Should a tradesman fix a repair he offered to complete for free however made a mistake
Anonymous user 17/03/2024 - 2.30 PM
Hello,
I hired a tradesman from MyBuilder to complete some repairs in my home and he offered to complete a small repair for free.
The repair was fixing a gap in our flooring, the gap was there because when we did our flooring, there was a radiator with legs therefore the flooring went around this and we wanted a tradesman to cut out the shape of the gap from a spare floorboard we had and slot it in (we asked him how much it would be to fix this and he said I won't charge you for that, I can do it for you for free as it's a small repair). He made a mistake with the repair which he agrees however will not come back to rectify the mistake because he said he did the repair for free (He could have informed me beforehand that he would do a repair to that standard in which case I would rather he not have done that repair, he cut out the slot in the opposite direction of our floorboards; our floorboards are in a horizontal direction however that slot is vertical). Whilst doing this he also damaged a bit of the surrounding floor.
If a tradesman mentioned that he could do a repair for free and makes a mistake, is there an obligation for them to come and fix it?
Thanks
Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?
personally if I offer to do anything for a customer whether its free or charged it then becomes my responsibility to complete it, and if a mistake was made it is then my responsibility to put it right as it was me that offered to do the job in the first place, mistakes can happen but at the end of the day my job is to look after my customers and make sure they are satisfied with the services I provide to them.
Answered15 October 2023
5
Anonymous user
The attitude we all have to take as tradesmen asking customers to trust us with their property while we work on it, is that whatever we do is our responsibility to get right. Whether we are being paid or have agreed to complete a task for free is irrelevant to that resposibility.
Mistakes absolutely happen and sometimes they can be time consuming or costly, ultimately though, they are our mistakes and our problem to put right for our customers when they happen. It's not for our customers to be dealing with things that we agreed to complete for them.
It's crucial for us tradesmen to accurately assess the scope of work and communicate any changes or challenges promptly. If a Tradesman offered to do something for free, but realized the job is more complex or time-consuming than initially anticipated, he should have communicated this to you and given you the choice to either have him return it as it was, or proceed with the work accordingly to the standards you expect. However, in this case the Tradesmen carried out a quick job which was not to your standards. For him to revert the work back to its former condition would take the same time as correcting the work, so he should have fixed the job for free without any questions.
Answered16 October 2023
1
Anonymous user
I agree if as a tradesman makes a mistake on the job is there responsibility to fix that issue or if anything changes atall they should communicate so everyone is on the same page there is no confusion or mishaps they offered to do it for free if they mess it up it’s on them.
Answered21 October 2023
0
Anonymous user
As a tradesperson, whether it was a paid job or done for free, if the task was under my responsibility and I made a mistake, it would be my duty to return and rectify any errors.
