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As the doom and gloom of the credit-crunch turns ferociously into financial myocardial infarction and the collapse of various monetary colossi seems inevitable, this humble personal injury claim writer wondered what effect the predicament would have on the world of personal injury litigation.
I didn't have to go too far to find evidence of penny pinching activity in the realms of home-improvement, and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have been out on the rampage, pre-empting potential risks and stopping the unsavvy DIYers from injuring themselves and thus, perhaps, making compensation claims against product manufacturers or against contractors who have turned their abode into a hazard-fest.
It transpires that London homeowners, who are feeling the money-munch, are rolling up their sleeves and getting down and dirty in order to renovate their homes. However, the HSE inspectors, who went noseying around the borough of Camden, found major evidence of unsafe working practices at several major domestic projects.
Visits were made to 26 sites in the borough and of these, 10 were served with prohibition notices as the risk of personal injury was so great it was deemed necessary to immediately stop any further work from being undertaken. One site was served with an improvement notice to ensure that practices would be changed in the near future.
Both homeowners and contractors were found to be blameworthy, and it appears that those who don't feel competent to carry out money-saving DIY improvements are turning to the lower end of the contractor market in order to save a few pounds.
Of course, no mention of "cowboys" was made, but the evidence found in at least two of the projects would suggest a lack of basic building knowledge. For instance, if you are going to dig a big hole under a house, or in the contractor's terms, "a basement", you are going to have to shore up neighbouring walls and ceilings to stop subsidence. This particular builder did not do either, or even put up edge-protection to stop members of the public from falling into the hole.
Scaffolding was also a major concern for the inspectors, with sites found where it was propped up on bricks with the potential of imminent collapse.
Safety inspector Simon Hester said, "The standards found at a significant proportion of the sites inspected were worryingly low, and put workers, homeowners, members of the public and the buildings themselves at significant risk.
"Health and safety at work is not rocket science - if the work looks unsafe it probably is."
It would appear, therefore, that the scope for personal injury claims may not be adversely affected by the onslaught of the credit-crunch, quite the contrary in fact. Although, as a conscientious humanitarian, I personally urge homeowners not to undertake DIY if, like me, you almost always injure yourself whilst merely opening a tin of paint. Further, if you employ someone to open and then decorate with said paint, please make sure that they know which end of the paintbrush to hold, or you could be in for some injurious consequences.
