I employed rogue roofer on Checkatrade, why cannot I exploit refund assure?

In March, I hired a roofer via Checkatrade to repair my chimney, as it was damaged and water was leaking in. 

I paid the roofer an initial sum of £500 to have scaffolding put up, which he sent a third-party firm to do.

Months have passed since then and, despite plenty of messages and promises, the roofer never turned up to do the job. Meanwhile, the chimney issue is getting worse.

The scaffolding company has now removed the scaffolding, saying it had not been paid for the job by the roofer. I think I’ve fallen victim to a rogue trader. 

Checkatrade has a £1,000 money-back guarantee when jobs don’t go as planned, so I got in touch, providing messages and evidence of payments.  

It agreed I’d been left out of pocket and said the trader had now been blocked from advertising on the website. 

But I was eventually told I didn’t qualify for compensation because ‘the work had not started’. I’d argue it did as the scaffold was put up and I paid for it. Can you help? A.T, Brighton

Helen Crane, This is Money’s consumer champion replies: It’s getting trickier than ever to spot a rogue trader from the real deal. 

Directory websites such as Checkatrade are supposed to help homeowners root out bad eggs, but they have a tough task on their hands as the number of scammers has surged. 

In the last six months alone, Checkatrade has rejected a record 668 tradespeople who failed its sign-up checks, up 13 per cent year-on-year.

And the rate was sky-high among roofers, with 19 per cent of those who tried to get listed on the website being turned away – the most of any trade. 

Checkatrade says demand for home renovations is running red hot, resulting in long waiting lists and the ‘perfect environment for unscrupulous characters to step in and take advantage.’ 

Common reasons traders might be rejected include having negative reviews online, or a patchy trading history. Sadly, yours managed to slip through the cracks. 

Initially you thought he was just running a few days behind schedule, but when he still hadn’t showed up to do the job after four months and a raft of excuses, you started to suspect you had been conned by a cowboy. 

This was confirmed when the scaffolders turned up at your home to take their work down. They hadn’t been paid – and said they were not the only firm left out of pocket by your renegade roofer. 

You don’t appear to be alone in this. This is Money has received a number of emails from other readers, saying jobs they had booked on Checkatrade had been bodged despite the tradespeople having been verified. 

We’re currently investigating a number of these cases, including one in which wonky doors, gaping windows and an extension had to be pulled down because it wasn’t properly supported. 

When searching for your roofer on Checkatrade, you’d also noticed its guarantee. 

It says this is ‘discretionary’ but should cover building work for 12 months, up to a total of £1,000, in the event it is found to be ‘sub-standard’. 

To be eligible, the customer has to book the job through Checkatrade, leave a review on the website within 30 days of the work being completed, and keep hold of evidence such as emails, invoices, proof of payment and photographs of the work. 

You thought you ticked all those boxes, so you got in touch to report what had happened and make a claim. 

While the first person you spoke to agreed that you’d been the victim of a rogue trader, you said your experience went downhill after that and you were promised updates on your case which didn’t arrive.

Ultimately, you were told you couldn’t get your money back from Checkatrade as the ‘work hadn’t started’ – which you dispute as you had paid the £500 and the scaffolding had been put up, though later removed.

I contacted Checkatrade to check it out. 

It told me that it had made numerous attempts to contact your rogue roofer, which he hadn’t responded to – so he has been removed from the platform and blocked from rejoining in future. Good news. 

‘The behaviour of unscrupulous tradespeople like the one that let [A.T] down is exactly what Checkatrade’s checks have been developed to guard against,’ it said. 

On the guarantee, it said you didn’t meet its requirements because you hadn’t booked the job directly via its website.  

‘We have been unable to find any evidence this job was actually booked via Checkatrade, so unfortunately are unable to offer compensation under our 12-month customer protection guarantee because of the way in which this work was arranged,’ it said. 

‘Also, despite scaffolding being put in place, no actual work was carried out by the tradesperson under the terms of our guarantee.’

The first point is vital for anyone booking work via Checkatrade. If you want to be covered by the guarantee, you need to prove that you have contacted the company and arranged the work via the Checkatrade website – not just noted down the phone number and given them a call independently. 

As I understand it, this means people need to sign up for a ‘homeowner’ account on Checkatrade, and get quotes and send messages within its internal system. 

In my opinion, this is a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card from Checkatrade.

Surely it is aware that the vast majority of people will simply look up a number, tap it into their phone and make a call. Other readers who have contacted us have been caught out by this, too. 

It’s unclear whether clicking through an automatic link on the Checkatrade website to make a phone call would be acceptable. 

So if you do hire a tradesperson on the phone, I’d strongly suggest following up with messages on the website to make sure you are covered. 

Back to A.T’s story, and I am pleased to say Checkatrade has now agreed to pay you £500 as a gesture of goodwill – making you square for the cost of the scaffolding. 

It continued: ‘We are sorry to hear that A.T has experienced considerable inconvenience and stress, and so would like to offer him £500 as a goodwill gesture to help him pay for the third-party scaffolding costs he has incurred.’

I hope the next roofer you hire is more reputable.  

CRANE ON THE CASE