Hiring Someone To Work On The Home While On Thanksgiving Vacation?

Hiring the Right Contractor: For quite a few Seattle homeowners, and some similarly situated, the holiday season is also a time to break free from the redundancy of their regular abodes to indulge in the allure of a small vacation. Some will travel abroad for the experience, but most will be happy just visiting with relatives and friends in neighboring counties, and states [Idaho and Oregon]. Some even scoot over to British Columbia [close enough]. After all, it’s great therapy visiting with others they haven’t seen as regularly as they wanted. But now that they’re going to have a bit of time off from the usual affairs of life. Why not? And for a few, it’s the perfect time to hire someone to make a few repairs around the house while they’re gone. Maybe new gutters are needed, or new carpet. Perhaps the kitchen cabinets, or countertops require replacing. It could be anything we need done within the time we’ll be away. Certainly, nothing wrong with going on Thanksgiving vacation, then returning to find, for example, the moderate sized bathroom they left for the contractor to refurbish, absolutely renewed. Sparkling new cabinetry topped with an adorable basin, and with an upgraded Aqua Velva single handle faucet. And the tub’s got one, too. New tile. Better illumination, et al. Of course, the heads-up is that they hired the right contractors who owned proven records for being competent to deliver in the given timeframe for their ‘triumphant return.’

In Case We’re Tempted: If by chance we have a thing or two we’ve been itching to get done by contractors while we’re away, we might want to have the right one lined up for our own ‘triumphant return.’ We don’t want to return to discover the work we’ve requested in disarray, or worse yet, not started. For sure, that’s absolutely unimaginable …. This is especially for those who haven’t experienced it, or haven’t heard of one or the other betrayal happening to someone we know. So, if we’re anticipating recruiting a Seattle-based tradesperson to firm the place up a bit while we’re on Thanksgiving vacation, let’s be certain we make the right choice, okay? This is particularly concerning in lieu of an event which reportedly occurred a while back. Although this didn’t happen in Seattle, bad contractors do, and they apparently tend to be exceptionally motivated during the holiday seasons. And oftentimes, they make a myriad of promises they don’t intend to keep….. . So, we can find that this account [although it occurred in the state of Vermont] offers an invaluable vicarious experience about what some miscreant individuals working in Seattle residential areas are capable of in our own state. It would be somewhat naïve of us to discount the proposition that the deviant segment of Seattle contractors in our midst aren’t capable of engaging identical shenanigans. Only difference is the location. Most importantly, Seattleites can still enormously benefit learning from the shortcomings, or experiences of other private home decision-makers out of state. Caveat: just because we haven’t witnessed coverage of the kind of offense we’re about to broach, also occurring in Seattle, it doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened, much less, that it won’t. When it does, we probably won’t hear a whisper about it because incidents of home improvement fraud in Seattle don’t show up as much as they should in the news. In effect, the absence of more frequent coverage and reporting of home improvement improprieties in our neck of the woods can cause us to be under informed and less prepared to re-calibrate against certain scandalous scenarios. But Seattle has a confirmed problem in this area Ref. Now for our story ……

Trust Betrayed: Several years ago, a couple homeowners in Vermont reportedly hired a contractor to remodel their bathroom shortly before they embarked on their Thanksgiving vacation. It’s believed some time before the affected couple took off for their wonderful excursion, they disbursed to the contractor a reasonable down payment towards time, labor, and materials. All good. In this way, while they were on vacation he wouldn’t be left to shoulder all the costs and expenses entailed, alone. Plus, they were very appreciative of his availability for expertly making over the bathroom while they were freed up to get away for a while. No doubt they were amazingly confident about their project being in good hands. The finished bathroom would actually be icing on the cake! Champagne anyone? As it’s said, ‘The stuff dreams are made of.’ But this one took a turn for the worse. At least that’s according to the given account. When they were back from having perhaps such an amazing time away, very likely their hopes were high about not only how much better the bathroom would look, but also about how much more convenient it would be to use. Evidently, since the contractor wasn’t there, that might’ve been a first sign or somewhat of an expected confirmation that the work was completed as planned. It wasn’t. Plainly, the bathroom wasn’t finished. Furthermore, as it appears, the contractor wasn’t readily accessible to return to the property to fulfill his end of the arrangement. Ghosted! Apparently, he was nowhere willing to be found. Yet that was only the tip of the iceberg. Source: Rutland Herald.

Summary: For a fact, as it seems, there are home improvement fraud events occurring throughout Seattle. For one reason or another there’s not much journalism about it. Every once in a while isn’t good enough. And it’s a reasonable proposition that identical offenses [like defaulting on projects while residents are away] which are committed against private home decision-makers in other states, are also prevalent in Seattle. We just don’t get to hear or know about them. Suffice to say, dishonest people in neighborhood contracting own a common thread: making promises they don’t keep. In this view, if we’re anticipating hiring contractors for short-term repair or remodeling projects to be complete by or before we return from vacation, we need to be certain they’ll deliver within the given time-frame. Notably, in a previous Patch article, ‘Does Seattle Have Social Discussion Events For Protecting Home Projects? [2 0f 2],’ the author offered the following special preventative experiment for Seattle private home decision makers use. It can add an extra layer of protection against being manipulated into trusting a contracting entity or individual contractor who really doesn’t make the grade for being trusted on your property while you’re away. Here’s the slightly edited encore for that experiment. Lean in:

Critical Contractor Vetting Experiment: This experiment is for testing your awareness with regard to services offered by contractors. However, before we launch into it , please note that the author identifies contractors as not only contracting entities engaged in facets of home improvement like renovating, remodeling, window replacement, driveway specialties, small construction, repairs, fences, and gates, masonry, major painting, carpentry, electrical, HVAC-R, roofing, and so on. But among a few which can be missed are those who make home visits, and dispatch personnel in special professions like appliance repair, solar panel and other home installations, chimney sweeping, tree removal, odor and other kinds of remediation, private junk removal, asbestos abatement, and more. Nevertheless, contractors representing any of these vocations in Seattle, and practically anywhere else in the State of Washington, might be required be duly licensed, bonded, and insured. All said, if you anticipate using the services of tradespeople representing any of these vocations, or others while you’re away for Thanksgiving festivities, Christmas, or for other special occasions, you might want to start with discovering whether they meet the requirements of the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, first. If the contracting entity or tradesperson doesn’t appear in the state’s contractor portal, there must be a reason. You might want to check with the company or individual you’ve got in mind for an explanation. So, without further ado, here’s the exercise:

• Virtually visit Labor & Industries [L&I] using your device [phone, laptop, pc].
• Enter the name of the company in the space L & I provides.
• Enter the name of the person who claims to own or manage the operation [principal].
• Search carefully.
• If you don’t locate the company name, you might want to inquire with the company for an explanation.

Contact Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, NOW:

https://lni.wa.gov/licensing-permits/contractors/hiring-a-contractor/verify-contractor-tradesperson-business

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

God Bless You, Your Family, and You Home!