The events of the last eighteen months have seen a rise in the number of households choosing to improve their properties and, according to the latest figures, 24% of us opt to call in the professionals when it comes to home renovation.
However, it seems that calling in paid professionals doesn’t guarantee that you will be happy with the end result, or even if the work is any good. comparethemarket.com has revealed the areas of the UK which are the most at risk of sub-standard jobs from cowboy builders.
According to the findings, 56% share that they have had to fork out additional costs to rectify work from third-party traders, with 11% spending between £500 – £749. One in 12 Brits also wouldn’t recommend the contractors that they’ve hired to family and friends. One respondent revealed that they had to take their cowboy plumber to a small claims court after they fled with their deposit, resulting in a full refund.
When asked to score their satisfaction from 0 – 5, with 0 being extremely unhappy and 5 being extremely happy. Floor fitters, and painters, and decorators were ranked the highest proportion of happy customers with an average of 3.5, followed by plumbers (3.4), and builders (3.3).
According to the study, Bristol is the city with the highest chance of hiring a cowboy builder compared to any other city in the UK. With 13.6% sharing that they were unsatisfied with the work by contractors and had to fork out between £1,250 – £1,499 to fix sub-standard work.
Birmingham and Belfast take the second and third spot for potential cowboy builders, with almost one in 10 admitting to receiving unsatisfactory service.
Norwich takes the top spot as the city where you’re least likely to receive sub-standard work, with those who have had work done revealing they have an overall satisfaction of 97.6%, with 78.6% likely to recommend their contractors to friends and family.
Sheffield ranks second, with 85% of residents revealing that they’ve never had to pay to fix the work of a cowboy builder, followed by Liverpool, Glasgow, and Edinburgh.
Chris King, head of home insurance at comparethemarket.com, says: “Finding a contractor or sole trader that you can trust to take care of your home whilst carrying out works is not always easy and it’s important to take precautions where you can.
“Before the work begins, you should make sure that you have buildings and contents insurance sorted, which, depending on your chosen policy, could cover the cost of any items in your home that may get damaged during the process.”
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