Domestic builders and tradespeople regulation

snowcat75

teneighty wrote: »

There is heavy regulation for all electrical, gas, solid fuel in domestic installations and yet there still appear to be plenty of cowboys undertaking such work. Both those who are apparently qualified and regulated and those who are not qualified and registered but do it anyway.

It would seem more regulation is not the answer. Maybe better education for customers to help identify good trades people and avoid the common pitfalls.

How often is the common denominator on these stories "I found a builder online with great reviews" or "I only got the one quote and they could start immediately"? People are too easily swayed by a good sales pitch and slick presentation.....the basic tools of all good con artists. The problem only seems to be getting worse because of the current heavy reliance on the internet and social media which makes the con artists' job so much easier.

Personally I would like to see the activity of "cowboy" builders being treated for what it really is, fraud. Rather than the police and public bodies insisting it is a civil matter. Maybe a few more criminal prosecutions would deter them.

In some ways id agree collecting tickets IMHO does little, but sustained standards with continual training assessment and auditing does....

tacpot12

Robin9 wrote: »

I agree - who OP would do the registering and monitoring? Not Trading Standards, not the industries ........... who ?

If the regulator is paid for by the industry itself, it is tempting for individual traders to try to exert influence on the regulator, but I think there are ways to distance the traders from the money they pay and the governance of the regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority is paid for by the industry it supervises, but has duties to consumer, to the industry and to the wider economy. Its governance arrangements try to make it fit for its purposes, and limit the potential for industry influence.

What is needed is a law that says you cannot do building work for retail customers without being registered with one of the handful of regulators. Those regulators would effectively license and supervise all building firms and can prevent someone doing any work by

• ensuring that all consumers know who the regulators are
• ensuring that consumers can easily check that any builder they are considering engaging is registered with one of the regulators
• by deregistering any firm, director or owner whose work is found to be unsatisfactory (The FCA Approved Persons regime would be a model for barring unsuitable persons from the industry)

The licensing model from USA (where you have to be licensed to do work over a certain value) could be extended to a tiered model, so that when you are initially licensed you cannot do work that is worth more than say £2000. After three years of trading with no complaints, you can ask for this to be raised to say £4000, and again after say two years, to £6000, and so on.

BrianThomas

Are things getting any better in 2020 or likely to get any better in 2021.
Personally I'm running a one man ca,paign to improve my DIY skills' there are that many videos on U Tube etc that I recon you can probably complete more than 50% of the work that you would ask a "trades-person" to do. Lock-down has been good for upgrading my skills and I've also acquired a few extra tools that make the jobs more enjoyable and with a better outcome. Most plumbing jobs are a doddle.
They really do p*** me off so anything that keeps the idiots out of work all to the good and in addition half of them have claimed money for being furloughed or not working and carry on and ofcourse they very rarely declare their earning etc. So lots of reasons to not use them. All the ones I know are Brexiteers as well thinking that they would do better without the Polish competition!!
High time that the "building" trade in general was brought to heel from rip off solicitors, surveyors, estate agents, builders plumbers etc etc. Not exactly cutting edge jobs are they.

AskAsk

well that was sucessful!  i didn't realise this is an old thread so tried to sign the petition, only to find out that is is closed and there were 28 signatures!

i do think we need to regulate roofers as they do work where the customer can not see the results to inspect the work.  they are by far the most untrustworthy of the trades.