Builder's Scams
Most builders in the UK are decent tradespeople trying to run an honest business. A minority are not, and the damage they leave behind can run into tens of thousands of pounds. Television has made the cowboy builder a familiar figure, but the reality on your own driveway is less entertaining: a half finished extension, a roof that leaks worse than before, and a "tradesman" who has stopped answering his phone.
The good news is that almost every cowboy job follows the same pattern. Once you know the pattern, you can sidestep it.
How the scam usually works
The classic doorstep approach has barely changed in decades. Someone knocks and says he is working on a neighbour's house. He has noticed something wrong with your roof, your chimney, your guttering, your driveway, your render, or your trees. He offers to take a quick look. A few minutes later he comes back with a worried face and a quote.
The quote is often suspiciously low to start with, or framed as a favour because he has materials left over from another job. He wants to start today or tomorrow. He wants cash, sometimes "to keep the VAT off it". His van may carry no business name, or a name that does not match anything you can find online. The phone number he gives you is a mobile, and there is no proper address.
Once work begins, the price tends to climb. New problems are discovered the moment the first tile comes off. Materials cost more than expected. A deposit is needed for the next stage, then another. On larger jobs, such as an extension or a loft conversion, the same pattern stretches over months: invoices keep arriving, progress does not match them, and the finished work, if it is finished at all, fails to meet building regulations.
A separate but related scam involves rogue traders who claim to be from the council, a utility, or a "safety inspection" scheme, and use that as a way in to sell unnecessary work. Genuine officials do not normally cold call to drum up trade.
Got a text, call, email or offer that feels off? Paste it in below and we will tell you how scammy it looks, the warning signs to spot, and exactly what to do next.
Try our Scam Detector free, here on this site →Red flags to watch for
- Cold callers at the door offering work you had not asked about.
- Pressure to decide immediately, or claims that the problem is dangerous and must be fixed today.
- Cash only, or a request to pay a large sum up front before any work starts.
- No written quote, no contract, no terms, no VAT number where you would expect one.
- A mobile number with no landline, no proper website, no traceable business address.
- A vehicle with no signage, or magnetic signs that look temporary.
- Vague answers about insurance, guarantees, or membership of trade bodies.
- Reluctance to provide references you can actually check.
- Offers of "leftover materials from another job" at a discount.
- Quotes that come in dramatically below everyone else, or balloon once work has started.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
How to find a builder you can trust
Start with a written specification of the work. For a small job that can be a page of notes. For anything structural it should be drawings and a schedule, ideally prepared by an architect, surveyor or structural engineer. Spell out who removes the rubbish, who makes good afterwards, and what "finished" looks like. Vague briefs lead to vague work.
Ask family, friends, neighbours and colleagues who they have used. A recommendation from someone who has lived with the result for a year is worth more than any star rating. If you used an architect, ask them too.
Get at least three written quotes based on the same specification, so you are comparing like with like. Each quote should include a breakdown of materials and labour, so you can see where the money goes. Treat the cheapest with the same caution as the most expensive, and ask why the figure is what it is.
Check the trader. Look them up at Companies House if they are a limited company. Search the business name and the director's name together. Ask to see proof of their public liability insurance, and for larger work their employer's liability insurance too. For gas work, check the Gas Safe Register. For electrical work, check whether they are registered with a recognised competent person scheme. GOV.UK lists the schemes that count for building regulations.
For structural work, confirm who is dealing with building control and planning. That responsibility should be written into the contract.
Use a written contract for anything beyond a small repair. It should cover the scope, the price, the payment schedule, the start and finish dates, what happens if dates slip, and the guarantee. Stage payments tied to completed milestones are normal. A large deposit before any materials are on site is not.
Pay by a method that gives you some protection. Card payments and bank transfers leave a trail. Cash does not. If a price drops the moment you mention paying by card, ask yourself why.
Under consumer law you generally have a short cancellation period for contracts agreed at your home. The current rules are explained on GOV.UK and on the Citizens Advice website.
If it has already gone wrong
Stop paying. Further payments rarely rescue a bad job, they just fund the next one.
Put your complaint in writing to the trader, setting out what is wrong and what you want done. Keep copies of everything: the contract, quotes, invoices, text messages, emails, dated photographs of the work at each stage, and any notes of phone calls. The more evidence you have, the stronger your position.
Contact Citizens Advice for guidance on your consumer rights. They can also pass details to Trading Standards where appropriate. For suspected fraud in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, report to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk, where you can use the online reporting tool. Be ready to give dates, amounts, the trader's details, and a clear summary of what happened. In Scotland, report to Police Scotland on 101.
If you paid by credit card, or by debit card and the trader has effectively vanished, contact your card issuer about a chargeback or a Section 75 claim. Use the number on the back of your card, or the fraud contact details on your bank's official website, rather than any number the trader has given you.
If the work affects safety, structure or building regulations, contact your local authority's building control team. For gas or electrical concerns, contact the relevant register.
Cowboy builders rely on hurry, embarrassment and trust. Take the time to write things down, check the details, and verify the people you are dealing with. That alone removes most of their advantage.
See also: Latest Scam Warnings for an up-to-date list of the scam types being reported across the UK right now.
I have now lived for 18 months in a house with no kitchen, an unsafe damaged boiler-so no proper heating or hot water for two whole winters, that doesn’t comply with building regs, a filthy mess and stuff left everywhere, huge piles of unsanitary rubbish outside, unstraight walls with rippling and trowel marks everywhere, and an independent inspection report shows a record number of issues with not a single thing done correctly. It summarises the work hasn’t been done to professional standards and all needs redoing. The rectification costs way exceed the original works. I am a vulnerable customer with a disability which makes me an easy target. I used this builder due to their accreditations, and have been left totally broke with no hope of ever paying the repair costs, stuck in an unsafe filthy cold environment without a kitchen.
Solicitors advised there’s no money in the builders accounts so not to waste money taking them to court.
No one regulates or monitors these schemes that are supposed to protect consumers, especially vulnerable ones who trust and rely on them. They haven’t provided me any evidence of any the so called thorough vetting they did to approve this builder or their insurance details.
Northumbria Police were equally disgusting and I would think twice before investing in this corrupt area with it's disgusting police force and County Council, with particualar reference to the former Chief Executive and the Trading Standards Department, which is as economical with the truth as the builder in question.
Northumberland Trading Standards are in my honest opinion the worst organisation I have ever come across, they actually claim that it's not in the public interest to prosecute Rogue Builders who commit serious fraud in relation to elderly and vulnerable people, despite there being numerous cases (in to double figures and most with Building Inspectors Reports or CCJ's) and allegedly as many as 24 complaints.
According to FOI requests Northumberland Trading Standards had one prosecution in five years for £100 at the Magistrates, and may as well not exist.
They will try and hide behind the morally bankrupt LGO, and the limited powers of other organisations, but their own incompetence and ineptitude is plain to see, as is that of their management.
They even accuse the very people who are the victims of crime of wrong doing and collect pointless data which they will keep about you for at least six years including medical data and personal sensitive data and hide behind the fact they can collect data under their remit, so be extremely careful what you tell them as it will inevitable end up on their records, indeed a lot of the records they kept on us were not even correct and was also very trivial and were used to discredit us, and we were the victims of fraud.
Northumberland Trading Standards constantly harp on about their limited powers despite taking cases directed to the police by a concerned MP back in to their fold, in order to take no action.
Our only regret is letting Northumberland Trading Standards on to our property in the first place.
Also ask what they are putting down, if the answer if "tarmac" close the door and call the police.
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