Man’s ‘nightmare’ after Sydney renovation cost blows out with ‘shoeless’ tradies

Danny Everingham never imagined that the leaky carport roof in his Sydney home would end up almost ruining his life.

Danny Everingham was preparing to sell his Sydney home when he hired a tradie to fix his leaky carport roof in 2021. What followed was a “terrible” experience, that left him stressed out of his mind and thousands of dollars out of pocket.

After seeing advertising on reality renovation show The Block, Mr Everingham sourced a tradie from Hipages, a site that promises to provide “trusted tradies” and lets users compare quotes.

The 57-year-old said the independent tradie he went with quoted to fix the leaks, but said the guttering on the carport also needed to be replaced, so he agreed to pay $1650 for the job.

But as work began things turned from “bad to worse” with the cost blowing out to at least double, according to Mr Everingham, while the workers that arrived at his home were “shoeless”.

“When the tradie started doing the job, the standard to which he was doing things and the amount of time it was taking worried me,” Mr Everingham told news.com.au.

“It was supposed to be a two-day job and three or four days in he had a couple of guys turning up in shorts and T-shirt and no shoes. They were wearing no shoes while up on ladder and up on the roof

“He probably did the original corner piece three or four times – he just kept wasting material. Say he had six lengths of guttering and down pipe, he wasted four pieces by doing the thing wrong so then he hit me up for more money.”

The tradie who completed the work has since been removed and banned from Hipages.

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Shots of the renovation with nails hanging from the roof. Picture: Supplied

Danny Everingham was left thousands out of pocket after the tradie he found created a mess with his carport. Picture: Supplied

Mr Everingham was shocked by the quality of the work. Picture: Supplied

Mr Everingham said he also had to lend the tradies some of his own tools so they could complete the work

The dad-of-two claimed the work was so bad that holes were drilled into the roof of the carport, creating more leaks.

A message from the main tradie shows him asking Mr Everingham for $500 as he was “low on cash”.

“I paid him progressively on the work and it was my own stupidity – I shouldn’t have paid him anything – but he got more out of me than the original quote,” he said.

“I was left with a carport that was 100 times worse that what it was originally was from the leak in the corner.”

The tradie requested more money as he was "low on cash". Picture: Supplied

Hipages is Australia’s largest online tradie marketplace with more than 31,000 tradies and over three million users and said there were 1.5 million home improvement jobs posted on the site in 2021.

Mr Everingham claims Hipages would not give him a number to call a representative, and only communicated via their app, which he found frustrating.

Instead, Hipages directed him to lodge a claim with NSW Fair Trading.

“I constantly asked for a phone number to talk to someone from Hipages and they just don’t do that – it’s all through chat on their app it’s the only way you can talk to them,” he said.

“Even to the point I had given up on getting my money back – I thought I had been stung. But I thought you need to stop this guy from being on Hipages. But they didn’t want to talk to me about that, it just seemed like a waste of time.”

In an online chat seen by news.com.au, Hipages’ customer service tells Mr Everingham that the company could not speak with him on the phone but it had contacted the tradie.

The message said currently the only method to contact Hipages was on its online chat via direct message. Picture: Supplied

Shots of the renovation. Picture: Supplied

The Hipages employee also added that they can’t order or direct either party to resolve the complaint.

Another message reads: “As we are not a court or tribunal we cannot make rulings or enforce any actions you are seeking of the business and we are not qualified to assess works, so at this stage we have gone as far as we can with your complaint.”

However, a Hipages spokesperson told news.com.au after the complaint was submitted via email, the customer received a call from a team member the same day although Mr Everingham claims this never happened.

“We are committed to providing our customers with the highest standard of service so it is disappointing to hear that we didn’t deliver the level of communication that Mr Everingham needed to support him as he navigated this challenging situation,” the Hipages spokesperson said.

“We have a dedicated customer support team here in Sydney. They can be contacted via phone or email.”

The “nightmare” job done by the tradie led to Mr Everingham not only contacting NSW Fair Trading but he also made a claim through NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) as well where he was awarded $3770, which was due to be paid by 30 July 2021.

Screenshots of Mr Everingham's conversation with Hipages staff. Picture: Supplied

The carport where the problems began. Picture: Supplied

As work began things turned from ‘bad to worse’ with the cost blowing out to at least double, according to Mr Everingham, while the workers that arrived at his home were ‘shoeless’. Picture: Supplied

But he has never been able to recover the money.

He said he doesn’t know where the tradie is and he “can’t chase him up on anything”.

“It was up to me to find him and get details to try to get money back and in the end I gave up,” he added.

The now Newcastle resident said he was forced to find another tradie who he paid $3885 to fix his carport – leaving him close to $7000 out of pocket overall for the job.

“He offered to be a witness for me if I needed on the quality of the workmanship on the first guy,” he added.

“He just basically said it was the worst job he had ever seen in his life – it was definitely not up to standards.”

Photos taken by the tradie that fixed the job. Picture: Supplied

Before and after photos taken by the tradie that fixed up the job. Picture: Supplied

Mr Everingham said the experience left him with “massive” amount of stress and even now he gets “anxiety” thinking about it.

“I was concerned about the devaluation it had done to my house. I was concerned if I was going to have enough money to get it fixed. It’s something that originally was meant to cost $1650, and I agreed to pay more, but it was starting to stretch the finances at that point,” he said.

“I had a workplace injury and I had surgery to my neck – a spinal fusion – and it was putting all this extra pressure on me.”

Mr Everingham found the issue frustrating. Picture: Supplied

The former warranty manager has accepted he will never see his money again, deeming the experience as a “life lesson”.

Hipages spokesperson said the tradie used by Mr Everingham had signed up in 2017 and was verified through his sole trader ABN.

“In the event of a dispute, the Hipages Trust and Quality team mediates between the homeowner and the tradie. We cannot make rulings or enforce any actions and we are not qualified to assess works,” they added.

“As an online marketplace, our Trust and Quality team can guide homeowners to the appropriate bodies to resolve issues. The tradie that worked for Mr Everingham was removed and banned from Hipages following the complaint.”