Is your trader trustworthy?
Homeowners can avoid fraudulent tradespeople by ensuring they use a ‘Registered’ person, a leading Competent Person Scheme has confirmed today.
NAPIT, which has over 25 years’ experience and 10,000 companies registered across the electrical, heating, plumbing, ventilation, microgeneration and building fabric sectors, made the announcement after an investigation by the BBC’s Inside Out.
The programme revealed that two ‘trusted trade’ sites did not have systems in place to prevent people publishing fraudulent profiles on their pages. A BBC reporter set up profiles on the Rated People and MyBuilder sites simply by providing them with a company website and email address, and was also able to add fake reviews to his page. Rated People did not conduct any checks into the reporter’s background, and MyBuilder merely offered up a simple questionnaire that could be passed by searching online for the answers.
Mike Andrews, Group Chief Executive of NAPIT, said "It is shocking to hear how easy it is for people to register with websites like Rated People or MyBuilder without providing any evidence that they are capable of carrying out work competently. These sites could potentially become a platform for incompetent tradespeople, allowing them to mislead customers about their abilities. At NAPIT, we require not only that each Registered Installer has the appropriate qualifications, but that they can continue to prove their competence during regular on-site assessments. They can also self-certify any notifiable work they undertake as compliant with the appropriate Building Regulations. By using a NAPIT Registered Installer, you can be sure that their individual ability to do the job has been verified, making them a truly ‘trusted trader’."
You can search for the nearest NAPIT Registered Installers to you at www.napit.org.uk.
Article Published:
15 February 2018
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