Choosing a builder or tradesman who is not qualified, insured or comes customer recommended can result in project delays, cost overruns and an altogether forgettable customer experience.

Should you ever be approached by a tradesmen to do work on your home, often called cold calling, refuse any offers. Such people are likely to be uninsured, unqualified , unregistered and a risk to the security of your property and funds.

If your home improvement project is done by unregistered or unqualified contractor and without the necessary permissions you could well be made liable to dismantle the works and effectively lose all monies spent.

If your unqualified builder does not hold current insurances which is likely in this situation there will be no public liability or employers liability insurance to protect the public, yourself or indeed all the project workers. You could ultimately be liable if things go badly wrong.

It is unlikely too that reputable or good subcontractors will be working for the uninsured or unqualified builder. Resulting in a reduction in the overall project workmanship. High quality professional builders and tradesmen rely on and use other similarly reputable sub contractor tradesmen and visa - versa.

Sadly there are many stories of disreputable builders and tradesmen tarnishing the good reputation of the many thousands of great home improvement builders operating in the marketplace. Always make sure that you hire recommended, insured and qualified contractors. Using an online ‘word of mouth’ service like www.homepromatch.com matches you with qualified, insured and vetted builders and tradesmen together with customer ratings Your project risk is minimised and the customer - builder experience is likely to be more satisfactory.