1 In 3 Homeowners Have Experienced Poor Quality Workmanship

Over a third of Irish homeowners have experienced poor quality workmanship first hand in the course of carrying out home improvements.

As part of an AA Home Insurance of over 3,000 homeowners, 34.98% of those surveyed stated that they had personally experienced bad practice from a tradesperson or service provider when having work done to their home in the past. Furthermore, 10.47% of those surveyed stated that in addition to having first-hand experience of poor quality workmanship, they also knew of at least one family member, friend, or neighbour who had had a similar experience.

An additional 27.33% of survey respondents stated that while they had never personally experienced poor standards when having work done to their property, they knew of at least one family member or friend who had fallen victim to this.

“Having any kind of work or renovations done to your property can be a chaotic experience at the best of times, but that chaos is only compounded if you find yourself dealing with a shoddy builder or service provider,” Conor Faughnan, AA Director of Consumer Affairs stated. “More seriously, the costs of such an experience can really mount up. Best case scenario you find yourself paying a better tradesperson or provider to fix the mistakes of the first one, but in more extreme cases expensive, lasting damage may be done to your property so it’s important to research any tradesperson that you allow into your home.”

Of those who had fallen victim to poor workmanship in the past, 1 in 7 were successful in achieving any kind of recourse. Just 14.44% of those surveyed were able to recover at least a part of the cost of repairing any damage done by the tradesperson in question.

“Before letting any tradesperson or builder into your home it’s important to check that they have liability insurance in place, as in most cases your home insurance will not cover any damage caused by a professional,” Faughnan added. “Ensuring that any professional working on your home has this insurance in place should help to make achieving recourse easier should the worst happen while the renovations are on-going.”