The Bait and Switch Contractor

In renovations, a bait and switch is very easy to do. There as so many different materials and products that go into a project. If your contractor decides to substitute something with a lower priced alternative, how are you to know?

And what about when the guy that sells himself as a reputable contractor, and then, once the contract is signed, you never see him again because he was just a salesman and you find yourself dealing with someone else entirely?

These bait and switches happen all the time, unfortunately. There is another, even more subtle one that I heard from an unhappy homeowner; her contractor quoted an allowance for plumbing fixtures for her project that turned out to be no where near enough to buy the level of quality he implied was possible.

All these bait and switches have a common characteristic; They leave you with some kind of expectation during the contract negotiations that the contractor knows won’t be met in the construction.

You spend time with the contractor during contract negotiations. He seems like a nice person—someone you can work with—and sign a contract with him even though the price was a little higher than the other candidates.

 “Terrific!” he says as he takes your deposit, “We’ll start Monday.” Then on Monday, some guy you never met with the name of another company on the side of his truck shows up and starts tearing up your house. It is likely and legitimate that the subtrades like electrician and plumbing will be separate companies, but not the site supervisor or the labourer that is on site every day.

You have a right to full disclosure on who will be on site every day.

You have a right to full disclosure on who will be on site every day, how change orders will be billed, what products will be supplied and how they will perform. You are right to expect your contractor to communicate exactly what will happen, spell out how the job will go and, most importantly, anticipate areas where—because you don’t know as much as he knows about construction and shouldn’t be expected to—he needs to be proactive in explaining things.