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May 12, 2014
3 minute read
British homeowners are not doing maintenance and repair work because they cannot find builders and other tradesmen that they trust, according to the 2014 Homeowner Survey from the HomeOwners Alliance and TrustMark, the Government endorsed ‘find a tradesman’ scheme. The survey shows that finding a trusted builder is such a major problem across regions of the UK that it means that our housing stock could be ending up in a state of disrepair.
Over half of homeowners (58%) say they have difficulty finding a trusted builder to assist with home repairs or improvements. These difficulties are having a big impact on the work that homeowners decide to do, and how they do it. Among the homeowners who have difficulty finding trusted builders, 12% don’t do the work at all, while a quarter (26%) delay the project. Alternatively, affected homeowners do their own repairs/ DIY (40%), do essential works only (27%), or use tradesmen they are uncertain about (28%)
o 40% say they do their own DIY/ repairs
o 28% say they use tradesmen they are not certain of
o 27% say they do essential works only
o 26% say they delay works
o 12% say they do not undertake projects/ repairs
“Doing repairs, maintenance or improvements to your home are some of the biggest challenges homeowners face, and they find it far more difficult than it should be to find a reliable builder or tradesman to help them. For many it is quite rightly a major cause of concern – we have all watched those TV shows about cowboy builders and how your dream can turn into a nightmare. What is particularly worrying is that desperate homeowners are finding it so difficult to find good builders that they resort to delaying work, or simply not doing it all. The difficulties of getting good builders mean our national housing stock is ending up in a state of disrepair, affecting the lives of millions of householders.”
“A nation of homeowners is at the mercy of leaflets through the door or findanyoldbuilder.com websites because they don’t have a network of local tradespeople they can turn to. The price we pay are homes lacking TLC, an ever-deteriorating housing stock and the financial burden of £1.9 billion a year paying to fix botched jobs by tradesmen who were just not qualified to do the work.
“This is a ridiculous situation, when we know there are so many excellent tradespeople out there who are totally committed to doing quality work and excellent customer service. TrustMark is the solution backed by Government. We can provide consumers with choice, confidence and protection and signpost them to reputable local firms and expert tradespeople working to Government endorsed standards.”
(Source: 2014 Homeowner Survey)
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