RETURNING HOME to her Sheung Wan flat one evening after a heavy downpour, Samantha Sin Lai-man was greeted by an unpleasant surprise. The new roof on her patio extension had leaked and ruined all her electrical equipment. Whenever Gwyneth Pratt walks into the bathroom of her renovated village house on South Lantau she can't help noticing two shades of wall tiles. Her contractor, having erected a 'wonky' wall, had to chip off half the new tiles to straighten the surface. Unfortunately, there were no more tiles from the original batch so Pratt had to settle for a slightly different hue. Jason Lumley received a nasty shock when changing a light fitting in his 20-year-old Lamma Island flat. Isolating the supply at the fuse box wasn't enough. His household electrics had been wired straight into the mains with no breaker. If these incidents sound familiar, you may be among the 111 home owners who complained to the Consumer Council in the first half of this year about poor workmanship, ranging from leaking windows to badly installed fixtures and fittings. In 2004 there were 170 complaints, with that number jumping to 249 last year. Hong Kong doesn't have a monopoly on shoddy workmanship, yet stories of poor brickwork, bad tiling, and leaky plumbing abound. According to the experts, the reasons are usually a combination of poor communication between customer and contractor, use of unskilled or unlicensed tradespeople, and cheap building materials. 'Normally, we'll go to a contractor we've used before or the client will recommend a contractor who may be a friend or someone they trust,' says designer Philip Tang Chi-ho of Ptang Studio, an architectural and interior design company. 'But even if you know the contractor you can't always control what workers they use.' Design consultant Pratt, who works through her company Chroma Design, recommends viewing several finished projects and interviewing the owners before deciding on a contractor. Although it's usually contractors who put together their team, customers have the right to check workers' credentials and refuse to allow them on site if there are questions about their suitability for the job. Yet it's a right few people exercise. The Water Supplies Department, Electrical and Mechanical Works Department and Buildings Department carry up-to-date registers of licensed plumbers, electricians, and contractors respectively, although it's common for one person to hold all three licences. The Hong Kong Institute of Architects (HKIA) also hosts a list of companies on its website ( www.hkia.net ), but the only criterion needed to make the list is that one of the directors of the company is an HKIA member. The Hong Kong Interior Design Association (HKIDA) also carries a member's directory, but, as chairman Kinney Chan Tak-kin points out, members have varying degrees of experience and areas of expertise. 'We don't have a professional standard in Hong Kong and, until we do, anyone can call themselves a designer,' says Chan, who suggests selecting a professional on recommendation. Catherine Mun Lee-ming, senior associate at law firm Baker & Mackenzie, says most people find it easier to deal with just one person, which could explain why they rely on their contractor when it comes to hiring. She recommends consumers also check that their contractor has up-to-date public liability insurance, plus workers' compensation, without which the homeowner could be legally responsible in the event of an accident. Mun says most contracts for work, especially for jobs of less than HK$1 million, are usually verbal agreements. But she recommends laying down strict guidelines, such as how long the project is expected to take and what materials will be used. A precise design plan before work begins is also crucial. It may not stop a contractor disappearing across the border after he's installed your kitchen sink upside down, but the Consumer Council recommends withholding a percentage of the final bill until the work is completed to a satisfactory standard. Another option is to pay in stages. Tang also emphasises the need for detailed planning before a job commences to avoid arguments about money, time and bad work. 'A contractor will give a quotation based on the drawings and then the client will want to change something, and because everybody is so busy trying to get the job finished they won't be presented with the new bill until the end, and by then it's three times over budget,' he says. With thriving businesses producing cheap and questionable building materials across the border, it's crucial to check what you are paying for. Pratt says that when dealing with tradespeople, be sure to specify the exact product or brand you require (and take photographs of the original if necessary), checking it when it arrives and asking for a receipt. 'You specify Dulux paint and it's Dulux tins that turn up, but they've all been opened and it's not Dulux inside,' she says, recalling a bad experience. One local builder says, by not specifying what materials are required, right down to the last nail, many home owners might be shocked to find what they end up with. A popular cheap plaster mixture found in many hardware shops consists of cow bones or pigs' blood boiled down to a jelly. The jelly is then re-heated and lime and varnish are added. 'I just wonder what some people would say if they knew what was going on their walls,' he says. The secret to angst-free renovations is to micro-manage, says Louisa Williams, a British-trained architect and designer. Williams says she's had to deal with much worse situations in London, but still she was a persistent visitor during the renovations of her home in Pok Fu Lam. 'I visited three times a day because the so-called site manager was there only once a week,' she says. 'I'd go in the morning and everything would be OK; then I'd go back in the afternoon and something would be wrong. There are certain things contractors here are very good at, such as sourcing things made off-site in a factory on the mainland. Things that are rubbish are the things they haven't seen before.' That includes the under-floor heating in her bathroom, says Williams, and a wall-mounted toilet bowl with a cistern normally hidden behind a false wall for easy access, but which the contractor had cemented over. 'He had to chip it all off again and he wasn't happy,' she says. 'It's a good job I don't understand Cantonese.' 'We don't have a professional standard in Hong Kong and, until we do, anyone can call themselves a designer' Kinney Chan HKIDA chairman