Home improvement marketplace Plentific.com’s latest insight has found that it’s estimated 13 million UK homeowners fear hiring tradesmen to carry out home improvement work.

UK homeowners get cold feet when it comes to hiring tradesmen, according to Plentific.com’s survey. 87% of homeowners fear hiring tradesmen, and their key concern seems to be finding a reliable professional. 59% said their biggest hurdle is finding a tradesman that they know for certain can do their job properly. The nation is relatively relaxed about projects sticking to a timeline; homeowners were more keen on getting their projects done to a high standard. A fifth (19%) get concerns about their work being completed on time, with half (51%) fearing that their finished project will not meet with expectations.

 

The region with the most confident homeowners was the South West, with 19% of local homeowners replying that they had no concerns about hiring a tradesman. This is a big contrast to concerned Londoners, of which only 5% said they felt completely comfortable doing so. There was a lot of variation at regional level. The biggest worry in Brighton was getting ripped off, as 74% of local respondents said they feared their job would be unfairly overpriced; a much higher statistic than the national average of 51%. When it came down to trusting tradesmen in the home whilst on the job, the cities with the biggest fear factor were Cardiff (45%), Liverpool (44%) and Manchester (40%), which all showed greater concern than the national average (33%).

Age also appeared to divide confidence levels on certain issues, with 68% of homeowners aged 55 and over voicing concerns about the reliability of tradesmen, compared to 45% of respondents under 35.

 
Cem Savas, Co-Founder of Plentific.com, said: “Our survey shows why homeowners may hold back when hiring a Pro without seeing proper verification. These days people need more than just word-of-mouth recommendation, which is why we created Plentific. We’re here to change the way people feel about hiring a trade professional. We provide a transparent marketplace with verified and customer-rated trade professionals, our guarantee and a secure payment service, enabling homeowners to feel confident about getting their job done.”