Tradesman with no liability insurance

KateLiana27

What has the tradesman actually said?

It may be that he is a decent guy who is fully expecting to pay to rectify his mistake.

It could be that he has no intention of doing it and you have to resort to various legal means to try to get him to - but it sounds like you don't know this yet.

Talk to him first and keep it pleasant. Tell him you understand that he made an honest mistake, and that you would appreciate it if he would make arrangements with the plumber to make good the damage and settle the cost of this with the plumber directly, thanks very much.

mikey72

bengasman wrote: »

The building regs indicate clearly how and where pipes can be put in walls and floors through the relevant guidance notes.

Which regs?

Dry_Rot

In practise most houses have hidden pipes and wires sometimes in the least expected places. It's only recently that legislation has started to address this.

The fact is that these things happen (though you would expect to find wires and pipes in the dividing walls around an airing cupboard, so he's been a bit careless rather than unlucky).

Any half decent contractor would just fall on his sword and pay to get it done, as quickly as possible.

Using contractors with TrustMark accreditation stops this because they are vetted and must keep public liability insurance. Though as previously mentioned, this job wouldn't be worth claiming on; the cover is for last resort big stuff, not nuicance issues like this.

Don't fall out with the contrcator if he coughs up, that's fine. However you should make sure that he understands that you won't be using him again and will tell others to avoid; what if the issue had been a wire, slightly damaged, which caused a fire later? How would he feel if he had blood on his hands.

Also, speaking as a contractor myself; it gets my goat when I see anyone competing in the market by undercutting responsible contractors, who would never save money by letting their essential cover lapse - these are the worst sort of cowboys and they are a threat to customers, responsible contractors and those who work for them (rant over).

bengasman

Dry_Rot wrote: »

Using contractors with TrustMark accreditation stops this

The trustmark is one of the many totally useless Labour initiatives.
It is a paper exercise of boxticking with the main ingredient being: "have you paid all your tax over the past few years" followed by: is the rest of your paperwork ok.

The tradesmen are not vetted on work quality. I found this out when I checked with my local council because it sounded like a great idea.

It turned out that Trustmark is to cowboys what pcso's are for fighting crime: a total waste of space.