If you had your chance again, knowing what you know now, would you go about it based on what "should" happen? Didnt think so.
if you eat healthy and look after yourself you shouldn't need health insurance either, right?
Risk minimisation/mitigation is the name of the game. You either take a gamble and win. No harm done. Or you lose. Big.
So yeah, I think ill go about researching to the nth degree to help me better understand things that are going on around me that have the potential to impact my life significantly.
Btw I do my own tax....yes researching what you can deduct under my specific situations gets me better returns.
So is the answer that a consumer should have to be educated to micromanage a builder and their work throughout the entire building process? My 'tough life lesson' is a result of system failure, conflicts of interests, poor design, lack of enforcing legal requirements, what I believe to be poor workmanship & a legal system that financially milks victims. When you have a member of VCAT say "people have asked me what do I do for a living, I basically say I take people's money and I ruin their lives" what does that say?
So all the knowledge in the world isn't going to have helped me unless I quit my job, became a qualified builder, soil tester, engineer, geotechnical specialist, lawyer, judge, and be rolling in cash!
But I live in the reality where I as a consumer should expect what I paid for from a qualified registered professional! And nothing less!