Al Williams is a senior construction specialist, and Janice Zazinski is director of communications, for the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership.

One of the country’s top consumer complaints is a home renovation or repair project that takes longer, costs more or looks different than the contract stipulated.

The most common cause of that is not contractor fraud or incompetence but miscommunication and misunderstanding of the terms of the agreement between homeowner and contractor, according to Al Williams, senior construction specialist for the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership.

“I’ve dealt with probably a hundred contractors, and the majority are good, honest, well-meaning people,” said Williams, himself a licensed general contractor. “The problem is, the average contractor and homeowner enter into agreements with no training in how to do it.

“The homeowner says what he thinks he wants done, and is interested in two things: price and time. The contractor comes in with a bid and says, ‘I can do this.’ But personal problems with help, weather conditions, having three or more jobs, all these things come in as factors in why agreements are seldom met.”

With that in mind, MBHP has launched a Construction Consulting Service to assist the owner of a single, two- or three-family home with the contractor/homeowner relationship before, during and after a renovation or repair project is undertaken.

“The consulting service is designed to make it possible for the homeowner and contractor to have the same vision of what, how and when it will happen,” said Williams. “The program is designed to bridge the gap between the two parties and make the whole process less painful for both of them.”

The service comprises two consultations, each on a sliding fee scale according to household income. “It was originally designed to assist low- and moderate-income homeowners, but since then we have decided to make it available to people of all income levels,” said Janice Zazinski, director of communications for MBHP. “It’s not designed as a moneymaker for us, but as a service.”

The basic consultation package, which costs between $200 and $250, provides the following:

•A review of the homeowner’s desired renovations and/or repairs;

•A rough estimate of the project cost;

•Written guidelines on writing a scope of work, putting the work out to bid and qualification of contractors, along with discussion of those guidelines with the homeowner;

•A list of recommended contractors;

•Guidance on avoiding common contractor/homeowner disagreements.

Also available is a second, options consultation package, priced at between $150 and $200, which includes:

•A meeting with the homeowner and chosen contractor to review the scope of work and the contract prior to its signing;

•A review of homeowner and contractor expectations regarding timeframe, payment schedule, work quality, requested materials, etc.;

•A review of penalties and incentives built into the contract.

Written guidelines are essential to make sure the contractor understands each and every specification through the duration of the project. “Everything is written with the price and time extension and signed by both parties, [so] there are few disagreements they could run into,” said Williams. “If a homeowner had only a verbal agreement with the contractor, he’d forget about it. He’d take the money, send three of his guys over, and give them half the instructions. I’ve seen that happen.”

Doing It Right
A case in point is a low-income elderly Brighton couple who had hired a contractor to rectify the sagging front porch on their three-family home. “They paid three times what the job should have cost,” said Williams, “and the job was done in what the industry calls ‘a workmanship-like manner,'” which included failure to replace shingles that were removed to install temporary support columns for the porch.

That experience prompted the couple to call on MBHP’s Construction Consulting Service for the reconstruction of their rear decks. They hired a new contractor from the recommended list and, with the service’s guidance, worked out a written contract that included specific types of wood to be used, designs that matched the original decks as closely as possible, daily cleanup of all debris, reinstallation of the clothesline rigging at the completion of the project and a project timeframe with penalties for missed deadlines.

That process resulted in a job well done, according to Williams. “The entire decks were removed and rebuilt while maintaining the overhang on the roof,” he said.

In providing guidelines on contractor qualification, Williams discourages homeowners from hiring relatives, friends or friends of friends as contractors. Conflict of interest tends to compromise the professionalism of the contract and can result in unmet agreements (not to mention strained relations), and “my Uncle Harry used him” is no substitute for checking a contractor’s credentials, references and other qualifiers.

Founded in 1983 to facilitate the construction and rehabilitation of inner-city housing, MBHP serves more than 10,000 low- to moderate-income families in the vicinity of Boston with such services as affordable housing development, rental assistance, family emergency shelters, housing rehabilitation loans for property owners in the Section 8 program and counseling and workshops for low- and moderate-income first-time homebuyers – a target market for their Construction Consulting Service. “This is the first time they’ve [first-time homebuyers] been through this, and they deserve to have it come out right,” said Zazinski.