Housing

Putting in new tiling in a toilet or polishing parquet flooring are small renovation projects. In renovation work valued at a few hundred euros, a verbal offer from the renovation company may be enough. However, even in smaller jobs the eventual contract should be prepared in writing.

Structural repairs to a single-family house, renovating heating systems or having a yard paved are expensive jobs, which means that written proposals and contracts are very important.

Request for proposals from several businesses. This helps you get an idea of price levels and the reliability of each business.

• Requests for proposals should always be made in writing. With a large project, failure to provide a written proposal alone should be enough to raise questions concerning the reliability of the business in question.
• Responses should also be requested in writing.

A request for proposal should include at least

• a description of the work required
• a request for a price estimate and the pricing basis
• a preliminary timetable
• a deadline for submitting proposals
• confirmation that the prospective service provider is in the prepayment register to ensure eligibility for tax credit for domestic costs.

Before concluding the agreement, try to meet the decorator in person.

• A good decorator is often easiest to find based on recommendations from friends and acquaintances. If a decorator provides references, follow up on them by contacting the previous customers.
• If you choose a decorator who ”apparently did some work for my neighbour's second cousin a while back”, fail to agree on the final price and date of completion in writing and agree to pay ”under the table”, you stand on shaky ground in case of any disputes

In an employment relationship the customer who commissions renovation work is the employer

The clearest way to proceed is to choose a decorator who is registered as an entrepreneur. The provisions in the Consumer Protection Act only govern agreements between consumers and entrepreneurs.

If a household hires a decorator in an employment relationship, it becomes an employer.

• Defective or delayed work by a decorator in an employment relationship is not subject to the Consumer Protection Act. Similarly, consumer authorities can't offer assistance in resolving any disputes in such arrangements.
• A household that hires a decorator in an employment relationship is liable to pay the same employer payments as other employers.