You have been thinking of remodeling your kitchen or bath and now you are ready to take the plunge into the world of remodeling. Like most homeowners you search through magazines for ideas, you watch HGTV, and you visit the many showrooms to see the thousands of options available. So now you search for a contractor with one eye shut hoping to avoid the pitfalls of finding the wrong company and becoming a headline contractor nightmare story on the evening news. So where do you start? What questions do you ask your potential contractor to prevent this from happening?

In our seminars we discussed many powerful ideas that can help homeowners become knowledgeable in this area.
Three mandatory questions to ask your contractor:

1. Can I visit your place of business?
Successful contractors will be happy to show their potential customer their place of business. It shows that you are careful and prudent. Seeing a contractor’s office and shop will tell you how substantial the company is. Look for eqipment that will signify that the contractor is in the business full time. Is the shop neat and organized? Are the office staff and employees pleasant and professional? Does it look like a contractor who is experience in the doing the types of jobs that you need done?

2. Can I see proof or your insurance?
Hiring uninsured or under-insured contractors can expose you to thousands of dollars of risk. Do not take this matter lightly. Make sure you see the proof of liabilty and workmen’s compensation coverage. During our seminars some homeowners said they were given copies of car insurance coverage when they asked to see a policy. Some said they were shown policies with lapsed expiration dates and dates altered with whiteout. Contractor’s pay alot of money for insurance and are happy to provide you with verification that they have it. Professional contractors’ know that the majority of low bid contractors don’t carry the right insurance if they have any at all. This is by far the largest reason why some contractors are half the cost of professional companies. The action to take is call the agent who provided the policy to confirm its coverage and authenticty. You can also be named an additional insured on the Accord form. This will insure that you will be notified if a policy lapses for non payment. This subject will be discussed further in future posts.

3. Can I see a project similar to the one you are doing?
If you are doing a major remodel or addition you may not want a handyman. Ask to see projects similar to the one you are doing. A professional remodeler will be happy to help you confirm that he can handle your project by showing his work. You also will be able to guage the competence of the remodeler by talking to the homeowner.

There are many more questions to ask your potential remodeling contractor which I will share in coming posts. Remember the best protection from a bad contractor experience is self education.

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On March 10th and 11th, I presented a series of seminars on How to Hire a Contractor at the DCU Center Spring Home Show. There were four seminars on Hiring Contractors and three on Design/Build remodeling. All but one was well attended. The How to Hire Seminar included a panel of consumer experts who volunteered their time to answer questions about their experience with consumer complaints from homeowners who had bad contractor experiences.

Our goal was to help homeowners acquire the knowledge they need to qualify contractors before they are hired to perform home improvements. Feedback was very positive.

Our guests were extremely wary of making the wrong choice when hiring a contractor. Their main concern was how to avoid becoming the victim of the nightmare contractor. The guests asked many questions and appeared determined to educate themselves with the tools neccessary to prevent a bad contractor experience.

According to government statistics, available at the Consumer Federation of America website, home improvement contractors are the most complained about industry in the nation. They outrank automobile salesman, and credit and lending complaints. From 1999 to 2004 home improvement contractors had the top ranking for three of the five years.

The panel of experts included a representative from the Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General’s Office, a consumer advocate and a litigation attorney. The homeowners asked questions about insurance, licensing, contractor registration, recourse, permitting, contracts and payment terms. The consistent nature of the questions gravitated around what can one do to avoid hiring the bad contractor.

A few suggestions from the panel of consumer advocates:

• The attorney stated that if he was brought in to represent a homeowner he may win the case but any award would soon be followed by bankruptcy of the contractor. His fee would be paid but more often than not there will be no funds available to pay the award to the homeowner. He suggested do your homework.
• The District Attorney stated there is only enough resources in their fund to prosecute 2-3% of the bad contractors discovered bilking homeowners. He suggested hire a registered and established firm.
• The Consumer Advocate volunteer said the only defense in avoiding a nightmare contractor experience is self education.
• The Better Business Bureau suggested check for complaints with public bureaus and obtain references.
• The consensus of the panel was that homeowners should do everything possible to check out their contractor by doing their homework. If you are the victim of an unscrupulous contractor, chances of recovering lost money is slim to none.

Allthough, there is no sure fire way to prevent bad contractor experiences, it makes sense that consumer education is the first line of defense for homeowners. In my next blog I will share tips on what questions a homeowner should ask when interviewing a contractor.

Last week, Channel 5’s Susan Wornick reported on the hundreds of homeowners who have lodged complaints against Home Depot. She alleged that hundreds of home inprovement projects ordered from Home Depot were poorly installed and had numerous defects. In the news interview, a former Home Depot subcontractor stated that he was told to say he was a Home Depot contractor. When, in reality he was an independent contractor. He went on to say that the project manager couldn’t manage the jobs assigned to him.

In former posts, I spoke about the fact that contractors have the worst reputation in the country of any industry. This news only cements the reputation of contractors providing poor service to homeowners. Who can you trust?

Large retail stores and lumber yards are quickly getting into the installed sales business. This dilemma presents a huge challenge for homeowners all across the country since retail stores don’t have the expertise and experience to work in the remodeling business. The remodeling business will do over 250 billion dollars in business this year. Since this is an attractive growth opportunity for home improvement retailers, I imagine we will see more complaints as retailers try to get a piece of the ‘remodeling business’ pie.

I predict that homeowners will be complaining in droves about the poor service and craftmanship from home improvements ordered through retail stores. I once heard from a wise old man that you can’t be everything to everybody. Maybe the retail giants should do what they do best, sell retail.