In March I hired a roofer through Checkatrade to repair my chimney as it was damaged and leaking water.
I paid the roofer an initial sum of £500 to install scaffolding, which he sent out to an outside company to do.
Months have passed since then and despite numerous messages and promises, the roofer has never shown up to do the job. Meanwhile, the chimney problem is getting worse.
The scaffolding company has since removed the scaffolding, claiming that the roofer had not paid them for the work. I think I have been the victim of a dishonest trader.
Left in limbo: Our reader paid £500 to have scaffolding installed, but then the roofer went quiet and never turned up to do the job (file image)
Checkatrade has a £1,000 money back guarantee when jobs don’t go to plan, so I got in touch, providing them with messages and evidence of payments.
He agreed that I had been left out of money and said that the merchant is now unable to advertise on the website.
But I was eventually told that I was not entitled to compensation because “the work had not started”. I would say yes, because the scaffolding was already installed and I paid for it. Can you help me? In Brighton
Helen Crane, consumer rights campaigner at This is Money, replies: It is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish a fraudulent merchant from a genuine one.
Directory websites like Checkatrade are supposed to help landlords weed out the bad guys, but they have a tough task ahead of them as the number of scammers has increased.
In the past six months alone, Checkatrade has turned away a record 668 traders who failed its registration checks, up 13 per cent year on year.
And the rate was sky-high among roofers: 19 percent of those who tried to register on the website were turned away (the most of any industry).
Checkatrade says demand for home renovations is at a fever pitch, leading to long waiting lists and the “perfect environment for unscrupulous characters to step in and take advantage”.
Homeless: Checkatrade rejected 19% of roofers who tried to list themselves on its directory, due to concerns about bad reviews or a patchy business history
The most common reasons why a trader may be rejected are negative online reviews or a spotty trading history. Unfortunately, yours managed to slip through the cracks.
At first you thought he was just a few days late, but when after four months and a bunch of excuses he still hadn’t shown up to do the job, you began to suspect you’d been ripped off by a cowboy.
This was confirmed when the scaffolders turned up at his house to dismantle their work. They had not been paid and said they were not the only company the rogue roofer had left out of pocket.
It doesn’t seem like you’re alone in this. This is Money has received several emails from other readers saying that jobs they had booked on Checkatrade had been spoofed even though the traders had been verified.
We are currently investigating several such cases, including one where crooked doors, open windows and an extension had to be taken down because it was not properly supported.
When searching for a roofer on Checkatrade, you will also have noticed their guarantee.
It says this is “discretionary” but should cover building works for 12 months, up to a total of £1,000, if they are found to be “substandard”.
To be eligible, the client must book the job through Checkatrade, leave a review on the website within 30 days of completion of the job and retain evidence such as emails, invoices, proof of payment and photographs of the job.
You thought you met all the requirements, so you got in touch to report what happened and file a claim.
Reported: Checkatrade banned roofer from its platform after AT explained what happened
While the first person she spoke to agreed she had been the victim of a rogue trader, she said her experience worsened after that and she was promised updates on her case that never came.
In the end, you were told you could not get your money back from Checkatrade because “work had not started”, which you dispute because you had paid the £500 and the scaffolding had been put up, although it was later removed.
I contacted Checkatrade to check.
He told me that he had tried to contact the corrupt roofer several times, but he had not responded, so he was removed from the platform and not allowed to rejoin in the future. Good news.
“Checkatrade’s controls have been developed to protect against precisely the behaviour of unscrupulous traders such as the one that defrauded AT,” he said.
The guarantee stated that you did not meet their requirements because you did not book the job directly through their website.
“We have been unable to find any evidence that this job was actually booked through Checkatrade, so we are unfortunately unable to offer compensation under our 12-month customer protection guarantee due to the way this job was organised,” he said.
‘Furthermore, although the scaffolding was installed, the trader did not carry out any actual work under the terms of our warranty.’
The first point is crucial for anyone who hires work through Checkatrade. If you want the guarantee to cover you, you need to prove that you contacted the company and arranged the work through the Checkatrade website, not that you simply noted down the phone number and called them yourself.
As I understand it, this means that people must register for an “owner” account with Checkatrade and get quotes and send messages within their internal system.
In my opinion this is some sort of Checkatrade get out of jail free card.
Make sure you’re covered: If you engage someone from Checkatrade over the phone, make sure you follow up with messages, otherwise you may not be eligible for their guarantee.
You are probably aware that the vast majority of people will simply search for a number, enter it into their phone and make a call. Other readers who have contacted us have also been affected by this situation.
It is unclear whether it would be acceptable to click on an automated link on the Checkatrade website to make a phone call.
So if you do hire a trader over the phone, I highly recommend following up with messages on the website to make sure you are covered.
Returning to the AT story, I am pleased to say that Checkatrade has now agreed to pay him £500 as a gesture of goodwill, to compensate him for the cost of the scaffolding.
He continued: “We are sorry to hear that AT has experienced considerable inconvenience and stress and so we would like to offer you £500 as a gesture of goodwill to help you pay for the third party scaffolding costs you have incurred.”
I hope the next roofer I hire is more reputable.
CRANE OVER THE CASE
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