the bank and another by the conveyencing agency. I don't know how they earn their money! Xx
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I would love an extra loo having only ever lived in houses with one! Good luck for better tradespeople this time!
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One lesson I have learned.
Never have friends of friends do a job “on the cheap”, 'cause you will end up with a half done job. And no courage to tell them how angry you are since they are “friends”. I did'nt ever do that personally but watched my ex boss do it over and over again.
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That is horrendous - it looks like something my cousin (we call him Arthur because he does 'half a job') would do. I DO NOT recommend him to people or would have him do jobs for us either!
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When we moved into our newly built house it took only months before the plumbing started to go wrong.It took me almost 3 years to find the right plumber! In the meantime I came across all sorts of statements by plumbers including this, my favourite: that using my washing machine was the reason why my shower leaked??!!!
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The last time we needed a tradie it was for an electrician to install one ceiling fan. We rang a chap who lives around the corner but he refused to come because the job was too small. We rang dozens but couldn't get anyone for the same reason. Finally a chap said he would do the job and we made a date. My husband took the day off work but the trade never arrived. No phone call before or after his missed appointment. Hubbie chased him up and the bloke had an excuse….he was in the emergency department and couldn't call. My gullible husband believed him and made another time. He learnt his lesson when he took another day off work and the tradie never turned up again. Months passed and we found another tradesman. This time they did turn up. It took two young chaps about 45mins to install the fan. In the process they cracked my plastered ceiling through carelessness. We were billed $350 for the electrical works and the fan cost us $150. The ceiling still has cracks in it.
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