Our gardeners suggested a short-term alternative to our preferred option of an asphalt driveway surface. We agreed to go along with their suggestion as it would delay the large outlay of an asphalt driveway by around 4 - 5 years (when our children would start to leave secondary school) and would solve our immediate issue of an uneven driveway that was becoming harder to drive over.
The driveway was done by the gardeners while we were away for the weekend, but upon our return we were immediately concerned that it would wash away as it was very loose: it was sandy material on a rock base, which had been compressed or "whacked".
Within a few weeks, the spring rain began to wash the surface away. The gardeners blamed the amount of rain that had fallen the week following it being laid, claiming it meant that the driveway hadn't been given the chance to dry out properly, but assured us that once it did, it would "harden like concrete".
The gardeners returned after two weeks of hot, dry weather. They re-did the damaged parts of the surface by bringing in more of the same sandy material. We paid them to cover the cost of this. However, they did not compress this re-laid material this time - Just raked it over. They left no advice for ongoing care, so I texted them challenging them on their logic of simply laying more sand over the driveway and not even "whacking" it down, given that the "whacked" material didn't withstand the rain the first time so why would "unwhacked" material be OK?
Once again, they assured me that with the dry weather it would harden and suggested I get our kids to walk over the driveway to compress it. We have a very large driveway, so this suggestion was ridiculous. I expressed that to the gardeners: they agreed to come back with the "whacker" in two weeks' time (all dry, hot weather).
The day before they were due with the "whacker", we had a huge storm front come through, and as before, the rain washed the driveway away again. The gardeners' response was that they were out of suggestions: they couldn't afford to fix the driveway. They said they would raise an invoice of $3,000 so we could go through our insurance company, so they could come back and fix it up.
We guess the best the insurance company would pay would be to restore the driveway to what it was, which would probably be $600-$1,000, not the reconstruction of a new fit for purpose driveway. Also, this smells a lot like insurance fraud, so we're not comfortable following this advice.
We want to put the right kind of driveway in (and are prepared to put more money in to pay for more suitable materials); we do not want to defraud our insurance company so we can pay these gardeners to fix their mistake. We want to see some sort of responsibility borne by the gardeners as their advice to use this material was clearly not fit for purpose; we want to warn other potential customers that these gardeners' attitude and advice are not to be trusted.
Can anyone suggest the best possible course in Australian Consumer Law to achieve as much of these goals as possible?
The driveway was done by the gardeners while we were away for the weekend, but upon our return we were immediately concerned that it would wash away as it was very loose: it was sandy material on a rock base, which had been compressed or "whacked".
Within a few weeks, the spring rain began to wash the surface away. The gardeners blamed the amount of rain that had fallen the week following it being laid, claiming it meant that the driveway hadn't been given the chance to dry out properly, but assured us that once it did, it would "harden like concrete".
The gardeners returned after two weeks of hot, dry weather. They re-did the damaged parts of the surface by bringing in more of the same sandy material. We paid them to cover the cost of this. However, they did not compress this re-laid material this time - Just raked it over. They left no advice for ongoing care, so I texted them challenging them on their logic of simply laying more sand over the driveway and not even "whacking" it down, given that the "whacked" material didn't withstand the rain the first time so why would "unwhacked" material be OK?
Once again, they assured me that with the dry weather it would harden and suggested I get our kids to walk over the driveway to compress it. We have a very large driveway, so this suggestion was ridiculous. I expressed that to the gardeners: they agreed to come back with the "whacker" in two weeks' time (all dry, hot weather).
The day before they were due with the "whacker", we had a huge storm front come through, and as before, the rain washed the driveway away again. The gardeners' response was that they were out of suggestions: they couldn't afford to fix the driveway. They said they would raise an invoice of $3,000 so we could go through our insurance company, so they could come back and fix it up.
We guess the best the insurance company would pay would be to restore the driveway to what it was, which would probably be $600-$1,000, not the reconstruction of a new fit for purpose driveway. Also, this smells a lot like insurance fraud, so we're not comfortable following this advice.
We want to put the right kind of driveway in (and are prepared to put more money in to pay for more suitable materials); we do not want to defraud our insurance company so we can pay these gardeners to fix their mistake. We want to see some sort of responsibility borne by the gardeners as their advice to use this material was clearly not fit for purpose; we want to warn other potential customers that these gardeners' attitude and advice are not to be trusted.
Can anyone suggest the best possible course in Australian Consumer Law to achieve as much of these goals as possible?
