Halo drops builder insolvency clause: https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/cer...

Oh well that’s ok then because at least we still have Registered Master Builders to look out for the consumer (said with all the sarcasm I can muster because we all know they’re as helpful as tits on a bull) but I do agree with the payment schedule part, don’t hand over anything until you are sure they’ve done the work properly. The problem with this is that how are we (the consumer) supposed to know if the job is done properly or not? Most of us don’t have any building knowledge and although the council come in and sign stuff off at certain intervals we can’t expect them to pull up the builder on things that don’t relate to their inspections at the time. We had to pay a third party who had all the accreditation under the sun, to come and put together a full report on what was wrong with our shed, and that cost us $1500. A small price to pay I know but unfortunately that was after we handed over majority of the money for our build and now we have to fight to claw some of it back. How do we effectively set the benchmark for the building work if a payment plan is set? And who oversees it? Clearly you can’t trust the builder as they’ll say whatever they need to in order to get they’re hands on your cash and the council are only partially responsible for certain areas of your build, any ideas anyone?

Hi Melanie, this all comes down to doing your due diligence as to your build provider. Not all builders are con men but there are a hell of a lot out there doing builds that are absolutely shit and do not have the skill set to complete what they have taken on. W get asked all the time to go in and rectify others work and we always say no. The reason behind this is that the home owner then doesn’t want to pay the good builder to rectify the bad workmanship and one is always walking into a hostile and negative environment so is on the backfoot to start with. The current qualification skill lbp system is majorly flawed in that a builder who has done 1 footing session or slab lay to gain their accreditation and has never done one since still is able to ply their trade by offering these services to joe public. Our lbp system is not skill focused for repeat activity to maintain a qualification. NZ needs a system whereby the type of work a builder does keeps them relevant to their build skill set. We know of builders who have only stood precast walls for residential companies yet they can tender on and secure a timber house build having no clue as to how to complete it and ask for external help. Our industry is fraught with bad builders taking earnest people’s money and it is so wrong. The other side of the fence is that there are a hell of a lot of sharks wanting a build not wanting to pay for it (not saying that is you). We choose who our customers are and are blessed to work with fantastic clients who repetitively use our services. Ps: we also work with a fantastic excavator operator who recommends our services repeatedly as he knows our ethos and we make him look good and vice versa. No good contractor is going to recommend a bad builder. Cheers

Been there, seen it, suffered the pain, paid twice for most of it and I can only recommend the following as nothing else has worked so far, not even the threat of court has worked. Mafia ? Voodoo dolls and large pins ? Witchcraft ? Prayer ?