Painting & Decorating

Does a builder need qualifications to get insurance?

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 3.16 PM

I’ve been perusing a builder who has done an extremely shoddy job in various rooms of my house, including painting a bathroom in undercoat which washes off every time I clean it, cutting a hole for the cold water pipe to a toilet far too large and stuffing it with toilet paper, ‘plumbing’ a bath which doesn’t drain properly.....’ I have over 22 photos of evidence. He wouldn’t admit to liability until (after advice from the Consumer Rights Council) I paid a private surveyor to list all the jobs he’s messed up. Apparently I have to now give him the chance to put everything right, despite him telling me he’s unfit to work pending a knee operation. He’s agreed to do this but I have been advised not to allow him back in without proof he’s qualified for decorating and plumbing and seeing his Public Liability insurance. He has told me he has his PL insurance but no formal qualifications apart from 25 years in the building trade. He’s not registered with any regulatory body. My question is, how can a person be granted a PL certificate without any qualifications? I work in beauty and have to fax 8 different certificates to my insurance company before they’ll issue my PL cert. otherwise anyone can claim they have worked in an industry for 25 years and gain insurance. He’s also emailed me to say that I also should have insurance when undertaking building work. What does he mean? And, as the professional, should he not have made me aware or this? He also never gave me a contract which I’ve since learned he should have sorry for the long rant but I’m so stressed: I’ve had no functioning bathroom for 10 months and the whole process has wiped the floor with me. Thank you so much to whom ever responds.