Tradies Ashed Cigarettes All over My Brand New Home and Peed All Over the Bathroom Floor

I am here to share the next instalment in my Series of Unfortunate Building Events because I am sad no one can console me like OzB does.

We're getting the landscaping done for our new house build and let tradies have access to the garage to pour the driveway. Somehow they understood "access to garage" to mean "access to the entire home" and took it upon themselves to temporarily move into my house.

They tracked mud all over the house, including the brand new carpets which had just been professionally cleaned.

They were also smoking as they took a casual tour of my home and ashed literally everywhere. My carpet is (unfortunately) black and looked like an approximate recreation of the aftermath of the 79AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

They also took it upon themselves to piss all over my brand new freshly cleaned toilet and the bathroom floor. It appears they were feeling especially generous and left us not only their pee but also smeared poop inside the bowl. Being a woman I do not understand penis anatomy but I am assuming it is not normal to spray pee in a 1m diamater without frantically helicoptering your little friend. They must have been very excited.

To top it all off they decided to leave all my doors unlocked and open, and seemingly accessed it whenever they were on site to have a fat smoke inside because when I visited a week later to enjoy my newly cleaned home it was like someone had poured an ashtray straight into my lungs.

In response to our complaint, the site supervisor responded that he will have a "stern chat" with his subbies and offered to clean my professionally cleaned bathroom himself. The floors were left for us to clean. The director of the company, who asked us to email him with any issuess, has not responded to my email and has been ignoring me for a week.

I now have to spend another $700 getting my entire home deep cleaned because I fear it has been violated beyond what the eye can see.

I am tempted to send them an invoice for the cleaning but judging by their communication so far I don't see this working.

Thank you for reading. I can only hope this is the last chapter in my OzB forum novel.

TLDR; gave tradies access to garage only, tradies went inside without permission and ashed all over my new home, pissed all over my bathroom, tracked mud all over carpets and left doors unlocked and opened. Their response was to clean the toilet, and that is all.

(Since someone asked, primary residence, a gift from parents who are moving back to their homeland after working their butts off since I can't afford a home like every other young person. And also since someone asked, no I am not asking for monetary sympathy for $700….)

Thank you for the advice everyone (especially the offer to pee on their floors). Regardless of what the outcome will be, I feel much better about it knowing there are solutions and that this isn't normal.

Comments

  • +40

    That's really unacceptable.
    Click enough pictures of what has been done to the property
    If it was me, I would be writing a letter of demand and then taking them to my state's tribunal if they did not agree to the deep clean.

    • +3

      Yep, this +1

      I think it would be hard to have any reasonable excuse from the tradies, I’d be inclined to escalate to formal letter of demand and the your relevant CAT

      • +8

        Buddy I don't know what kind of kids you have that they're smoking up your house and don't know how to use a toilet. My mother ran a daycare for my entire childhood, trust me when I say I know what it's like to have kids around. 7 at once.

        Thanks for your wonderful insight into my home and the apparent lack of cleanliness of yours (also, your own children's bodily fluids = a strangers??). I'll be glad to invite strangers to piss and ash all over your freshly cleaned home if you like? Free of charge as a humble donation to my desperate need of a whole $700.

        Luffy would absolutely not approve

  • -4

    How do you know it was the tradies if the house was unlocked?

    • +13

      If they left the doors unlocked, they'd still be liable as they left the property unsecured.

    • +4

      Yes, let's ignore Occam's razor

    • +7

      When I wrote the email to them I asked if they knew what happened and didn't make any accusations. The site supervisor responded confirming it was the tradies

  • +14

    That is a horrendous experience, OP, sorry to hear it. There's no excuses - I've been on many building sites that were not half as bad as you described. They sound like absolute pigs

    • +7

      We used this company off a recommendation from a friend and they're shocked too. It seems like the subbies they chose for this site are to blame, but I don't know how much of the responsibility lies on our site supervisor. Is it his responsibility if his subbies act like animals, or is it on the subbies, or entirely on the company?

      I never imagined people would act like this but I guess lesson has been thoroughly learned.

      • +5

        Is it his responsibility if his subbies act like animals, or is it on the subbies, or entirely on the company?

        Legally, I have no idea.

        Morally, they are your point of contact and also it's their reputation on the line so I would start there

      • +4

        Entirely on the company, they are the ones with control over who they hire rather than you.

        • +6

          Their response being simply that they "will give them a stern chat to" has not made me optimistic on their hiring practices. I'd think this warrants more than a stern chat, we've asked for those subbies not to return.

          Any email to the director mentioning the incident has been ignored (other then the initial one from site supervisor apologising), and they haven't been picking up my phonecalls. I'll have to take a trip down to their office or maybe just go straight to NCAT

  • +2

    Oh wow. I hope you know some bikies. Please make them pay.

  • +11

    Arseholes. Pictures and a complaint with refusal to pay the $700 off their bill is how Id deal with it. Plus a bad Google review (with those pictures)

    • +3

      Google review has been drafted with pictures! Am I being too paranoid by assuming they'll exact their revenge somehow by doing a poor job or raising their prices and passing it off as inflation etc? I'd rather the $700 than a poor that will cause problems later or them making up for the $700 and more with adjusted invoices.

      • +22

        Don’t leave a review until you’re totally done with them.

      • +4

        So you haven't paid yet? Ball is in your court, just deduct the cleaning bill from the total.

        • +1

          Maybe agree with them first that you will get the cleaning done with the company you prefer. Then show the invoices and deduct that amount. So, you don't have to worry if they clean properly or not.

  • -2

    I now have to spend another $700 getting my entire home deep cleaned because I fear it has been violated beyond what the eye can see.

    this is probably not necessary, you visit hotel rooms or public locations and have no idea what is there 'beyond what the eye can see'. However other people seem far more worried about these issues than I am.

    anyway, have you paid your builder the full amount? Write to the director and say 'due to these issues, I am having the house fully cleaned and deodorised and I am going to offset the cost against a future invoice'. Of course they might then say they wont continue any work until you pay the invoices in full, but you can always deduct it from the final invoice (when there is no further work)

    • +17

      this is probably not necessary

      Your opinion on your feelings on the cleanliness of your home are not relevant to OP's feelings about the cleanliness of their home which has been treated in a way that is well outside respectful in any house, let alone a brand new build. Smells and stains can linger if not cleaned well, and OP is reasonable to expect to not have smells and stains thrust upon them.

      Decent advice in your second paragraph.

      • -7

        Your opinion on your feelings on the cleanliness of your home are not relevant to OP's feelings about the cleanliness of their home

        my opinion is my opinion and the OPs opinion is her opinion. Not sure why hers is 'reasonable' and mine is 'not relevant'. Rather, it appears you are saying that you share OPs opinion and therefore mine is wrong; but when I say I dont share her opinion you say I'm not entitled to make that statement. Pot, kettle etc

        • +3

          my opinion is my opinion and the OPs opinion is her opinion. Not sure why hers is 'reasonable' and mine is 'not relevant'.

          Cos OP has experienced the mess, you haven't? It's not a difficult concept to grasp

          • -6

            @ThithLord: I'm saying i think, based on the description and the photos, that a 'deep clean' and 'violation' are over reactions. Not a difficult concept to grasp

            If anyone has ever stayed in a house that wasnt brand new, do they spend their time thinking 'this house might have been violated and I can't stand it'? Its obsessive. If OP thinks she needs to do it then go for it; but I would not need to do it. Hence a difference of opinion, mine is my opinion and while you may disagree with it, it doesnt make my view 'not relevant' simply because you disagree with it. Not a difficult concept to grasp, even if I have apparently needed to explain it twice

    • +11

      My reasoning is if they're nasty enough to piss everywhere and leave it for me to find they may have done other things e.g. spit? I just feel disgusted by the whole place.

      We have $10k to go out of $70k total. I'm hesitant to get them offside in case they screw us over with the remaining works, but I like yours and deveshwar0's advice and will be seeking legal(?) advice first before invoicing them so that they can't refuse or "take revenge".

      • +5

        Other option works be to continue paying them and withhold the cleaning fee amount from your final payment.

        Definitely worth seeing advice, although a lawyer doing any actual work could quickly add up to the amount of the bill, so maybe see if you can get an obligation free appointment to see if there is a case to be made. Alternatively you could apply to the relevant CAT for which ever state you are in once all the work is done.

        • +2

          I'll be looking for a free consultation, thank you! I have their confession/acknowledgement in writing to everything I mentioned in my post so it should be an easy one if I have a case.

          Also a good idea to withhold the cleaning fee until we can sort this out.

          I wish they'd just do the tight thing and pay up.

  • +3

    There's more to the story than being told.
    I've never known a concreter wanting access to a house to pour a drive or slab unless it was out the back of the place with no side access. Then what would you expect if they where carting wheel borrows and steel mesh through the place.

    • +2

      They told us it was so that the garage floor can be made level with the driveway. I wasn't able to be on site for a week which is why I noticed so late and I wasn't able to see what exactly they did using the garage.

  • Can you lock the doors so they can't come inside?

    • +2

      Seems a bit late for that.

    • +6

      Doors were all locked, they gained access through the connecting door inside the garage which can't be locked (this will change). This is all despite is telling them they have no permissions to access the inside of the house and only have access to the garage.

      • +1

        Can you set up a cheap IP camera to monitor the situation from afar? They are easy to set up and connect via WiFi

        • +4

          Camera has been set up and my brother has temporarily given me his wifi so they're connected and ready to go!

          • @peppet: Great! You'll have some awesome footage for ACA (rip Tracey though, it will never be the same)

  • +14

    So what else is new?

    Basically the only industry where people can not finish high school or barely pass then undertake major works that could endanger site users / occupants. Also no ethics exam, not even sure if they know ethics. They probably know about ethnics they don't like.

    Labour government wants to build 1 million homes from 2024 - 2029. They'll spent the next 50 years fixing all the issues with them.

    • +7

      The state of the construction industry seems horrendous. I read all the horror stories thinking surely not, they can't get away with that.. right? But boy have I been enlightened.

      It's pretty abysmal that one has to resort to installing cameras all over the place and fork out for an inspector to even get a decent and safe job done.

    • Labour government wants to build 1 million homes from 2024 - 2029. They'll spent the next 50 years fixing all the issues with them.

      First of all, * Labor.

      Second of all, you're suggesting they're creating jobs for the next 50years - yeehaw!

  • +1

    You never let tradies into your house without supervision, that is the no1 way for stuff like this to happen.

    • +4

      We only gave them access to the garage for the day (explicitly said only garage), I never expected they'd take that as an invitation to enter and use the house :(

      I can't wfh so I wasn't able to be on site to watch them during work hours, but I have now installed cameras everywhere to hopefully prevent anything else from happening, though I know it's too little too late.

      • A friend of mine had a similar issue, but, before saying anything discretely placed IP cameras.

        A day later he had footage of these guys going through his wife's lingerie drawer.

        Told the supervisor it "seemed like some pretty messed up things happened including this and this and this", and was blown off.

        He took it to small claims court and, the video footage, I'm told, was very powerful.

        In your case, if you have your personal belongings in the house, and there was evidence of footsteps in the bedroom, I imagine a similar violation took place.

        Please ruin them.

        • Jesus christ. That is absolutely sickening. I hope they lost their licence for that, I wouldn't want those people anywhere near me or my home.

          Thankfully my house was empty (no OC yet), except the spare keys inside which could have easily been stolen given they left my doors unlocked.

          I'm sure if I did have anything in there they wouldn't have hesitated to voilate it too. I'm taking this as far as I possibly can, will update hopefully soon

  • -4

    Lol

  • Pictures!

    • +7

      Here are some images, though not the best representation

      https://ibb.co/z8wpMTV
      https://ibb.co/gDQjFZz
      https://ibb.co/sP4vTVv
      https://ibb.co/TcxDmfL
      https://ibb.co/BrPg7RV

      Hard to see the extent of the ash on the carpet because it was dark and we have no electricity yet, but the photo my mum took of ash clumps on the tile the next morning are what it looked like upstairs.

      Also hard to see the full extent of the piss through photos, and toilet had been flushed before photos of the poop stains could be taken unfortunately.

      However the site supervisor visited in the morning and acknowledged the full extent of the mess.

      I don't have any support from the family to chase them up for cleaning and they're ignoring me now, but these comments have made me determined to get them to pay

      Also, them leaving the door open meant I was invaded by tonnes of insects which have died over the place, the most interesting of which were clusters of 30 bees and a dehydrated frog.

      • +1

        You can see from the staircase photo that they’ve left footprints on the carpet too, not just shoe prints. Must have made themselves pretty at home to take their shoes off and cruise around on the carpet while on the job.

        • +1

          Yes the footprints totally weirded me out!

          Also they only needed my garage for one day but the house smelled strongly of cigarettes a week later which means they left my doors unlocked so that they could have free sneaky access whenever they were on site during the week. So yep, really made themselves at home.

  • How long were they on site for? Not excusing behavior and terrible mess, is there a requirement to provide bathroom access if working for a certain duration?

    • +1

      It's a duplex. I own side A and my brother owns side B. We let them use side B for toilets and water and electricity to be nice because they didn't want to pay for a portable toilet (electricity and water is accessible from outside the house). I would never agree to this but my brother does not care about cleanliness so he said ok.

      We told them they have no permission to enter side A under any circumstance.

      If I'm giving them the benefit of doubt and they were e.g. incontinent and had to use my toilet, that does not explain their need to spend time there smoking so I think it's highly unlikely they couldn't walk the 10m to side B to use the toilet.

      Their reasoning for cheaping out on the portable toilet I believe was because they're rarely on site (this has been a 10 month process) due to rain.

  • +7

    and offered to clean my professionally cleaned bathroom himself.

    Unacceptable.

    They need to pay to have it PROFESSIONALLY cleaned and the carpets possibly replaced if they cannot be returned to the EXACT condition they were in. There's no way that this guy is going to do a good enough job.

    You may even need the walls and ceiling professionally cleaned to get rid of the smoke residue.

    I kind of want to not believe that this post is real because if it is this company is liable for quite a bit of money to fix this, cigarette smoke is horrendous to remove, and they've actually introduced a BIOHAZARD into your house by pissing everywhere.

    Name and shame.

    TLDR; gave tradies access to garage only, tradies went inside without permission and ashed all over my new home, pissed all over my bathroom, tracked mud all over carpets and left doors unlocked and opened. Their response was to clean the toilet, and that is all.

    So they trespassed as well? A lawyer would have a field day with this one. These guys are (profanity).

    • +2

      I've got a few quotes ready for professional cleaning but I'll ask them to add on walls and ceilings, I had no idea smoke resudue can linger on walls like that.

      I can't imagine how much dirt and ash and smoke residue and who knows what else has been embedded into my carpet.

  • -4

    Why is there no one at home supervising what is being done?
    I never let any trades person have unfettled access to anything without at least a 30min 'check-in' from me.
    Yes I am a helicopter, especially with anything to do with inside my new home. Had a fault with the oven, you bet i watched them remove and replace it to make sure they didn't scratch the floors.
    When I had my driveway and carport done the concreter and his minions found their own way to a public toilet.

    • You're totally right, I wish I could've been watching and had some time off to check up on the house more frequently. Definitely a big regret

      The randomness of their schedule and sudden changes made it too hard for me to take days off (sometimes they show up with no notice). Not their fault, weather has been awful. And since this is a landscaping job there's a tonne of work that needs to be done in a particular order and we have no freedom with their schedule.

      When I can though, I'm there watching. And now I've got 3 cameras watching

  • +8

    I am sorry that you have been through this. Extremely poor form.

    I am happy to pay them a visit and pee all over their floors for you.

    • +3

      I think this is the only suggestion that will make me truly happy. An eye for an eye, a pee for a pee!

  • You said it was a week they had access, and the internal door was unlocked? Maybe it was not the tradies? Long bow maybe but it could have been other derros?

    • +1

      My thought process was - tradies entered my home without permission - left door open (wtf??) - derros entered and had a ciggy party (because of bad tradies, but unlikely given my area).

      But the site supervisor did confirm it was the subbies.

  • +1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEQTUSmob1Q

    sounds like dirty mike and the boys, struck again…

  • +1

    Deduct $700 from payment for final invoice.

  • The Great Australian Dream, 2022 edition — BYO.

    Build your own

    • I have a friend who spent 5 years building his house from ground up in the country. I used to think he was crazy but now he's my hero

  • you dont mention if this is your first or 5th investment property….it matters…it determines how much sympathy i may have for you

    • +1

      Haha this is my primary residence, half of which was a gift from my parents (cheaper to build than buy!)

  • I have 2 sons one 9 one 13 and they dont miss the toilet bowl its actually been a couple years since they have left any drops.

    So for a grown man to miss and then not clean up he would have to be a disgusting pig.

  • Hangin' to see how the builder handles this one.

    • +1

      I've been advised to wait until we're invoiced in full / works complete so they can't add extra charges in retaliation, which should be mid November. I'll be visiting their office as soon as it's done (since they're still ignoring all my emails and calls), and will update then. Otherwise straight to NCAT I go I think

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