Money Minute: How to avoid a renovation nightmare

Jane Van Rooyen had been living in her Ottawa apartment for several years when the building’s new owner decided to renovate.

“He owned a small pub around the corner from student campus, and he said he was hiring his kitchen staff when they weren’t working to start doing some of the work,” says the entrepreneur and creator of Janeovison Dummy Dolls.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for Van Rooyen to see the fault in his plan. Just a month after starting the renovation, one of the kitchen staff cut his hand pretty bad while fiddling with a rusty exactoblade and the wires to her kitchen light.

“They were trying to redo the electrical in the two bedroom apartment I lived in,” she says. “By November I had – and I counted – 62 holes in my walls and ceiling, I could smell the stale beer and pot from the neighbours downstairs through one of the holes.”

The haphazard renovations continued into the winter when Van Rooyen found herself and her roommate sidestepping tarps and oil heaters while picking up damaged personal effects, until finally she took the landlord to mediation. Ultimately, the pair got three months rent covered but the shenanigans highlight an all-too-common thread when it comes to hiring contractors – the pursuit of cheap labour, often comes with cheap results.

You get what you pay for

“People often hire unproven handyman types they meet through a church group or something and that’s turned into a disaster,” says Ric Borski, president and CEO of the Mid-Western and Central Ontario Better Business Bureau.

Case in point, scroll through Consumer Protection Ontario’s list of recent convictions surrounding home repair scam artists and you’ll find a plethora of seedy characters.

In December, a Woodbridge-Ont.-based contractor was sentenced to 60 days in jail and forced to pay restitution for avoiding doing the contracted work and not paying a refund when the clients tried to cancel the contract. In Burlington, Ont., in October, two contractors were sentenced to jail, probation and nearly $100,000 in fines for taking money from clients but skipping out on the work. The list goes on.

“You’ve got to make sure you’re dealing with a reputable company,” says Borski. “Even if you do your due diligence, you can still end up in trouble because there’s just so many pitfalls you have to watch out for.”

That’s why it’s key to get a few quotes. Borski recommends only working with contractors that are willing to go through the proper permitting process and lay out the plans for the job in writing.

“Do not hire someone who is knocking on your door,” says Borski. “People fall prey to this sort of thing – especially senior citizens – because these guys will come up to your door, say they’re working in the neighbourhood or they noticed the concrete on the side of your house is chipping and offer to do these jobs but honestly, I don’t know any reputable company that goes door-to-door begging for work.”

So what happens if you end up hiring a bad seed?

In this week’s Money Minute, we look at how to avoid your dream home makeover turning into a renovation nightmare.