I have had a shocking experience with shonky tradies and then again by NCAT or at least its predecessor. I will try to keep this short.
Since I did not know anyone who had recently had work done, I found the tradie via one of the tradie sites. I posted the job - renovation of a two bedroom unit including complete gut of kitchen and bathroom. Several tradies answered the ad, I interviewed them and then did site visits with three of them and got quotes. Then I checked with Dept Fair Trading to ensure the one I preferred was qualified and licensed for the job including whether they could even write a contract.
I finally decided on one tradie for all the painting and bathroom renovation. Then various other trades for kitchen and flooring. Well it did not go well. The main tradie did not attend when he should have done, was so slow he delayed other people such as the flooring and the kitchen installers.His work quality was poor. He over ran the original time frame such that I was actually homeless because he had not completed work before I had to leave my previous rental unit.
After three weeks being homeless, I was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery. The tradie even came to visit and assured me he would get the job finished before I was released from hospital. He never showed up at the unit again. Work remained unfinished, the bathroom tiling was appalling, the vanity was installed so close to the toilet that your knees were jammed up against it (if you were taller than me you would not be able to use the toilet at all!). The paint job in the entire unit was so poor that the old paint work showed through and that did not even account for all the drips and thickness of the paint on all the woodwork. I got an independent paint report that concluded it was the worst paint job he had seen in 15 years of doing reports for court.
After failing to rectify and complete the job I eventually took my case to NCAT. This was an horrific experience. I soon discovered that the entire system is geared to support the rogue tradie and not the homeowner victim, I was abused and threatened by the tradie, he failed to show up at hearings, failed to lodge any paperwork, demanded to have a solicitor represent him at the tribunal (this bit was denied) sent late medical notes and placed counter suits. He lost at the tribunal then demanded a retrial. He said he had not received a fair hearing! He went to the Administrative tribunal too. He got his retrial and lost again. That is when I discovered that NCAT cannot enforce its own rulings. You have to sue through the courts. He failed to show up in Downing Centre Court, The Supreme Court (I had to sue the ACCC because they de-registered his business for non submission of required paperwork) Lithgow Court - three times. I got a court order to get funds from his bank account but the Court gave him warning and he removed funds from his bank account meaning there was nothing for me to take. The Sherriff was sent three times to his home and he simply refused to acknowledge them.
All through the sorry saga, I won every fight against him but he simply ignored all court ordrs with impunity. No one acted on him. Right at the beginning I made my complaint against the tradie himself because he did the work, and his company because that was who I had the contract with. I discovered at the first hearing at NCAT that I was not allowed to sue the tradie himself only the company. This is absurd!
At the end of the day, there is still a valid court order for compensation that remains outstanding and I have had to pay again to have the bathroom stripped (which showed up even worse issues with the plumbing than I originally knew) and re-installed which meant buying all new tiles and some new fittings, plus having the whole unit repainted.
Once this was all done I discovered he had been before the courts three times in the past. The public is not allowed to know this and there was only one reported on. The fact that this shonk was licensed for all the work he messed up just proves that being registered and being licensed does not denote any level of competency. I went to my local MP, I even had a meeting with the then Minister for Fair Trading but nothing was done then and nothing has changed since. The victim is victimised again by the system and left high and dry. Meanwhile the shonk gets to keep on working with total impunity thumbing their nose at the law and the courts. I even contacted Choice at the time who just said ‘yes we know the system is awful but we are not interested’. Seven years on little has changed.
I even posted here three years ago:
