Missed deadlines, poor quality work, damage to property, and lack of accountability are just some of the challenges Jamaicans face on a daily basis when dealing with local tradesmen.
A homeowner and her husband started renovation on their St Andrew home in January 2022, but the planned six-month project to transform their newly-purchased house turned into a nearly three-year ordeal at three times the estimated cost because of what they said was poor workmanship and unprofessionalism.
“A lot of the renovation that we were supposed to do morphed into other things. We had a plan, a drawing and everything, but the workmen didn’t know how to read the drawing so they started taking down walls that they weren’t supposed to take down, so that led into spending more money. Our walls were lean, our windows were lean and, of course, we didn’t really realise until after,” she told Jamaica Observer.
Noting that she even changed contractors and worked with different workmen, the homeowner said she encountered lack of professionalism across the board.
“Every time we got a new set of guys, they came in and found issues so we had to be spending more money to fix things that we would have paid for the previous workmen to do. And they don’t care for your things — they just come work, mash up your things and leave your place in a complete mess,” she said.
