Bully Builders

The Apprenticeship of Thieves

It is written Jesus Christ was a carpenter. This is the homeowner’s delusion in Australia. There is an
unconscious “holier than thou” lurking under the surface of the average Builder in Australia that
they seem to have about them.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Australia, supposedly a 1st world country founded on
Christian values… NOT. It is just this that the building industry through its so-called licensed
carpenter / builders’ program as if being “Licensed” is going to save you. It is the Christian values
that are leveraged to gain the trust of the average home owner wanting to improve their most
valued asset, their Home, only to discover they have actually welcomed thieves into their home. The
only difference being that you can call the cops on the honest thief 😊, you cannot on these
criminals.

Reading the would-be builders’ contract or seeking legal advice is futile because if you objected to
anything in a contract, it’s quite simple really, you wouldn’t get anything built at all, because you
should be objecting to most of it when you really analyse it from the perspective of “what if they
invent fees because they feel like it”? So, in an effort to improve your lot in life you sign your life
away literally creating a recipe for disaster that is by giving the thieving Tradie the power over your
home with the blessings & protection of the state and the building industry. This is the reality in
Australia in 2019 today.

So you have a system that supports thieves that is designed to protect the builder by enabling
contract duress over people’s homes. As a general rule, sacking a builder part of the way through the
build or with-holding funds to bring in another builder if your relationship goes bad because they
don’t do as their employer (YOU the consumer) expect and pay for in your own home!

You should know in Australia, in the building industry there is no protection for you as a home
owner. None, zero if you’ve signed anything, which you will have to if you want anything done. The
odds are all stacked in the builder’s favour, not the new unsuspecting and honest customer.

The issue stems from a lack of “fair go” regulation (which some other countries have for this very
reason) a conflict of interest, that is the contract price with the builder and the deliverables.

This extends to all of the trades. The longer the Tradie has been in business, the more skilled they
are at stealing from you.

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Contents
The primary mechanisms that are exploited to rip people off are;........................................................ 3
Contract .............................................................................................................................................. 3
Costs .................................................................................................................................................... 3
Creative Accounting ............................................................................................................................ 4
Time .................................................................................................................................................... 4
Labour ................................................................................................................................................. 5
Materials ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Warranty Period.................................................................................................................................. 5
Fear Factor .......................................................................................................................................... 6
Reviews ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Recommendation.................................................................................................................................... 7

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The primary mechanisms that are exploited to rip people off are;

1. Contract (especially “Standard” HIA ones) They are designed to protect the builder and
remove all power from the employer, i.e. you! I cannot stress this point enough.
2. Costs – The agreed Contract Price is merely the starting point – they invent and make up
additional fees as it suites them as they go based on your “nice as pie attitude” or not.
3. Deliberate Creative Accounting practices so the average person cannot reconciliate their
Invoicing method without serious time investment or the hiring of an Accountant.
4. Time (Reduce their time invested in your home means poor quality workmanship)
5. Labour (exploit workers with a gagging order on their contract so they cannot talk to the
customer or more importantly tell them the truth about anything or warn them)
6. Materials (For every item not detailed down to the last nail, means an opportunity to buy
cheaper materials to increase their profit margin for the builder / project manager).
Agreement / Contract conflict of interest.
7. Warranty Period (piss clients off just enough so they never want to see the builder again)
8. Fear Factor (behave in a condescending bullying way because they know where you live so
don’t try anything even after the job has been completed)

Contract

So, your builder wants you to sign the “Standard” HIA Contract or just about ANY contract he has
prepared. You’ve been warned… DON’T! Under any circumstances. You sign that contact and you
should know you’ve signed away a number of critical points that will make your life hell. If you sign
then you should know;

1. Your now under duress of the builder until Practical Completion.

2. You cannot “sack” them for any reason
3. You cannot, NOT pay them.
4. You cannot take them to Court without being liable for all the court costs plus penalties.
5. You cannot hire another builder to build your home the way you want it built and not the
way your builder wants it built with all the ramifications of profit maximisation
6. Be prepared to be Ripped off… pretty much what-ever he sees fit to rip you off and there is
nothing you can do about it, nor can or will the law help you.

You need to understand that the relationship will go bad during the build because the
inherent conflict of interest is built into the way the building industry is setup in Australia.

Costs

The agreed cost as per the contract price is pretty much meaningless in the eyes of any builder. As a
person under their duress, you should prepare for a minimum of 5-10% higher costs just because
they feel like it and that’s only if you complain loudly about it. More if you’re “nice as pie” as our
builder accused us of prior to us recognizing he was a scammer and the trust factor went out the
door. Most people are “Nice as Pie” until they get scammed including the Builders themselves.

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Problem is they are too clever and experienced to get scammed themselves as their entire business
is based on their experience at scamming their customers.

Builders are not in the business of building your home, extension or anything else… they are in the
business of scamming you.

Moreover, you cannot expect the Builder to provide every receipt of everything they buy for the
project can you? Well, yes when you no longer trust them or don’t know them.

• Margin fees
• Supervisory fees
• Other inventive fees

If you successfully squash one cost they desired, it magically pops up elsewhere to be recovered.
There is no win for you.

Creative Accounting

We are all very busy people and generally speaking don’t have time to study the dodgy accounting
practices of Builders. This means by default that you are now set to be exploited. At will.

Builders know, nobody is going to seek justice in a tribunal or court for 10 or 20 thousand extra in
nonagreed costs when the builder based on their many years of exploitation experience have it built
into their contract that all legal costs will be charged to you anyway.

Moreover, if for any reason you start to kick up a fuss and posture (not even threaten) to not paying
them, they will down tools and walk away and as per the contract you cannot hire another builder to
take their place. You will be FORCED or be in breach of the contract to pay the remaining of the
project balance into a security account that requires both signatures to get it out. So that money is
gone. So no matter what you do, you’re in a no win and no power under duress situation with your
builder with or without a hole in the roof of your largest asset you may have worked decades for.

Can you imagine what you will look like in the eyes of your love one as this nightmare continues?
And you wonder why people die? If only I had a different set of morals there would be serious
repercussions, Contract or not, law or no law. If a marriage breaks down and one loses everything
anyway because of these thieves now or later, I give you 2 guesses who is going to be held
accountable?

And here we have the poor Tradies crying about the way they are treated. Well we treated them
exceptionally in every way and we were ripped off regardless.

Time
It is imperative for the Builder to minimise time invested into your project at every opportunity. So if
you request something during the building to be “made better” than it is, even if it is minor the
response will invariably always be “No”. This tends to always come about with the expectation gaps
around materials used or items that you requested to be done but were conveniently left out of the
contract even though they agreed verbally with you prior. Naturally it is the contact that stands and
nothing else. So they will claim “I was not told” or “I don’t recall that discussion” etc.

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Moreover, many unscrupulous tradies & builders work multiple jobs at a time and even deliberately
so. This results in lower quality workmanship on your job and longer time to complete. This often
results in desperate measures by the owners (Employers, i.e. you) paying upfront in a desperate
begging hope to have them return to complete the job they were employed to do in the first-place
months ago. And the help from the regulator?? None what so ever.

Labour

To maximise the profit margin for the builder, it is in their interest to exploit labour by paying the
least they possibly can for any workers working under them, pretty much same for any business
really, only that because of the very small numbers they aren’t subject to stricter regulations as with
larger businesses. Foreign workers are a good source for that. Even better, pay them cash and don’t
report it so to avoid taxes. At the same time it is written in the “Standard Contract” that the
Employer (You the home owner) is not allow to speak with them the excuse being so that
instructions don’t get confused when in fact it will really be about not discovering what the workers
really have seen or experienced working under the builder. They know its going to go pear shaped
with you so they walk around with lowered eyes avoiding you.

In my experience, the oppression obvious to us of the hired labour was scary. We’d try to talk with
them, offer to buy coffee or lunch and they’d lower their heads and keep walking / working, scared
to do so for potential repercussions.

Materials

Through the minimisation of material quality and the difference of interpretation by the Home
owner and the builder of what every bit of material should be is the piece the Builders exploit to
maximum benefit.

For example, we requested had doors to be fitted in our new extension for a few rooms and storage
area’s which were to appear same as what we had downstairs. After install we realised these were
the cheapest doors available on the market being approx. $27 each. Nothing like our nice doors in
the established part of the house.

To make matters worse, one of these new doors got slightly damaged because it was left out in the
rain a bit. They merely attempted to sand it and then fit it instead of purchasing a new one WITH
builder’s wholesale discount on top of that! Most likely $20! That is how scrooge they operate at.
The sanding scrapes were quite obvious and needless to say, I learnt how to replace them myself
and went and bought a real door.

Warranty Period

A further side benefit to boot is, Builders figure, if they can piss people off sufficiently, there might
be a good chance the homeowner will never want to see them again if they can possibly help it, thus
significantly lowering the call back potential for the 7 year warranty defect claims.

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This is certainly in our case. But who cares it’s our loss.

Fear Factor

Tradies are blue collar workers for a reason. Typically rough around the edges. Often Bullies in the
workplace. The home owner hiring them are typically the opposite. Not big & tough fearless bullies
which is why they often hire them to do the Building & Construction work for them in the first place.

So they are a “certain type” and revenge isn’t out of the question. If the homeowner has kids,
animals or just doesn’t want property damage, graffiti etc. done, out of fear they always comply with
virtually anything. After all the Builder knows where you live. Most likely even has kept copies of
their house keys. So you remain under duress regardless of job completed or not.

And if they don’t fear, then the other members of the home will thus prevent them to act in seeking
justice, as was in my case. The issue is one doesn’t want to become as low as they are by behaving
like thieves.

Reviews

Checking INDEPENDENT reviews on INDEPENDENT review web sites online

(www.productreview.com.au or www.googlereviews.com.au ) can assist but isn’t a guarantee. Most
honest reviews especially if negative will play on the mind of the home owner, again, they know
where you live. So, this is a built in self-regulating factor to keep negative reviews at bay and the
Builder knows and exploits it.

In my case, for a Licensed builder with more than 20 years building experience there were 0 reviews
online about his work? Really? I don’t know about you, but today after my experience with him, that
tells me a big story. Naturally one would completely disregard the Testimonial proper-gander they
put on their own web sites.

Worse still, they promise they’ll show you previous clients properties, but when it comes time,
distract you and show you their own place instead which will of course be pristine quality work since
it’s their own place. You’ll never get to talk to previous clients because you’d hear things such as the
truth.

Too many customers mean you can be exploited especially in the current climate there are way too
many customers. If a tradie says they are too busy, you should drop them like a stone. Don’t do
business with them.

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Recommendation

Regulation should be introduced into this scamming industry so that Builders / Project Managers
cannot increase their profit margins by exploitation of the above means. A contract price should be
fixed and separated from everything else so they cannot increase their profit by lower quality
delivery in the other areas as described above.

Variations that contain supervisory fees, margins and other magically appearing fees for additionally
requested works can be added on as would be expected.

If the HIA Standard Contract was “fairer” as ANY Employer contract with their workers, clauses such
as “And anything else we ask you to do” should be in there. For some reason individual employers in
the building industry aren’t given this right because it’s a SCAM against the ordinary person.

So called standard contracts should have ultimate protection like any Employer has in this country.
That is if things go wrong we have the right to sack the thieving builder and obtain a new one and no
monies should be owed beyond work delivered to date. They should also not be allowed to have
duress power over your Home which you worked years to obtain!

My advice: Don’t build or use Tradies you get what you deserve. You’ve been warned.

Buy ready built (completed, turn-key or what-ever other flavour you wish to give it)

Teach yourself, do it yourself, buy your own materials and tools. You’ll do a better job anyway and
learn a skill for life.

Use YouTube and the Internet.

Note: You are free to distribute this document freely to help protect others you care about so long
as it is in its entirety.

This document will be revised and redistributed regularly.

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