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TrustATrader Guarantee Terms & Conditions

Terms and conditions related to the TrustATrader Customer Guarantee

Why are we offering a customer guarantee?

TrustATrader prides itself on the quality of the services offered by our trusted traders. We do, of course, understand that there may be times when things don’t go to plan. We are confident about the services provided by our trusted traders, so much so, that on the odd occasion when things don’t go quite right, we will do our best to make it right.

Our Customer Guarantee is designed to ensure that you are not out of pocket for work carried out by our trusted traders that does not live up to the quality or standards you would reasonably expect from them.

As you would expect, our Customer Guarantee is subject to certain terms and conditions and we urge you to take the time to read these fully and completely before submitting a claim. If you have any questions about our Customer Guarantee, or otherwise, you can contact us at admin@trustatrader.com.

Please note, we reserve the right to end this Customer Guarantee at any time by removing it from our website. Any work commenced before our Customer Guarantee is withdrawn shall still be valid and apply.

Terms and Conditions

1. You must be a TrustATrader customer. This means you must have contacted the tradesperson on the TrustATrader website via the link on the trader’s listing.

2. Our Customer Guarantee is for work carried out by tradespersons who are a TrustATrader member (i.e. any trader on our site that displays the TrustATrader.com “Trusted Trader” badge next to their name) (“Members”).

3. You must register the work on our website either before the work starts or on the day the work starts, and leave a review of your trader on our website within 30 days of the work being completed. This can be done from the trader’s profile page.

4. The claim must be made by the person who has contracted for the work to be carried out.

5. We will guarantee work of our Members up to £1,000 per claim except for services that fall within any excluded categories listed below (see also What is and is not included? below).

6. Services must be carried out by one of our Members in England, Scotland or Wales only.

7. Only one claim per year, per household is permitted whether or not any previous claim submitted by you in the same qualifying year has been successful or rejected.

8. All claims must be made within 12 months from the date the services were completed or otherwise terminated (either by you or the Member).

9. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee all types of claims. Our Customer Guarantee does not extend to any claim that falls within one of the following categories of work:

  • Work done on or in connection with listed buildings
  • Services carried out for landlords or in connection with a property which is not your main residence
  • Work which is done as a short-term or temporary solution to a problem or issue such as the temporary patching of a roof or leak
  • Arboricultural services, tree surgery and gardening services
  • Cleaning Services (including cleaning of chimneys, carpets, rugs, upholstering, windows and ovens)
  • Computer and IT related services
  • Land and building surveying
  • Lock-up and other storage services
  • Motor repairs, MOTs and other vehicle services
  • Plant hire and other hire services
  • Pest control services
  • Removals, and towing services
  • Scaffolding
  • Unblocking of drains and other drainage services
  • Waste removal and clearance
  • see also What is and is not included? below

10. To claim on our Customer Guarantee, you must follow our claims process. Please see paragraph below titled “How to claim on the Customer Guarantee”.

11. Our Customer Guarantee is subject to certain exclusions listed below. Please see paragraph titled “What is not included?

12. We reserve the right in our absolute discretion to refuse any claim that we do not reasonably believe meets these terms and conditions.

How to claim on the Customer Guarantee?

You will appreciate that there must be some rules before you can claim through our Customer Guarantee and we therefore ask you to do the following:

1. In the first instance, please get in touch with the Member whose services you wish to complain about (“Rejected Services”) so that they are aware of your complaint and are given the opportunity to resolve it.

2. If you are unable to resolve your complaint directly with the Member responsible, please notify us of your complaint as soon as possible via our complaints process. Please note that as part of our Complaints Process, you will be required to complete a claim form and submit reasonable evidence to support your complaint, including all relevant correspondence, estimates, invoices, description of the issue and supporting pictures, as well as any other evidence we may reasonably request.

3. Alternatively, you can leave a negative review about the Member and the Rejected Services on our website, which will automatically commence our Complaints Process.

How you can expect us to manage your claim

We take all claims against our Members very seriously and will carry out our investigations into your claim in an objective and reasonable manner. We will investigate your complaint by reviewing the evidence you have submitted and speaking to the Member (or Members) who provided the Rejected Services. We may also call upon an independent third party to assess your claim if we think, in the circumstances, it is reasonable to do so.

We will aim to conclude our investigation as soon as we can, but timeframes will depend on when we can speak to the Member who provided the Rejected Services, the amount of evidence submitted by each party and whether or not we need to involve an independent surveyor or other expert. We may also need to ask you for more information and/or require that you submit further evidence to support your claim before we can complete our investigation. We will of course keep you updated of such matters throughout our investigation.

What is and is not included?

Our Customer Guarantee is there for you when services received do not live up to the quality or specification of what was agreed and paid for. Typically our Customer Guarantee is there to cover claims which relate to:

  • Poor workmanship which falls below accepted industry standard;
  • Work which has not been carried out to design or specification; and
  • Services which you have paid for but which are not provided.

As you can appreciate, we do not act as an insurance policy. If you have the ability to claim under an insurance policy, please consider doing so before submitting a claim to us. A claim or payment made under our Customer Guarantee may invalidate your right to make a subsequent claim under your insurance.

Please note, there are certain things which our Customer Guarantee does not cover. We think that most of these things will be common sense, however, we have included a list below to give you an idea of the type of things that do not fall within our Customer Guarantee:

  • Where the Member is no longer trading or becomes insolvent (whether before or after the services have commenced). We would always suggest that a reasonable payment timetable is agreed between you with the Trader to avoid upfront payment and insolvency related issues.
  • Any amounts paid (or payable) under any applicable manufacturer guarantee or warranty or insurance policy.
  • Where the Member is willing to remedy the Rejected Services or provide you with a refund.
  • Pre-existing faults or damage to your property that is identified at the start of the services or otherwise discovered during the course of the services.
  • Disputes over price, timeframes, or cancellations.
  • Costs relating to work that does not form part of the Rejected Services.
  • Goods, materials, services or other items provided by you or a third party.
  • Costs related to your (or any third party’s) delay, acts or omissions.
  • Goods, materials, items or services provided by the Member in accordance with agreed specification, industry practice or your instructions.
  • Theft or accidental damage.
  • Loss or damage suffered by a third party.
  • Loss or damage caused by a third party (whether intentionally, negligently or through misconduct).
  • Any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time the contract was made, both you and the Member knew it might happen, for example, if you discussed it with the Member during the sales process.
  • Applicable taxes (including VAT) and interest.

Outcome and Payment

Once we have concluded our investigation, we will write to you with the outcome of your claim. Where an email address has been provided to us, we will write to you by email.

Where your claim has been successful, we will let you know the amount we have agreed to award you under our Customer Guarantee (“Awarded Sum”). Every claim will be different, and so we do not have a set formula of how Awarded Sums are calculated. However when considering the final sum to award, we will work within the following parameters:

  1. Whether the Rejected Services meet the agreed specification, were performed by the Member with reasonable care and skill, and were carried out within a reasonable time;
  2. The extent to which the Rejected Services fall below standard industry practice;
  3. The terms and conditions under which the Rejected Services were provided;
  4. The assessment and advice of any independent experts involved in your claim;
  5. The average market cost in your area to remedy the Rejected Services;
  6. The extent to which the Rejected Services have been sufficiently remedied or costs reimbursed by the Member; and
  7. The sums already paid by you to the Member in respect of the Rejected Services and any amounts that remain outstanding.

Where your claim has been unsuccessful, we will let you know the reasons why we have reached this decision.

The Awarded Sum is final and cannot be appealed or contested. Once we have concluded our investigation, we are under no obligation to reconsider our decision, consider any further evidence submitted by you in support of your claim, or provide any further reasoning or justification of our decision or how we reached it.

In order to pay the Awarded Sum to you, we will require you to send your bank details to us in writing. You can expect payment of the Awarded Sum into your nominated bank account within 14 days from the date we notify you that your claim has been successful, or the date we receive your bank details (if later).

Upon payment of the Awarded Sum, your claim under our Customer Guarantee will be considered satisfied and closed. We shall have no further obligation, or liability, to you in respect of this claim.

Please note, this does not affect your statutory rights.