I had a phone call over the weekend from a former apprentice. He’d gone out on his own and hit a problem, the builder he was sub-contracting to was refusing to pay him. They had agreed to a price for the work, but hadn’t written anything down. Now the job was finished the builder asked the tradie to supply him with his contractors license. The tradie didn’t have one. He’d completed the 2 units in small business finance and legal, but hadn’t actually applied for his license from Consumer Business Services. The builder also expected him to have waterproofing on his license, and to have insurance.
The amount owed was less than $2000. The builder hadn’t requested any of this information prior to work starting, and wasn’t disputing the quality of the work. I recommended the tradie talk to Sam at TradeSA.com.au. A few days later i received a text message letting me know everything had worked out.
The key point here is to make sure you have your contractors license and insurance before going out on your own, and ALWAYS have agreements in writing.
Our next trade sub-contractors course is scheduled for 06 – 07 August 2016 & 20 – 21 August 2016. You can book and pay for the course by clicking here