New scheme aims to tackle ‘the cowboy customer’
23rd June 2015

A new scheme that aims to protect both tradespeople and consumers by a third party escrow-style account is out to recruit new members from all home improvement sectors.

The Home Improvement Guarantee (HIG) is based on a series of staged payments which are held in a Financial Conduct Authority regulated holding account, then released to the tradesman only when the consumer is happy with the work and agrees to release the funds before depositing the next staged payment into the fund.

HIG founder Harvey Ellingham said as well as protecting the homeowner, it ensures that tradespeople are protected from ‘cowboy customers’ who commission work they can’t afford.

“By placing the money in an independent account, the consumer knows that the money is safe and the tradesman knows the customer has enough money to pay for the work.”

The scheme also includes an insurance-backed guarantee, at no charge to the tradesman, and a mediation service, based on a binding decision by an independent surveyor, and ‘work opportunities through referrals generated by the HIG marketing programme’. The cost to the business is 3% of the net value of work and also a refundable £95 background check in applicants.

Ellingam concluded: “Since we have been getting in newspapers because of falling trust with other recommendation websites, we have been inundated with thousands of enquiries and frankly we need more members to help with the workload.”

www.higuk.co.uk