Giving advice on here - thoughts?

[Welder]

A recent post regarding flexis made me stop and think about things.

I felt the advice was dominated by VicDiy with his "I recently installed several vanity units at my daughter's and it was all fine" type advice.

My point, sorry for being long winded, is that as professionals we are fully insured, we have huge levels of experience to call upon for each occasional calculated risk we take.

So, taking this instance of attaching flexis to compression fittings (so non flat surfaces) as an example only, what should our advice be generally to people?

The more I think about things, the more I feel I cannot trust the 'public' to use common sense - it's just getting less and less. The more I think about things the more I feel I/we should only offer the correct/recommended way of doing things. Why? Frankly it's protectionism. I don't want some d1ckwad to be able to comes back to try to sue anyone when they flood their home cos they're a cheapskate and look for someone else to blame!

Let the debate begin

 

[Welder]

After writing this post I did some research. Obviously in the US the situation is very different. However, in 2016 there was a landmark case which the judge summed up thus:

This case serves as a good reminder that the law places duties on professionals, even where there is no contract and no fee. As Mr Alexander Nissen QC (sitting as a Deputy High court Judge) explained:

“In conclusion, it is established that in law a duty of care extends to the protection against economic loss in respect of both advice and any service in which a special skill is exercised by a professional. The duty can extend to negligent omissions as well as the performance of negligent acts. For present purposes, the relevant ingredients giving rise to the duty are an assumption of responsibility by the provider of the service coupled with reliance by the recipient of the service, all in circumstances which make it appropriate for a remedy to apply in law. The passages above make specific reference to the fact that a duty of care may be found to arise even in circumstances where services are performed gratuitously and in the absence of a contract. However, as identified by Lord Goff, in the absence of a contract it is important to exercise greater care in distinguishing between social and professional relationships.”

In order to avoid being caught up in a dispute, it is good practice to always formulate a written agreement with the recipient to your advice. Make the boundaries clear and negotiate the terms. Ask yourself if the advice you are giving is something which would be regarded as informal ‘one-off’ help, consider your own professional conduct rules and whether your Professional Indemnity Insurance would cover the scenario if it all went wrong.

I do not feel it is a simple issue to resolve. However, perhaps Dan might consider adding some form of appropriate disclaimer to the sites terms and conditions to minimise risk to those offering advice. However, I still feel my original point is still valid about offering the correct advice to people as it reinforces our perceived professionalism.

 

[Scott_D]

You need to know how to do things correctly before you start to take short cuts

 

[Welder]

Completely agree Scott.

I sometimes wonder if being 'helpful' and offering what we 'might' choose to do to get ourselves out of trouble makes us look, well, not very professional. Every profession has its short cuts but you rarely see them. Perhaps there is a lesson for us? If we make it easy for people then its little wonder they don't employ us!

 

[rpm]

Edited

 

[Welder]

RPM you miss my point completely.

I'm not talking about protectionism at all. I'm talking about professionalism, how we are publicly perceived and whether we inadvertently expose ourselves in a legal sense.

I'm swiftly realising that many people come on here simply to have a decision that have already made validated. That's fine and dandy if that decision is correct. If however, it's a bodge (even if its something WE may choose to do occasionally) and we do not put them right, or even endorse their poor practice, then two things happen.
Firstly, by not insisting that things are done properly we look like bl00dy amateurs. This denigrates and devalues our profession.
Secondly, and far worse in my view, they go away feeling that plumbing is a piece of cake; that anyone can do it, there is no 'skill' in it, so it is cheap.

So, please let me know which of those you look forward to or are acceptable to you?

 

[rpm]

Apologises Dave, have now edited my earlier post as not to open up that debate here.

 

[rpm]

The way I see it all advice given here should be the correct way of doing things.
Even if dodgy advice is given and people say No that is not the proper and correct way it is too late as the OP has already seen and read it and are on the their way to a diy shed.

 

[Welder]

Absolutely. Does not one of us any good and simply drives down perceptions and prices

 

[Harvest Fields]

This is a hard one to deal with. I always try and give best advice but the problem is that my best advice could be your worst, or the other way around? (Not saying it is)