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News | Renovation Special | Testimonials

    Planning Home Renovation with Licensed Contractor and HST

July 15, 2010

Is your renovation contrator licensed?

At Reonov8 The West our market in renovations are between $10,000- $200,000.

Being part of the GVHBA and RENOMARK has taken us a step further into doing things right and by the book. In order to join the GVHBA we have to be licensed, working with permits, knowing building codes, using written contracts, having four people vouch for Renov8 The West and being in good standing with bank.

We protect your renovations by working with permits... because we value your home!


When a homeowner approaches us and wants to do a cash job we always say NO! They have no idea of the problems they can run into when dealing with fly by night cash dealing contractors. Often, we have personally seen wiring that was inappropriate for the application…. so we have been told by our electrician.

Plumbing can be shoddy as seen at one of our clients place. It had to be taken out and re-done (with permits) so that the whole lower floor would not flood out. Can you imagine if it was on the tenth floor and there was a flood? The client and the contractor would be liable. Without permits and a licensed trades man / contractor, they would both be on the hook. No insurance company would pay them out. Yes, the client could lose his house.

Try selling your house when you have done all the work in your basement without permits. You would never get what you wanted and the inspector could make you pull it all down before you sold it.

HST vs. GST

With new changes of HST, it becomes a concern to save a few bucks on a renovation. The first 30% is materials where you have to pay the GST and PST anyhow which amounts to the HST. The rest or $7,000 amounts to 5% GST which you would normally pay and the rest is 7% extra.

EXAMPLE: 10,000 renovations: out of that the $7000 would be an extra tax, ($490) which is the HST. It does not make sense to try to beat the government over $490 for every $10,000 spent on the renovation.

We hope this example will help you see that there is not much difference in between GST and HST when planning for your home renovation. If you have any other questions concerning this matter please write to us.

 

 

Relevant Links:

GVHBA
Greater Vancouver Home Builders' Association
http://www.gvhba.org/
RENOMARK
Renovators Mark of Excellence
http://www.renomark.ca/Vancouver/

GVHBA logo     Renomark logo

"Being part of the GVHBA and RENOMARK has taken us a step further into doing things right and by the book." - James Schmidt, owner of Renov8 The West Contracting Ltd.