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TrustMark registers and vets UK building companies and tradesmen

Regular DIY Doctor visitors know we support good building practices by promoting the use of our building contract and quality vetted tradesmen like TrustMark builders

One of the ways we help consumers find reliable building professionals is to recommend you use a registered insured tradesman when you need a builder. Our find a tradesman section features Trustmark registered builders to help you do this. We say this because they are approved and vetted by TrustMark, the only Government endorsed quality mark for the building industry.

Last month TrustMark reached out to more than 3.4 million consumers in BBC radio broadcasts across the country. The idea was to promote their service and to help anyone looking for a builder to find local, reliable, trades people.

Liz Male, Chairman of TrustMark, said: “The radio interviews have been a great way for us to communicate with consumers up and down the country and to raise awareness of TrustMark and our tradesmen. We need to put a stop to the rogue traders who continue to take advantage of unsuspecting and vulnerable people” The radio programs were broadcast on Local BBC stations, all the way from Scotland down to Northumberland, across from Wales to Kent and back to Cornwall.

Find a building firm you trust

If you are planning on employing a builder or building company, you want to be confident that you are using someone you can trust. Trustmark vet and register UK building firms, smaller general builders and if you need a more specialist tradesman, they have those too, such as a plumber, electrician, plasterer, decorator or landscape gardener.

DIY Doctor has been promoting the idea of a reliable system to help consumers find the builder they need for their building job for the last 5 years. This is why we introduced our ‘Desired Outcome’ Building Contract, which you can download from the site, along with guidance notes to help you plan your build step by step (with you builder) so everyone knows where they stand at every step of the process.

Why you should use a building contract

Reliable builders are usually happy to work with a contract, where Cowboy Builders are likely to run a mile if you ask them to discuss and commit to their plans and costs at the beginning of the negotiations.

Mike Edwards, Brand Manager for DIY Doctor comments “The DIY Doctor Desired Outcome Contract has been developed by a team of builders and legal experts in consultation with our customer focus group, to be sure that it protects the interests of both parties in a fair and equitable way.”

See Mike explaining about the Contract and other ways to ensure you get a trusted tradesman for your build in the video below – there are also other explanatory videos and an interview between a builder and customer after using the Desired Outcome building contract on the DIY Doctor YouTube Channel.

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TrustMark have just announced a 20% increase in online viewings of their listed tradesmen in the last 12 months.

DIY Doctor recommend using TrustMark to find tradespeople as part of our ‘Home Improvers Protection Solution’ (HIPS) campaign, because they are a government endorsed organisation and the only ‘find a tradesman’ scheme that insist on their tradespeople having membership to a trade body.

Your builder being a member of a trade body is not a safeguard in itself but it does mean that tradesmen must be insured, and the trade body will have a complaints procedure, and even an ombudsman, if things do go wrong.

Find a Good Builder

Builders who pay to belong to a trade body are more likely to be genuine professional builders rather than fly-by-night organisations that come and go – sometimes with your money in their pocket!

The mentality of a professional builder is one of long term business building, including doing a good job, being professional and open, being accountable, being insured, and desiring repeat business and recommendations. This is the sort of person you want to be working on your home.

Cowboy builders lie

Be aware that unscrupulous builders, who make a living out of ripping people off, may use a trade body to give their business a veneer of respectability, so do not accept their membership as proof they are genuine.

This is obviously annoying as it makes Cowboy Builders harder to spot, but just because they use a trade body logo on their paperwork or van doesn’t guarantee that they are actually members. They may have been members once, and let it lapse, or they may simply have lifted the logo illicitly.

Check out your builders before you employ them

When you are ‘interviewing’ builders, and other tradespeople, ask for their trade body membership number and check with the organisation involved. Trade bodies want to protect their good name and that of their legitimate members keep. They do not want to see cowboys stealing their good name. They may even want to take the matter further if you find your prospective builders are not members, but claiming they are.

If your builder does not readily give you their membership details, get in touch with the trade body anyway – they will be able to check their records against the builders name and address. If this builder is not registered don’t use them. If they are lying at this stage it does not bode well for future relations!

How can I avoid Cowboy Builders

If you are thinking of having work done at home, use all the tools on our website to help you employ a good tradesman and avoid the bad one. Read more in our HIPS section Home Improvers Protection Solution on our main site.

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Trustmark’s concern is centered on the Governments decision to drop any safeguards in the Green Deal Code of Practice around ancillary works. These include items such as re-pointing, creating better ventilation, damp treatment, roof tile repairs, leaks, and blockages to ventilation etc, before Green Deal work such as installing insulation, and boilers.

In modern houses these ancillary works may not be necessary however in aging housing stock there are bound to be works to carry out, and there is also the worry that rogue traders may suggest these works are necessary where they are not.

Trustmark are calling for the Government to revisit these plans and to reinstate the Code of Practice boundaries to cover the ancillary works again.

Read more about this on the Trustmark website.

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While DIY Doctor is broadly in favour of making planning regulations less bound up with red tape they have to agree with TrustMark who warn that consumers need more advice when planning building works – and the bigger the project the more guidance they may need.

TrustMark and DIY Doctor are both very keen to promote good, honest, reliable tradesmen and to try to eradicate the cowboy builder.

As the chairman of Trustmark, Liz Male, comments: “. . . through initiatives like this and the forthcoming Green Deal, the risk is that we leave too many people at the mercy of rogue traders and cowboy builders . . . If Government wishes to deregulate this sector, even for a short period, then it must also help by signposting people to reputable firms and good sources of advice.”

Trustmark is a government-endorsed agency which has over 21,000 licenced tradespeople on their website. To be eligible to be be listed every firm is inspected and checked by experienced inspectors.  DIY Doctor has chosen to work solely in conjunction with TrustMark to help homeowners find reputable tradespersons to carry out building works on their homes. They are the only online trades listing who ensure the firms are accredited. To find suitable tradespeople in your area visit DIY Doctor’s find a tradesman area.

Liz Male adds: “We would always advise anyone considering building an extension, conservatory, loft conversion or other major building work to use a contract with their tradesmen. The free TrustMark app is a particularly important tool that can help with that, prompting you to ask all the right questions.”

We have a free building contract on DIY Doctor which will help to clarify all the stages of your project and if used properly will improve communication between you and your builder, avoiding some of the pitfalls, and helping to resolve any possible disputes.

Go to our section on Home Improvement Protection Solution (HIPS) where you can download a free Desired Outcome Contract.

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DIY Doctor will be presenting at The National Home Improvement Show at Olympia in London at the end of this month. The show is the UK’s leading exhibition for home improvers and brings together high quality suppliers, designers and experts. It is the ideal place for homeowners to source ideas and gather inspiration for any anticipated energy efficient home improvement project. Don’t forget you can register for two FREE TICKETS to the show just by clicking on the banner below and filling in your details.

This year marks the fourth National Home Improvement Awards and is jointly sponsored by the National Home Improvement Council’s Educational Trust and TrustMark, in conjunction with the show’s organisers. Regulars to our blog will recognise TrustMark as being the Government-endorsed body working in partnership with DIY Doctor to eradicate cowboy builders.

Five projects shortlisted for the new award

There will be awards for the winner and a runner-up announced from a shortlist of five completed home extensions. All submissions were closely assessed by the three awards Judges – Michael Homes, TV property expert and editor-in-chief of Real Home magazine; Andrew Leech, executive director of NHIC Educational Trust; and Roman Russocki, chief executive of TrustMark.

The public are invited to vote for their favourite home improvement project from the shortlist published on the award website http://nationalhomeimprovementawards.co.uk. The winner will be announced at The National Home Improvement Show on the 28th September.

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