Peace

I almost fainted when I came home a few days back and realized that my mum was conned into signing a repair work w a contractor, and she had placed a deposit. Immediately I called up this contractor and request to move the scheduled repair work to a later date - til after I am back from my trip. I bought some time so that I can get a few other contractors' quotations for comparison. I only managed to arranged two contractors to come to my house to access the repair work - one from a Town Council recommended list of vendors and the other is from an old friend.

I was not really comfortable with the contractor from Town Council because he appeared rather 'unhelpful'; with each query pertaining to the technical aspects of the work he will reply not with a solution but a subtle shift of his responsibility. I begin to think if it even matters if this contractor is listed as recommended vendor in Town Council. Even the project coordinator from Town Council has stated very clearly over the phone that Town Council bare no responsibility to all work done by their vendor, in an event of dispute it will be between house owner and contractor. SIGH!

The other contractor recommended by a friend came in the evening and within an hour I have awarded him the job at a much cheaper price. I am not all 100% sure of him at this point but I am willingly to take this risk.

As for that original contractor whom my mum had signed a package with, I had negotiated a deal to only proceed w 20% of the work, which is to me rather minor. Initially they requested for an adjustment of the pricing but after some give-and-take I managed to retain the same price.



I have no idea how my mum could have been so careless to had signed a contract on the spot w/o consulting me first. She usually would not have allowed anyone into the house, especially a stranger. This got me really worried. But what puzzled me even more is my father's insistence to use the original contractor - he felt so strongly to use them. He doesn't seem pleased with my final decision but well, I am paying so I will decide.