Master Builder

February 6, 2009 by Paul Barker
Filed under: General Building 

Its not like me to make a comment on the “Cowboy builders ” programme but here goes. We had a usual tale in the latest episode of a lady on her own and a rogue builder. Yes she didn’t know what she was doing he took the money and ran. She got the job finished courtesy of Channel 5 and he didn’t give a penny back, all normal, but for one thing. He was on a recommended list with the Federation of Master Builders.

The MD admitted to Dominic Littlewood that this particular builder had had eight complaints against him. He was still on the list though. We have been assured that FMB has improved the system and this should not happen. Surely builders should be suspended until clarity of a case has been dealt with.

Some years ago I was offered the chance to become a member of the FMB, I turned it down. It promised a lot to me but they were not going to check my work. Whats the point of accepting me as a member if they don’t know how good or bad I am? What assurance has the customer got if they didn’t sift out the poor builders? What good is the investment by other builders who become members of an organization to be considered elite and above the rest? In difficult times builders may be paying money to clubs and societies in the hope for some advantage over the competition. Then when stories like this come out, the advantage has been diluted as watchers of the programme will now not automatically have faith in the organization doing their homework for them.

I am not of course blaming the majority of builders who are part of this and other federations but the federation owes the clients who pay a lot of money the peace of mind to know they will not have their reputation tarnished by the few. The federations must check first and constantly review to have standards worth aspiring to.

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Comments

One Comment on Master Builder

  1. quin browne on Thu, 12th Feb 2009 12:09 pm

    2. my mum was taken in by one of these in the states… of course, she was silly enough to hand over the cash first, so, i don’t feel terribly sorry for her… still, to take advantage of people–one does hope for karma.

    thanks for a job well done today here in silverstone…

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