FMB

AVIS Construction Ltd And The Federation of Master Builders


We made three major complaints to the Federation of Master Builders between 2004 and 2007 Avis Construction joined the FMB in 1980 and had no problems with them for almost 24 years but from around 2004 we had nothing but problems, mainly with their MasterBond scheme. Around that time they seemed to loose direction, they no longer seemed to be lead by experienced professionals concerned with the interests of the industry and their members. We found that they were offering our client's misleading and wrong advice disregarding best practice, had no interest in maintaining our reputation or that of the construction industry. Unfortunately, they were giving wrong and misleading information directly to our clients without reference to ourselves and it was only when we were finally contacted, many weeks later, that we were able to point out the mistakes they were making, which they then accepted. With over forty years experience in the management of construction projects it became clear to us that the FMB were no longer interested in the views of industry professionals with experience and qualifications, they just wanted quick fixes. Their poor judgement and quick fixes mislead and worried our clients on several occasions and we finally refused to accept the FMB's involvement any longer. These are our diary entries from October 2004 to December 2007. *December 2007* A sad day for the FMB, we've had enough, we've left! Still not received a response from the FMB regarding the serious complaints we have made recently. It appears from our numerous phone calls that they have no excuses and cannot answer the many complaints we have made about the poor service they have provided to us and to our clients. Instead they have used the excuse that they have had some complaints about the service we provided and rather than deal with the issues involved, or carry out any investigation whatsoever, they have simply ended our membership, clearly this saves them having to answer some very difficult questions. We find this alarming and disappointing. We initially lodged a complaint and instigated appeal proceeding but in view of the complete lack of competence and professionalism that we have encountered over the last few years we decided not to appeal. The outcome of any appeal was summed up when we were told that they would not want to overturn their decision, made by a retiring executive! *November 2007* Still not received a formal apology from FMB regarding our complaint (October 2007) about their incompetence so wrote to Regional Director and advised him that we may not be renewing our membership if they are unable to find competent staff and deal with our complaints in a professional manner, we pointed out that we have made three major complaints about their staff in the last three years. *October 2007* FMB MasterBond inspectors inspected our work at 12 Sherwood Close Bracknell and approved it with flying colours *October 2007* We have made another formal complaint to FMB MasterBond, about the competence of their surveyors. Apparently one of their surveyors checked the plaster work on one of our jobs and said it was defective because it sounded hollow, he claimed this indicated it was loose. To make matters worse he then advised the client that they would have to move out of their home while the remedial work was carried out. We were not notified about this for three weeks at which time we immediately pointed out that the walls should sound hollow because they had been dry lined with plasterboard, not plastered with wet plaster. We complained to MasterBond and to their Regional Director about their surveyor’s faulty diagnosis and incompetence and the distress he had caused our client and us. The FMB apologised for their surveyors mistake, for the way they dealt with this ‘problem’ and for the distress they had caused. They assured us that in future they would deal with the diagnosis of defects more professionally using experienced surveyors, we asked for a written apology. *September 2007* FMB MasterBond inspectors inspected job at 15 Millfield in Bagshot, passed with Flying colours. May 2007 Received letter from FMB, the FSA are investigating their MasterBond insurance scheme and all the MasterBond policies have been put on hold. Wrote letter to FMB, requesting clarification on this, clearly this is an alarming situation if the FSA are having to investigate the legitimacy of the policies sold by the FMB to our clients. Received no response from the FMB, this simply isn't good enough. *October 2006* Met representatives of the FMB and MasterBond to discuss our complaint (Aug 06) and they accepted that their surveyor gave defective advice to our client. Those in attendance from the FMB were their Regional Director, their Head of MasterBond and their technical adviser. September 2007 Received reply from head of MasterBond, saying he would carry out an investigation into the problems we have had with them and that he would let us know the outcome. We never received any report of any investigation, we can only assume that no investigation was carried out or they did not like the outcome! September 2007 MasterBond have not dealt with our complaint, they say they are under staffed and have a lot of new staff so wrote to Director General of the FMB to complain about the incompetence of their surveyor and efficiency of the MasterBond operation, received no response. *August 2006* Had to write another letter of complaint to head of FMB MasterBond. One of their surveyors has offered a client a solution to a problem that doesn’t comply with Building Regulations, or any known technical literature and is not best practice, it is therefore unacceptable to us and to our surveyor. January 2006 Arbitration completed, however we wrote to the Director of the FMB complaining about the appalling service they had provided.. This arbitration that they offered and we had paid for, took nearly 15 months to complete. Fortunately the Arbitrator found substantially in our favour but we never did receive the documents promised to us in April 2005. Clearly there was a reluctance by the FMB to find in our favour and, to find against our client. Clearly it is not good PR for the FMB to find a member of the public to be at fault. September 2005 Wrote to FMB asking why we still had no details of the arbitration and why it was taking so long. Also wrote directly to the Arbitrator to ask why we had received no details of the dispute and what was happening. August 2005 Wrote again to the Arbitrator asking for details July 2005 Spoke to Arbitrator by telephone, he said he would send all the information we requested over nine months ago. Wrote to Arbitrator and FMB pointing out that we had still not received any details of the matters in dispute. June 2005 Telephoned FMB to ask why we hadn't received details of the dispute from them or the Arbitrator, these were promised to us in April.. April 2005 Met Arbitrator for the first time, six months after starting Arbitration. We discussed the dispute and he said he would send us details of the clients response and copies of documents. March 2005 Had to write the Arbitrator to explain the difference between the FMB and MasterBond, Clearly he should have known the difference and should have checked his facts before taking on his role as Arbitrator. January 2005 Telephoned FMB to find out who the arbitrator was and what he was doing October 2004 The FMB suggested we use arbitration to resolve a dispute instead of taking legal action. We agreed and they charged us for this service.