What happens in a case of renovation gone wrong?

When it’s time to renovate your home, there are a couple of things you need to keep an eye on. Firstly, you need to know and be sure of what your dream home should look like. Secondly, you have to be aware of your rights as a client when you renovate. Even if you do thorough research to find a reputable handyman, there’s always the risk of things going wrong. But luckily, you have the law on your side. So you don’t need to worry if the worst should happen.

The absolute most important thing with all orders from handymen is to make sure you have documentation of the communication. Email rather than call and be clear about what you want. Use both text and images and carefully read the quotes you receive. This way you can always go back and check what was said. And you can also compare and see if the end result is what was agreed upon.

If anything goes wrong, you always have the right to demand that the handyman corrects the error. Then the handyman has to bear any costs resulting from correcting the error. This applies to both material, travel and labor costs.

Just as you have the right to have any wrongdoings corrected, the handyman also has the right to correct the error. By that we mean that the handyman doesn’t have to make any deductions to the price as a first option. If you want the handyman to lower the cost of the job as a first attempt of righting the wrong, the handyman can refuse you that.

If the handyman can’t correct the fault

If it’s impossible for the handyman to correct the error, you are, however, entitled to a deduction from the price. The deduction should correspond to the error. For example, it could be the amount of what it costs you to hire another handyman to correct the error. And if it’s a cosmetic defect, i.e. a defect that has nothing to do with how something functions, the price reduction is usually roughly the same as the reduction in value caused by the defect.

Revoking an agreement means that the agreement is no longer valid and that any work that has been started immediately stops. Since errors occured means the handyman has already started the work, you can’t revoke the entire contract. However, you can revoke parts of the agreement. Then you don’t have to pay the handyman for the parts that’s been revoked. However, you have to pay for the work the handyman has already performed. The handyman also has the right to claim back materials that won’t be used due to cancellation of the job. If it involves greater inconvenience and costs for you to return the material, they can’t request it back.

The handyman has to advise you from unnecessary work

As a handyman, you have to notify customers of any work deemed unnecessary. By that, we mean that if the customer wants help sanding their patio, but the handyman sees that the entire patio actually needs to be redone, the handyman has to let you know. This is because otherwise, there will be additional costs for you as a client sand a patio that you then have to tear down.

If your handyman doesn’t advise you against work that they know is unnecessary, you generally only need to pay for the part of the work the handyman performs before seeing that any continuing work done is unnecessary. As a handyman, you have to advise against the primary agreement and instead try to agree on work that gives the sustainable result each customer wants without it leading to additional costs in the long run.