What is the best website to find a tradesman

[FrangiePangie]

I never know which website is best out of Trustatrader, Checkatrade and Ratedpeople.

Which one would you recommend?

We've found some great tradesmen on mybuilder.Com

I use ratedpeople

Do all these websites charge the traders to be on them? I know that on ratedpeople the people who respond to your posting have to pay to view it and so you are less likely to get cowboys.

How do the other websites filter out the less scrupulous traders?

Rated People only has reviews from people the tradesperson has done work for. I have seen bad and good reviews on there.

There is a new website called 'next door ' , I have joined and it's all local stuff , lots of locals ask recommendations for tradespeople etc . I haven't used it yet but think I might in the near future .
I think word of mouth from happy customers seems the way forwards

Check and see if your local council has a Trusted Trader registry scheme. We've found a number of good tradespeople locally using this method.

Checkatrade charge for 'membership' and you have to get x amount of customers to review you annually to keep it up to date. Reviews are checked.
Membership is expensive

I contacted a tradesperson via the Council's Trusted Trader scheme, but after an initial acknowledgement they didn't arrange to come and look at the work we needed doing!

The tradesmen on Rated People pay a subscription to be on the site and are only approved after a few background checks to avoid rogue traders. Homeowners who have used a trades person through Rated People can leave reviews on their handiwork for other homeowners to see.

I have no faith in check a trader...My ex is on there as a qualified car mechanic, own pick up truck, big signwrited job. . .
He is a joiner.

If you've got any local forums/Facebook groups it can be worth looking for recommendations there. We've found some great tradesmen that way, and can cross check on the other sites.

My hammer.

Checkatrade do not allow bad reviews, so basically its a fan-site!! The trader pays to be be on there, and customers submit reviews - only the good ones go on the website. We had a problem with a trader and Checkatrade told us that unless we had a court ruling in our favour, no adverse comments were allowed.

Second Facebook group for your town/area. It's my go-to place now.

I've used Mybuilder.com and found it good.

Mybuilder charges the tradesman a finders fee I think

Which? Trusted Trader - I know from experience traders have to jump through hoops to become one and not every trader makes the grade or so I'm told. Checkatrade you don't have to jump through so many hoops and acceptance is pretty immediate.

We have used mybuilder for both large and small jobs. Currently we are undergoing a £100,000 extension and rennovation project and the building company came from that site. We are very happy with them. My husband always posts a job on there and then reads through all of the replies, checking their reviews carefully as well as googling them. He short lists a few to meet and then we choose. From a small job of unblocking our drains, to a medium job of redoing our ensuite, to the big job we are doing now, we have always found good builders.

Have you tried www.hoppy.co.uk? You can find verified trade professionals with a guarantee. They have plenty of offers.

Ask around locally. facebook or nextdoor. normally someone local wont rip you off or word gets round

Agree about Checkatrade - incidentally, Mumsnet got a legal letter from them a few years back, in which they demanded they hand over the contact details of everyone on the thread who slagged them off... charming! Mumsnet refused, but the thread had to be deleted.

Re Checkatrade preferring to print only good reviews (stands to reason when the members pay them to join) it's the same with nursing home review websites. The only one that posts neg reviews is goodcareguide.com in my experience, the others only allow neg comments to be very vague. NHS Choices rejected mine automatically it seemed.

BTW does anyone know of a blacklisting thing going on with local tradesmen, where a household can get smeared so workmen know to avoid taking business from them? Does such a thing exist? Not a problem if the household really is bad news and hasn't paid up for a job, but it might be easy to falsely smear someone in that way... I just wondered.

We've used mybuilder for several job's and always been happy. The decorator we got from there has already been back to do more jobs.

Agree about Checkatrade too.

I'm loath to trust any of them tbh..One of the dodgy incompetent lying cheating builders who worked on my house has set up a new business and is on these sites.
On Checkatrade he has loads and loads of glowing reviews which I struggle to believe are real. Particularly as the original company I employed had similar reviews. Every so often there's a bad one which is quickly followed by another raft of glowing ones which make the bad ones appear to be the odd disgruntled customer. He also appears on My Builder.
Worryingly this trader is also now on Which Trusted traders which I would previously have thought to be beyond reproach.
I have also seen an advert where he claimed to be Trading Standards approved! I can't see it now so perhaps it has been taken down.
I worry that whichever checks are used by the websites - they are open to manipulation by dishonest people.

We've started using PropertyHeads to find tradesmen. It's great because you can actually see the tradesmen reviewed by people you know. So no more worrying about fake reviews. Also I understand it's free for tradesmen which means they won't get upset about you getting more than one quote for your job. Booked a tiler that had been reviewed by one of our neighbours - very happy with the work done.