Toxic Tradies: Red Flags To Watch Out For

The tradie is a relatively new phenomena. This fast paced, handy human, usually a bloke, who drives a ute or a pick-up truck, as they would say in the US of A. Tradies are incredibly useful, especially when something around the house breaks down. The local building industry, which feeds the Australian property market, is dependent upon these fine, young, predominantly men. There are ’tradie’ brand deodorants, socks, and underpants. I am sure there are ‘tradie’ targeted insurance and banking products. It is an emerging market demographic, which will only be expanding. However, like all things there are good and bad tradies. Good and evil. Honest and dodgy. Hence this once-in-a-lifetime blog post about toxic tradies and the red flags to watch out for – and tips on how to recognise them in advance ideally.

How To Spot A Dodgy Tradie

Hands up if you have been cut off on a Sydney motorway by a tradie. Raise your hand if you have encountered speeding and dangerous driving by someone in a ute on the freeway. The room is full of raised hands like spears in a painting of Zulus in the eighteenth century. There are even warning signs displayed in the motor registry office specifically about dangerous tradie driving practices. Tradies are always in a hurry to get to a job or to get home or to go out on the town – it seems. The tradie of recent years had one hand on the wheel and the other holding the mobile phone pressed to his ear. Of course, these days it’s all hands-free technology in case of yet another fine for our intrepid tradie.

Rip Off Artists & Toxic Tradies

The building industry, if you watch A Current Affair, is inhabited by a percentage of rip off artists preying on innocent home owners. Plenty of tradies get fleeced by the builders they subcontract to and thus the food chain is revealed in all its toxic menace. Dog eat dog or Energex metre reader, as the case may be. Some folks have sympathy for the family of the victim and some tradies are in the corner of the pit bulls. How do you recognise the hazard when you come across the wrong sort of tradie at your front door or on the phone? The real bad’n makes promises s/he can’t keep. Not turning up for appointments or turning up hours and days late are par for the course for these tradespeople. But the promises I mean are usually about price and job description.

The dodgy toxic tradie is always vague about details and only pretends to listen to your concerns. “yeh buddy, all sorted, I hear ya.” “No worries, chief.” These familiar Aussie retorts are really brush offs and the tradie is going to do what he likes. If your tradie is always on the phone to another client and can never give you the undivided attention you require to properly define the job in detail – you are in trouble. This relationship is not going to end well when it comes to paying the piper. The law of human relationship is – how a relationship starts is how it will proceed and conclude. This is a red flag like the Bolsheviks flew over the Kremlin after the revolution. The tradie who is always in a hurry is never going to finish anything to your satisfaction, as he will have moved on to half a dozen jobs before you can say Vladimir Lenin.

Onsite Tradie Pickups

Apparently, some real estate agents like to have close encounters with their pick-ups in the vendor’s property. Maybe it’s a power or revenge thing for all that grovelling. Some builders, according to 60 Minutes behave in a similar way when renovating homes. Tradies and their apprentices have been known to do foul things in your toilet and bathroom when you’re out. Not sure what this psychological penchant is all about, territorial rights maybe. I would keep your bedroom door locked if tradies are attending while you’re not in your home. People are strange beasts at the worst of times and toxic tradies may revert to the laws of the jungle on Sydney building sites and work sites.

Tradie Body Language

Human nature and body language go together like Tarzan and the apes. The best spotter of toxicity in the tradie is a close examination of body language but in the digital age we miss out on this. We book an electrician, plumber, builder, paver or air conditioning installer by perusing a list on a smart phone and a few websites. These websites could be full of lies and bogus recommendations. In fact, you can be sure of that. How can you smell a wrong’n in your midst via the internet or social media? You can’t! Bad BO is another lasting memory of some toxic tradies. There have been well known cases of homeowners unable to remove odours from their properties after work has been carried out by certain individuals in the tradie game. Exorcisms and ritual cleansings by indigenous shamans (or the almond latte Paddington or Palm Beach variants) have been necessary in some instances. It pays to investigate your Sydney tradie prior to letting him in the house.

Light Fingered Friends & Apprentices

Thievery is another toxic tradie manifestation and all too common in the Australian home when work is carried out or shortly afterwards. The tradie apprentice who moonlights as a house breaker and burglar is familiar to our police forces across states and cities. They gain access to your property and all its security secrets. Safes and burglar alarms are surveyed and rendered vulnerable. Your scheduled occupancy of your home or office are noted for future reference by our tradie informant or criminal at large. In these cases, it is more often the apprentice or labourer, as the tradie boss is so well endowed by what he charges some have called it daylight robbery anyway. It pays to use tradies recommended by trusted friends and acquaintances rather than just anyone you find in the Yellow Pages or online.

Upstanding Tradies Too

There are, of course, plenty of fine upstanding citizens who work in the trades – in Australia fortunately, the vast majority. It is also important to remember that if you watch too much commercial television you will be swayed by sensationalist stories chosen to get eyeballs on screens – click bait for paranoid property owners. Nobody puts the thousands of unexceptional, successfully completed, tradie jobs on TV because unremarkable stuff is considered boring and not entertainment. Most tradies do the right thing and do it competently. BUT just in case, do some thorough research online. Get reliable word of mouth recommendations too. Good luck!

Ways To Check On Your Tradie:

·      Ask to see your tradie’s registration, licence, guild membership or certification.
·      Politely request to check their insurance details & status.
·      Get the contact numbers for their last 3 jobs.
·      Query any demands for large upfront payments.
·      Look out for newbies without any track records, because they could be Phoenixers. These are bad tradies who start up under a new name to avoid law suits etc.
·      Get detailed plans and detailed quotes and contracts signed off by both parties before going ahead.
·      Vagueness leads to vagaries & you will lose out!
·      Check their Google Reviews – if like us, they have 144+ positive reviews, well that can’t be faked.
·      Also check their social media – Facebook page, and also Instagram for further perspective TikTok – an unlikely option – if they’re very busy making TikTok videos they’re probably not the tradie you want.