Hiring a Contractor? Watch Out For These Red Flags!

As we greet the warm summer weather, we begin to see roofers, landscapers, waterproofers, and many other contractors busy improving our neighbours’ homes. Good contractors deliver quality work at a fair price within more or less the promised schedule. They help save your money, time, and energy, so that you stay safe and can focus on your day-to-day responsibilities. Unfortunately, contractors are a dime a dozen, and the real challenge is screening for the good ones who you can trust your precious home with. Based on our experience as residential property managers in Ontario, here are some useful tips for you to consider when hiring your next contractor:

Take a deep dive into your contractor.

• Conduct online background search. Check out your contractor’s reviews on Google, Homestars, Yelp, Facebook Business Pages, and other local social platforms. Look for recent reviews of a contractor as their business may have changed owners, and watch out for fake reviews that contain impersonal avatars and overly generic wording.
• Review references and current projects. Request previous client references from your contractor to assess their strengths and weaknesses. If your contractor is willing to provide a tour of their current projects, take the opportunity to see the work in person and even meet with their current client. Professionally produced media online will hide a lot of imperfections and can be misleading.
• Confirm licenses and certifications, if applicable. For contractors that work in the fields requiring licenses, you should confirm that they have the proper licenses or certifications in place. In Ontario, for example, all plumbers must have a certification and electricians need to be licensed. Other trades, however, don’t have such requirements, such as for painters, bricklayers, and tile setters.
• Request for insurances. Ask for certificates of insurances, such as workers compensation and general liability. Having insurance might not seem like a big deal, but you could be on the hook for a lot of damages if something goes wrong.

Sales tactics come in all forms.

• Understand why they’re cheaper. Some contractors are able to charge lower fees to their customers by spending less on marketing fees or real estate space. On the other hand, some do so, because they don’t carry appropriate insurance, don’t invest in training, or keep up-to-date with the most recent technology. With unusually low bids, watch out for any line items that should’ve been factored in the budget. This may also reflect the contractor’s lack of experience in providing estimates, resulting in significant delays, loss of interest in the project, and even the contractor folding their business, along with financial overruns and headaches for you as the client.
• Don’t rely solely on the ROI. Beware of contractors who talk up the Return-on-Investment or ROI that you’ll get for your next project. Although numbers are clear and easy to understand, some contractors will try to overstate financial metrics to get you to spend more.
• Get a detailed, written estimate. Avoid broad estimates, and require the contractor to write down all the steps in the job, with figures and a full written schedule and timeline. Don’t trust the timeline that sounds too good to be true.
• Bad-mouthing others is unattractive. Beware of contractors who badmouth their competition when trying to win your business. They should be highlighting the strengths of their own services, rather than dragging down others that you may be considering.
• Unusual down payments. There’s no “standard” amount for the deposit or retainer as this depends largely on what’s involved in the job, but a contractor typically shouldn’t ask for more than 10% of the contract value. Many contractors already don’t require a deposit or retainer, especially for the smaller jobs.

Make sure to have everything that is negotiated on paper! Photo by Gabrielle Henderson.

Your personal styles just don’t mesh.

• It’s not just you. If you have children or pets, make sure you have a contractor who is comfortable working in an environment with them present. (As a note to yourself, don’t let your kids or pets come into the job site. Wall studs may have sharp nails sticking out, subflooring may not be screwed down yet, and tools are in use throughout the site — none of these are safe for your kids or pets!)
• Be honest with yourself. Ask yourself what kind of client you are: are you a low- or high-maintenance client? Do you need your contractor to talk to you on a daily basis? Do you want the contractor to run the jobsite, or do you actually want to run it instead?
• Some things you find out afterwards. Unfortunately, sometimes you can only find out about certain things once you’ve already engaged the contractor. Contrary to your first impression of the contractor, you may start realizing that the contractor shows up late and is constantly making excuses, not admitting to their faults and displays lack of interest in having a conversation with you. To make matters worse, they might start becoming difficult to be reached.

Not getting the right permits.

• Not everything requires permits. As there are many building permit exceptions, your contractor should be well-versed on the scope of work that needs permitting and advise you accordingly. Legitimate contractors will include the permit fees in the contract before they begin a project.
• Safety over costs. Building a safe structure minimizes your liabilities and the first step in this effort is obtaining a building permit. A building permit essentially protects the current homeowner and the future homeowner, so that neither party needs to worry about an improperly built wooden deck collapsing and hurting people.
• Permits help with sales. Permits provide a record of inspected and approved work. If you sell your home, you can offer permitted work as evidence of an improved home, driving your home price higher. Permits also allow your realtor to enhance the property marketing as a home with extras!
• Contractor’s principles and reputation. Intentionally not pulling a permit when required implies an unethical nature and character of the contractor. Not just that, municipal inspectors talk amongst one another and have keen insights in the industry. Sooner or later they’ll be bound to stop by the job site or find out through other means.

At the end of the day, not every contractor or the job is the same. You should find a contractor whose work and craftsmanship you respect and admire, as it’s difficult to get more personal than your home. Once you find that contractor you can rely on, that’s when things start falling into place, and you might even want to recommend them to all your friends and family! And if you don’t want to deal with this at all, feel free to reach out to the Tolobi Team at concierge@tolobi.com to learn more about our property management services.