Cowboy Builders et al – Part 1 

Sad to say with initiatives like this contractors/tradespeople good and bad get lumped into the same bracket and the good ones who treat their customers with respect are potentially demonised due to the actions of the few.

Undeniably there are bad cookies in the jar but then the same could be said for any industry – as we can all recognise with the deterioration in service provision of our public services in recent years. They are not exclusive to the construction industry and let’s face it, governments of all colours have been desperate to find a way to regulate and control the construction industry for years…cash payments being at the top of the list. 

In the main, contractors in or around the construction industry are amazing and I’ve worked with a good few over the years. Most renovation/home improvement projects will progress from start to finish with no problems at all; they just don’t make the headlines, which usually only tells one side of the story anyway. 

Yes, people can, and indeed do, get stung, and it is incredibly sad to see it when it happens and to realise the potential consequences…financial hardship, an unsafe property are but several examples. In my view there is really no need to rip anyone off – do a job properly, do it well, get paid, move on, get more work via recommendation…the process by which good reputations are built! However, I believe there are ways of mitigating against unscrupulous people and bad workmanship without having to resort to a 3rd party App. During my renovation career I have been involved in rescuing several stalled renovation projects and bringing them to a satisfactory conclusion. It is one of the main reasons I wrote my book: Penny Practically Does…Renovation, written to empower my readers to undertake their own renovations successfully without falling into some of the most common traps. 

Preferably, to understand the potential pitfalls the time to read it is at the start of any renovation journey. In my experience it is crucial at the outset to understand your property, the project to be undertaken and the processes involved in the actual works, including hiring and working with contractors. I go into more practical detail in the book, and the reader can easily adapt the information to bring their own projects to successful conclusion. 

So, having heard about the App, I was interested to look at Trusted Payments and their service provision. Anyone who knows me is aware I do my research before considering diving into anything new, but in this instance I am not intending to dive into anything. I have never shied away from asking questions & I always encourage my readers to do the same. Call me cautious, but I always investigate how long the company has successfully operated the totality of their service provision, check out any feedback and understand too how truly independent any ‘resolution’ process is really. I have read through the Trusted Payments website to understand how each side of the platform should work i.e. the homeowner side and the contractor side, and accessed the documents 

displayed in the footer, namely, Terms & Conditions of Service, Warranty Details and Resolution & Process Guide. I would recommend that anyone proposing to access this service reads through all these documents thoroughly and understands them fully. There is a lot of responsibility on the householder to ensure things are correct. As with any service provision you need to understand what you are responsible for, what the company is responsible for, where the liabilities lie and what the company actually takes liability for. There are variations to the warranty and a process to be followed if there is a disagreement between you and your contractor. It is important to bear in mind your only route to resolution is via the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman (DRO), whose decision is final. You can’t bring in your own independent mediator.

There are fees for using the App services. Additionally, you pay the final payment of your project (10% of the project value) at the start of the contract between you and Trusted Payments, which is held in escrow by their DRO for the duration of your project and beyond if there is a disagreement between you and your contractor. 

Payments are via Open Banking, and this includes the individual milestone payments, which the company then use to pay your contractor. You, the householder are responsible for checking the standard of a contractors work at every milestone. When you deem it satisfactory, you make the payment. 

Since the announcement by the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, several concerns have been raised not only in the trade but by various others too including journalists, some of which follow:

• Why would a householder add another tier into their renovation schedule? With the correct knowledge and know-how, the entire renovation process can usually be satisfactorily sorted between a contractor and their client without the involvement of any additional third party. 
  
  
• Would a “Cowboy Builder” or dubious tradesperson ever sign up to membership of a company that checks them out? The answer is probably no, so the problem of the doorstep callers or the less than honest tradesperson doesn’t go away. 
  
  
• Why should anyone share all the details of their forthcoming project with a faceless 3rd party including what they are paying for it, for what should be a private transaction? Given the recent government proposals to undertake their own property valuations for a proposed Mansion Tax, this could be seen as a reasonable concern. 
  
  
• A householder is expected to pay the final payment at the beginning of their contract (representing 10% of the total price) rather than a 10% deposit for instance, (which is the usual course of a payment schedule), and retain the money in their own bank until it becomes due. Most people are more than capable of managing a pre-agreed payment schedule themselves. 
  
  
• The company is essentially acting as a 3rd party ‘pass-through’ entity with the homeowner paying the milestone payment into the App for the company to then pass it on to the contractor. Note: The homeowner would be personally responsible for signing off the individual milestones on their project & judged to be competent to do so, irrespective of experience. 
  
  
• If there is an issue to put right the householder negotiates with the contractor to re-do the work before any action will be taken via the App. The onus here is on the householder to have the requisite experience to judge a job well done, or not as the case may be.
  
  
• There are reasonable concerns about the introduction of Digital ID via any back door the government can get away with. Not everyone is comfortable with this. Part of the contract set up with Trusted Payments will include identity verification for the homeowner and the contractor too for what should be a private transaction. Not everyone is comfortable with Open Banking either when their bank account balances and banking transactions are exposed, albeit to an FCA approved entity.
  
  
• How easy is it to extricate yourself from a contract with Trusted Payments if their service doesn’t come up to scratch and you become unhappy with the service further down the line? 
  

All points worthy of serious consideration. In my view, the relationship is between you and your contractor(s) not with a 3rd party App. With the right knowledge and a few sensible safeguards in place, that’s how it should be. 

In “Cowboy Builders et al – Part 2”, I will suggest some practical safeguards you can put in place that allows you to retain control of your renovation or household improvement projects. My book, Penny Practically Does…Renovation, now available on Amazon, is full of detail as to how to structure a renovation project of any size and how to deal with contractors (including some pointers to help identifying the dodgy ones!) at all stages of your proposed works. 

You can also head over to the website PennyPracticallyDoes.com and download a copy of “Contractors can make (or break!) your Property Renovation” for free. 

Access Cowboy Builders et al – Part 2 here.