Renovation contractor problems in Greater Vancouver?

Contractor problems can be avoided

The reality of today's commercial renovation industry is much different than it was 10 or 20 years ago. Many years of growth and economic expansion were not properly planned for by our educators. Instead of training skilled trades people, we encouraged students to get an MBA! Now we have a desperate shortage of skilled workers.

Every new renovation project is competing for the services of competent workers. The days of get three quotes are over. Good contractors choose the projects they want and turn down the rest. They don't need to compete for your project, you need to compete for them!

How did we create this contractor problem?

First, a brief & simplified history.

Reacting to the Leaky Condo Fiasco of the '90s and all the legal liability lawsuits that local building inspectors and City governments faced (for not preventing all the shoddy construction), diverting legal liability became a top priority for local governments. With a strong emphasis on diverting the financial responsibility for their decisions, local governments began to strenuously enforce (some of) the provisions of the new building code (BCBC 1998) requiring Certified Professionals (Architects and Professional Engineers) to be legally and financially responsible for most commercial projects. With this change, the consumer is supposed to be protected by the Professional's liability insurance and the City is not financially responsible if anything goes wrong!

Liability Insurance coverage premiums for these professionals sky-rocketed! To protect their members from the increased liability exposure, the governing bodies for both Architects and engineers developed even stricter standard practices requirements. Although we won't go into all the details, their professional fees increased, while diverting liability exposure became a major consideration. Making the General Contractor responsible for the site conditions and reporting any problems, is just one of the ways Professionals spread the responsibility.

Contractors General Liabilitypremiums also sky-rocketed! To divert some of their responsibility (and liability exposure), General Contractors make the Sub-contractors responsible for all the individual trades component liability potential.

Finally, the City still holds the property owner ultimately responsible for all alterations to their building. This completes the circle and dumps the responsibility back on the original victims of all the grossly incompetent trades people and unscrupulous contractors (who caused all the problems, in the first place!) To protect The City, an inspector's first priority must be to audit and ensure that all the paperwork complies with all the by-law requirements and secondly, that the building renovation work complies! Lost in all of this... budget and quality control! Everyone is now simply protecting themselves from being sued! Protecting themselves from the Architect, engineers and inspectors becomes a priority for even honest contractors. How much effort do you think your contractor is going to put into protecting you and your budget?

Many consumers still expect their Contractor will handle the design, permits, site management, etc. as a cheap package deal. The only way they can do this cheaply, is to do it illegally! Business owners are constantly setting up contractors for serious consequences by asking them to do the work illegally (cheaply). Your Landlord (the building owner) will probably react very strongly, if you try to perform a commercial renovation (illegally) on their building!

The renovation services industry is always ripe for fraud and scams, when amateurs try to pass themselves off as experienced general contractors. Without the knowledge, skills and experience to hire, schedule and direct real, (skilled) sub-trades, they frequently try to do the electrical, plumbing and other specialty trades work themselves (without permits). Not only is this illegal, it can be very dangerous. Whenever your renovation contractor says they can do all the work, without hiring a licensed electrician or plumber, tell them to leave and report them to the local building dept..... immediately!

We frequently receive e-mails and phone calls complaining about contractors. When the customer has unrealistic expectations, the contractor mis-represents their skills and abilities, or the project is started illegally, the outcome is inevitable and expensive.

Good Project Management is Critical to avoid problems

Without a good project manager, mistakes get covered up and only re-surface after the project has been completed. Progress inspections for quality control are a must.

Contractor Watchdog Services was formed because the current system simply doesn't protect commercial tenants and Landlords from:

Related Commercial Design and Lease Space Planning Information

• Important Renovation Planning Steps
• Your Legal Responsibilities
• Design a Retail Store
• Planning Tenant Improvements
• Common Renovation Myths
• Good Restaurant Designers

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We provide commercial renovation project planning and design services to lease space clients in Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Delta, Richmond, Surrey, White Rock, Langley, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, BC.

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