Left High and Dry by the Tradesmen

It is a dream for everyone to own a house and every bit of effort in one’s career primarily goes into fulfilling this dream. It starts with allowing a portion of their income towards a deposit that needs to be saved for a down payment which at times is not adequate to meet the minimum amount that is needed on the value of the house at the time of purchase. This minimum is then achieved by foregoing some other important milestone and contribution from friends and family. This later turns to be a plot of land which is later registered and god be with you to obtain clean (legally) documents. However, the pain starts with the drafting of the plan with an engineer or an architect who then gives the person a reality check as to what can be done on the site. At this stage, there is a compromise on the needs, wishes and luxuries. There is a thin line between needs, wishes and luxuries; however it is visible for the wise. Appointing the right mason, electrician, carpenter, plumber, tile layer, painter and fabricator is a mind blowing task. This sector is so unorganized that the persons employed in this sector are mostly at best high school pass outs and have a total disregard for time, money, discipline and order.

An average person today is a graduate and is employed who has order and discipline that is enforced in his work place and expects the same in other profession, however there is no order or discipline now with the tradesmen. The equation of supply and demand comes into play when you look at the solutions in hand. There has been a great drive for education in the last decade in this country (thankfully) that has produced so many graduates in the last decade and has also fuelled the rocket speed growth of the IT industry. The growth in the IT industry has also driven the salaries more upward than any other profession in the country and hence the there has been a large number of parents and children alike who aspired to take up these jobs and with the fuelling growth most of them did get these jobs that they aspired. This has led to the children of the tradesmen not taking up the profession that their parents and grand parents did for ages.

Had it not been for the IT industry and education drive most of the younger generation would have followed in their parents footsteps. Additionally the tradesmen job until recently was not well paid due to the excess in supply of these tradesmen. However with the next generation shifting careers and also the existing force falling prey to Alcohol, the only remainder is only the ones who are semi-skilled and also drink little or not so often. There are only a very rare percentage of people who do not have the alcohol habit. The small minority are isolated by the large drinking majority. With the shortage comes lifestyle change (alcohol habit) which they can otherwise do with. There are not too many alcohol de-addiction centres in proportion to the TASMAC shops that have been open in the country, nor is there an initiative from the government and NGOs to address this pressing matter. This however has ruined their lives, reputation and has dragged the poor homebuilder along with them.

Bone of Contention

The issue with the types of arrangements with the tradesmen is that there is no formal agreement or a written document as to the scope and terms of Trusted Traders Near Me which bind them in that relationship. The document even if prepared is not executed as there is a reluctance to sign as there is a fear of what may be in the document that is detrimental to them. Perhaps, an education of the terms in simple language (local language) would help stem the rot. Also, there is no commitment met in terms of time and also work quality is not assured. The work quality does not have a standard at the moment and hence benchmarking becomes almost impossible. ISI works on several items for quality assurance there may well be standards that are not visible, which organizations and associations can work on to create more awareness. The delay factor (caused by tradesmen due to absence, poor time and project management) causes additional costs from the increase in cost of materials to the interest charges that add on the home loan that only adds fuel to existing misery.