How to avoid bad apples in the renovation market

Buying a house is simple. Owning a house is complicated. To make a house yours, you need to re-fashion it to your liking. That requires renovations, which do not come cheap. As such, you want to be on the lookout for any bad apples in the renovation market.

The average homeowner will spend years to save up for renovation, and some will take up a loan which they spend years to repay. Why lose your hard-earned savings to irresponsible interior designers or contractors who lack the responsibility to do a good job?

Over the last eight years, more than 1,200 victims fell into renovation scams in Singapore. A great percentage of victims did their due diligence and yet, still ended up losing their savings to  black sheep in the industry.

HDB and Small Claims Tribunal can’t help you if the interior designer or contractor shuts down.

The interior design industry is loosely regulated: anyone can register a company, find a space, and start operating business without prior accreditation. There’s no requirement for a history of past work and experience.

To exacerbate the matter, there are companies who simply fold up in the middle of projects. This may happen if they lack the cash to finish the work. There is no tight licensing scheme, or a requirement for interior designers/ contractors to have sufficient capital.

There is also the threat of a long drawn-out renovation, with many delays. Inexperienced contractors or designers may take much longer to complete even simple work.

Here’s how to choose the right renovation company

1. Check that the company is registered with Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA). If it’s not found in the directory, they are not a legitimate company.
2. If you’re renovating a HDB flat, ensure that the firm is  a licensed contractor with HDB. For a list of HDB licensed contractors, you can refer to this link. If you click on the link on the respective company, you can also find out more details about the company. For example, you can check whether the company has been under suspension, or has demerit points sustained over the past 24 months.
3. Check for accreditation by the Singapore Renovation Contractors And Material Suppliers Association (RCMA). RCMA is a non-profit organisation dedicated to elevating the standards of renovation works in Singapore.
4. Check online reviews of the company on third party sites such as Facebook and Google. Based on the reviews, you’ll be able to judge the type of service you’ll receive.

Legwork and to-do list

After basic background checks, you would have narrowed the list down to a few companies.

1. Some renovation companies focus on profit margins instead of providing good service. They may outsource 100% of the job to subcontractors. The quality and workmanship of the job becomes harder to guarantee, so make sure this isn’t the case.
2. Make sure you compare at least three to five quotes from different companies. Meet a variety of interior designers and contractors to discuss your renovation plans with and see how they respond.
3. Meeting designers and contractors lets you size up who you’re comfortable with, and who is more knowledgeable. It also lets you compare the prices between the different companies.

Unfortunately, houses don’t age like fine wine. Here’s some renovation nightmares and how to avoid them.

1. The contractor closes down before finishing their job

This is the worst thing that can happen to you. The contractor is halfway through renovations, your floor is a hacked up mess, and you have half a wall dividing two bedrooms. And without anyone to pay them, the workers up and leave.

All the money you’ve already paid for materials? Gone. You’ll need to hire another contractor, and pay for it all over again. Trying to get your money back is also an exercise in futility. If the contractor is broke, there is no refund, and no money to sue for.

Read this: Reno scam victim “Janessa” bounces back to showcase her renovation journey comeback

How to avoid it: There is no way to remedy this when it happens, so your only hope is prevention. The CaseTrust – RCMA Joint Accreditation Scheme certifies that a background check has been made on the contractor, and that they are trustworthy.

Contractors with the CaseTrust – RCMA mark must now offer a deposit performance bond. This consists of 20% of the total contract value (e.g. For renovations works of S$50,000, the contractor puts down a bond of S$10,000). If the contractor cannot complete the work for any reason, or is not contactable for 30 days or more, the bond amount is returned to you.

That may not cover the full amount, but it is better than nothing. So look for firms with this accreditation before hiring.

Also, here’s a bonus tip for emergency measures: if the contractor closes down unexpectedly, but the materials are available, quickly get hold of the individual workers in your unit.

You can try to cut your own deal with them, to complete what they are already doing (e.g. Finish painting the wall, or tiling the floor). They will sometimes give you a good deal; many could use the money as they’ve effectively just lost their job.

We also advise home owners to pay progressively, as each part of the work is completed. This limits the amount of money you can lose, if the contractor closes down suddenly. It also has the nice side-effect of incentivising the contractor to work faster.

2. The renovations last all of one month

The work looks great when it’s done. But two weeks later, the wallpaper starts to curl. Paint bulges as water accumulates behind it. Mushrooms appear on wood surfaces, and faucets sound like a truck loaded with cymbals that got driven off a cliff. What happened?

Chances are, the contractor cut corners. It’s quite easy to make any house look good temporarily. But the real test of good interior design is time – door get slammed, air-conditioners are kept running for hours, parquet flooring is exposed to spills, etc.

If your contractor didn’t do a good job the first time around, the cost of corrections can exceed the original cost of renovations. Ask anyone who’s got mushrooms in the toilet or the windows: the entire wood surface has to be ripped up and replaced.

The absolute worst possibility is if the parts can’t be found anymore. For example, if the tiles pop out or crack, but that particular tile is not produced anymore, you’ll have a permanently mismatched surface (unless you want to pay to lay a whole new one).

How to avoid it: Because of this, always speak to your contractor on the issue of refunds, guarantees, or anything they can offer after the work is done. When it comes to furniture, be especially wary of who the warranty is from: if the warranty comes from a small shop or the contractor, and they later close down, the warranty is as good as worthless.

Also be sure to Google the contractor and look up reviews: you’ll usually see a lot of complaints if their work doesn’t last.

3. Everything you’ve paid for is a knockoff

This is an old trick that ran rampant in the mid 1980s to late ’90s, but some contractors still do it.

You might find your Italian marble seems oddly textured, or that your high-end faucets seem to look dull and worn down quickly. High quality sinks, bathtubs, and mirrored surfaces, all with brands so fancy you can’t pronounce them with a degree in French, break down or discolour suspiciously often.

Here’s what may have happened: the slimy contractor didn’t get you the real products. They took your money, but used it to buy cheaper knock-offs, thus profiting from the difference. This is especially easy to pull off with certain types of furniture (e.g. Eames chairs), which some contractors can fabricate in their own workshops.

How to avoid it: The simple way around this is to ask for the receipts when the contractor has purchased something for your house (tell them you need it for book-keeping, or some other excuse).

Alternatively, ask who and where they are buying from. You can discreetly contact the suppliers, and confirm that your contractor is getting materials from them.

(Good contractors will take you to meet these suppliers directly – you choose in the store or warehouse, pay the supplier, and the contractor will handle the transport and installation).

As a bonus tip, you can try to save money (if you dare) by deliberately asking for a knock-off. If you see a sofa or table you like in a magazine, you can ask the contractor to replicate it.

4. Getting third rate, unnecessary work done by fake HDB officers

The last time this happened, it involved Shinden General Contractor (which later changed its name to Upgrading General Contractor) – but there’s probably more than one firm using the tactic.

It begins with someone claiming to be a HDB officer (because only HDB registered firms are allowed to conduct maintenance or rectification works in HDB flats). They’ll tap pipes, check your garbage chute, or investigate cracks in the wall. Then you’ll get a story about how your flat is a big stack of dominoes, which is going to fall apart any day now. But they can fix it, and at a discount too!

If you’re lucky, they’ll just do nothing.

If you’re unlucky, they’ll take the act further by opening up pipes, laying ugly plaster over cracks, or damaging the seals on windows for an unnecessary “replacement”. Based on complaints to CASE, most of their “work” does more harm than good. You’ll find yourself having to hire real contractors a second time around to fix it.

How to avoid this: The easy way around this is just to ask for their HDB staff card. If they don’t have one, don’t engage them. If it’s already happened to you, contact the police – it’s illegal to pose as a HDB officer.

With contractors, it’s always best to go by word-of-mouth

Contractors don’t always hire the same sub-contractors, so quality of work can vary at times. It’s also hard to judge from their portfolio, as you are seeing staged shots (or sometimes outright digital graphics).

It’s also preferable to go by word-of-mouth: hire the contractor that your relatives or friends have actually used. That, and check for CaseTrust – RCMA accreditation. Don’t be fooled by pretty pictures in a file.

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Struggling to choose a renovation company? Let us know in the comments section below.

If you enjoyed this article, 99.co recommends 5 renovation tips that can destroy your property’s resale value, and 4 money-saving renovation budget hacks.