Cowboy builders won’t voluntarily sign up to stop being cowboys, this crackdown needs teeth

A builder takes a £20,000 deposit and disappears. A new roof starts leaking within weeks. An extension is left half-finished and the homeowner discovers it will cost thousands more to put right.

So the Government’s latest crackdown on rogue traders is welcome.

But there’s a fairly obvious problem. The builders we most need protecting from are unlikely to volunteer to be regulated.

Under new plans, homeowners will be able to search a government-backed database of tradespeople who meet certain standards covering customer service, transparency and dispute resolution.

That’s useful. Reputable builders should welcome the opportunity to demonstrate that they can be trusted.

But if joining is voluntary, what happens to everyone else?

A cowboy builder isn’t going to wake up one morning and think: “Perhaps I should join a scheme that makes it harder for me to rip people off.”

That’s why I think the Government needs to go further.

If you’re undertaking substantial building work in somebody’s home, there should be meaningful minimum standards and proper accountability.

One part of the proposals I particularly welcome is the idea of linking payments to stages of completed work.

Too many consumers hand over enormous deposits before work begins.

Once that money has gone, their bargaining position changes dramatically.

If payments are properly protected and released as agreed stages of work are satisfactorily completed, the cowboy’s favourite trick,taking the money and disappearing, becomes much harder.

But we also need better enforcement.

Consumer law already gives homeowners important rights. Under the Consumer Rights Act, a trader providing a service must exercise reasonable care and skill.

The problem is that knowing you have rights and successfully enforcing them are two very different things.

If a builder disappears, has no assets or simply ignores you, a legal right on a piece of paper isn’t much comfort when your house has no roof.

The Government has correctly identified a serious problem.

Now it needs to make sure the solution has teeth.

Give consumers safer ways to pay. Make it easier to identify who is genuinely competent and ensure rogue traders face meaningful consequences.

Because a trusted-trader register will help consumers find good builders.

But unless we deal with the bad ones as well, the cowboys will simply carry on riding.

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Dean Dunham KC presents LBC's Consumer Hour.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

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