FATAL MISTAKES WHEN CHOOSING OR HIRING A CONTRACTOR IN PAKISTAN | How to choose right thekedar

In this video we are going to discuss fatal mistakes that are made when choosing or hiring a contractor in Pakistan. We will also cover how to choose a right thekedar for your house. So, we will cover all the mistakes one by one so let’s get started.
NOT CHOOSING A CONTRACTOR WITH RIGHT SKILLS
The biggest mistake is not choosing a contractor with the right skill set. Some of the people represent themselves as contractors but they are representatives of contractors and they work as middlemen. They just get the contract, keep their margin and then ask someone else to do it. Labor or mason also try that they get the contract.
CHOOSING A CONTRACTOR WHO DON’T KNOW HOW TO READ DRAWINGS
Choosing a contractor who cannot read layout plan, working drawings, plumbing drawings, electrical drawings of BOQs is a fatal mistake in house construction
ASKING FOR RATES FROM LOTS OF CONTRACTORS
You should always pre quality the contractors first and then ask for the construction costs from them. Normally what people tend to do is that they ask for rates of construction first and then their evaluation criteria gets biased on prices offered by contractors.
ASKING FOR RATES WITHOUT DOING INITIAL HOMEWORK
Even when the house plan is not ready, some people tend to start getting the rates. This is a major issue with that is that contractors don’t have idea and prudent contractors won’t give you rates. On the other hand, some contractors will quote you very high because they don’t want to do loss and some other contractors might give you very less rates keeping in mind that they will recover from you later. This way you will always be at loss.
NOT DOING APPLE TO APPLE COMPARISON AMONGST CONTRACTORS
Every contractor has his or her own way of quoting the rates and consultants are hired for the same purpose. They will pre quality a good contractor for you. At the same time, they will also make a comparison for you so that you can see that in totality who has given the best rates. They also negotiate the rates for you with the contractors to the extent that they give you maximum value.
CHOOSING THE CONTRACTOR ON LOWEST RATES
Never keep that in mind that I am going to give the contract to the contractor who will offer me the lowest rates
NOT DECIDING PAYMENT TERMS OR PAYMENT SCHEDULE OR CHOOSING A WRONG PAYMENT TERM OF PAYMENT SCHEDULE
Contractor should be made payments on certain milestones. If you don’t follow those milestones, it becomes difficult for them to work at times and sometimes you pay them more. In both cases it is wrong. Similarly, payment terms have to be decided and they should be broken down into smaller parts so that you don’t pay them in one go.
GETTING YOUR CONTRACT FRONT OVERLOADED
On the serious mistake when choosing the contractor is the you tend to choose the contractor who front loads the contract. By front loading I mean that they tend to charge more in the initial stage of the contract and then their negotiation or bargaining power goes high. Once that happens, some of the contractors then try that they quit the contract as they have got the maximum return in almost no time.
ASKING FOR PLATINUM QUALITY FINISHES OR PREMIUM QUALITY FINISHES AT THE FIRST GO
Lots of people go and ask the contractor that they need platinum quality finishes or premium quality finishes. All they need to know is that you should be specific about quality. Something that is premium quality for you might not be in the list of their premium quality of product. This generates a conflict at the later stage of the contract.
NOT NEGOTIATING THE CONTRACT AMOUNT
You need to negotiate the contract amount as of course most of the contractors have kept the negotiation margin. You don’t need to overdo as well and that is why we are insisting that you should try to do it to the right extent.
NOT HAVING A CONTRACT AT ALL
Working or initiating work without even thinking of finalizing a contract is a major mistake. All the things should be thoroughly written down and finalized so that there should not be any confusions at later stage
NOT FINALIZING CONSTRUCTION SCHEDULE OR NOT GETTING IT IMPLEMENTED
You need to breakup the construction schedule and finalize it and this needs to be done by the contractor and shared with you.
You should try that delays should not come from your side and not come from contractor’s side too. If these delays come from your side you should rectify it because then contractor is justified to put claims on you.
You should have good communication with the contractor or thekedar. Timely payments will ensure that to happen.
COMPARISON OF SINGLE CONTRACTOR OR MULTIPLE CONTRACTORS
This is a mistake that you don’t evaluate whether you need a single contractor or multiple contractors. There are pros and cons of each and you might have better communication with single contractor. On the other hand, you might not get all the services from single contractor etc.