How to Avoid Cowboy Builders: Finding Trustworthy Trades for Your Project

Wondering how to avoid cowboy builders? Architect Julian Owen shares the inside track on what to look for in trustworthy trades for your build, as well as the red flags to look out for
by Julian Owen
3rd October 2024

The most important appointment you make throughout the course of a project is the builder, and avoiding cowboy builders is key to ensuring a successful end result. There are many experienced and reliable contractors who take pride in their work; don’t overcharge their customers; and have a bulging portfolio of high-quality completed projects.

Many of them are deliberately small-scale so that they can control the quality of their work and they don’t usually need to advertise, which can make them difficult to find.

If you choose the wrong company to provide the drawings for your project, a skillful construction company can spot their errors in advance or deal with them effectively if they occur unexpectedly. But if your builders turn out to be a bad lot (also known as cowboy builders), serious consequences are unavoidable no matter how good your design team.

So, how do you weed out the cowboy builders and find someone you can trust to work on your home? You need to be thorough and methodical in your search, and start by splitting the process into the following three stages.

Stage 1 – Put together a long list of potential contenders

The first step to weeding out the cowboy builders is to put together a list of companies to investigate in more detail later. The best source of names is recommendations from people you know and trust, particularly if they have had building work done themselves. But unless you have a lot of friends, this might only yield just one or two endorsements. The next place to look is the internet, which can be very helpful provided you watch out for the pitfalls.

A well-crafted website is a good starting point, but it needs to be looked over with a critical eye. Some have impressive looking projects on display that turn out to be computer-generated; taken from other unconnected websites; or even stock images bought from agencies. Because the inconsistencies between the photos are subtle, this con can be hard to spot.

One tip that sometimes exposes borrowed photos is to use an app that does a reverse image search on the internet, such as Tin Eye, or search via image on Google. They will search the net for matches to the picture and reveal photos that have been widely used across the globe.

Internet reviews are a clue that may be helpful when identifying cowboy builders but, in my opinion, are inherently unreliable these days because they are too easy for the unscrupulous to fake – either by bigging up their own reputation or rubbishing competitors.

CASE STUDY London home renovation

Homeowner Camille Brayer undertook a deep energy retrofit of a Victorian terraced house to bring it up to and beyond modern living standards.

How to Avoid Cowboy Builders: Finding Trust-Worthy Trades for Your Project

Contractors Amirilan, who were highly recommended by her designer Pedder & Scampton Architects, paid great attention to detail and their excellent workmanship helped the home achieve super-high airtightness results for this type of property.

How to Avoid Cowboy Builders: Finding Trust-Worthy Trades for Your Project

If any of these cowboy builders make it through your net, they should get weeded out when you quiz them later for more details. Rather than just using a search engine, you could look for referrals from membership organisations.

There are plenty of clubs for builders to join that will promote them enthusiastically for a small fee, without taking the trouble to vet them properly beforehand. Exceptions to this are the Federation of Master Builders (FMB), consumer organisation Which? and Checkatrade, who do all carry out a certain amount of checks before allowing a firm onto their lists. Buy with Confidence is linked to the government’s trading standards service, who are usually the first to know when there is a prolific cowboy at large.

However, even these sites are not 100% perfect and should not be relied upon without doing your own research into their recommendations.

How to Avoid Cowboy Builders: Finding Trust-Worthy Trades for Your Project

Brent and Linda Walker chose local contractor East Fife Joinery to project manage and build their new home, taking the pressure off them as they weren’t around. The company was able to appoint suitable subcontractors and knew the area very well, helping them to overcome issues with access and site limitations. Photo: David Barbour

Local construction professionals, such as architects, know which contractors to approach and which ones not to touch with the proverbial bargepole. There will be companies they work with regularly, but they are unlikely to volunteer names based on a cold call or email to their office, because this knowledge is an important part of the service they offer to clients.

There are some unscrupulous designers who secretly charge builders a fee to put them on a tender list and then a further commission if they get the job. Although this is against the code of conduct of all the professional organisations, and probably illegal, it happens more often than you may think.

If you have any suspicions about the names your designer puts forward, I recommend politely asking them to confirm whether they take part in this practice and make a judgment based on their reaction.

Stage 2 – Whittle them down to a shortlist to weed out the cowboy builders

The aim here is to distill the likely candidates down to around three or four by making some more detailed investigations, this way you’ll likely be able to eliminate any potential cowboy builders. First off, phone them. This is better than an email, because you should get a more instant impression of the company and how it does business.

Bear in mind builders are very practical people. Some are brilliant at the nuts and bolts of their job but not so good when it comes to bureaucracy. Many of the older ones are not even computer literate – the best builder I know still goes pale at the mention of a spreadsheet.

When you phone them, warning signs to look out for are a long delay in responding to enquiries, an overly curt manner or a reluctance to give you a correspondence address. Ask to speak to the gaffer and get their name and full company details. They need to be relatively local to your site for practical reasons, but sometimes builders with a poor reputation have to look further afield where people have not heard about their shortcomings.

How to Avoid Cowboy Builders: Finding Trust-Worthy Trades for Your Project

In 2019, Fiona Henderson decided to self build a new home on her five-acre plot of land that would meet all of her needs. Fiona worked closely with Eoghain Fiddes of Fiddes Architects to develop the home’s design, which sailed through the planning process. Fiddes architects had a long, positive working relationship Alan Buchan Contractors, which is what encouraged Fiona to hire them. Photo: David Barbour

Then, ask for some examples of the projects they have completed and if there are any locally you can visit. It’s too early to ask for actual references, but they should be able to point you in the direction of some work that they are proud of. If they can’t come up with anything, this should count against them.

It’s also useful if you can see projects that are in progress, because you can tell a lot from how well organised and tidy their sites are. A chaotic-looking site is dangerous for their clients as well as their workforce and is a clue to the likely standard of their work and approach to project management.

At this point, it is worth also checking out each firm on the Companies House website (assuming they are a limited company). Some of the free financial information recorded there is of limited value, since it is often many months out of date, but it will give an impression of the likely turnover. More usefully, you can see how long they have been in business and check who owns and runs things. You can also research the directors listed to see if they are associated with any failed ventures.

Stage 3 – Obtain prices & negotiate contract details

It is vital to manage the process of inviting tenders effectively (which is a whole other article in itself). The most important principles are ensuring there is a full description of all the work needed and that the builders are asked to submit tenders on the same date. If you think any of them might be dodgy, they are usually put off when they receive a well put-together set of documents.

How to Avoid Cowboy Builders: Finding Trust-Worthy Trades for Your Project

It’s a good idea to visit live building projects to understand the quality of trades’ work. Neat, clean brickwork in tandem with a tidy, well-organised site are good indicators that a bricklayer cares about what they’re doing, for instance

If one of the tenders is extraordinarily low compared to the others, treat it with caution. It might be that they have genuinely made an error in their calculations, or they are particularly keen to get the work. Occasionally, it is because they have not bothered to price the job properly and plan to add a load of extras to the price once on site.

CLOSER LOOK Getting contracts right

At the third stage in the process of finding a good builder, you’ll be getting quotes and negotiating contract details. If you haven’t weeded out all the rogue traders by this point, here are some terms and conditions in a building contract that a cowboy won’t like, as well as some they might try to put in their own contracts.

What cowboy builders love…

  • Full Payment in advance. Decent contractors will not ask for this, as they usually have at least 30 days to pay the builders’ merchants.
  • An open-ended commitment to pay them regardless of how long the project takes or the quality of their workmanship.
  • Payment in cash only. This is a major red flag. If they are prepared to break the law and evade taxes, including VAT, they are likely to take a similarly cavalier attitude to your financial concerns.
  • Hardly any written contract terms. Building work can be a complex transaction, and there is potential for misunderstandings that a cowboy can exploit. Good builders prefer a clear agreement several pages long that everyone understands.
  • Excluding your professional team. A standard first move by cowboys is to rubbish your consultants to prevent you from getting independent advice.

What cowboy builders hate…

  • A fixed price based on the tender documents provided, which is an integral part of the agreement between you.
  • Your right to withhold payment during the course of the works if anything is defective or not up to an acceptable standard.
  • Fixed start & completion dates for the building work, ideally with a small charge to be paid if they overrun without good reason.
  • A retention – which is a small amount of money to be withheld at the end of the project for a set number of months in case there are any hidden defects.
  • Health & safety. The builder is responsible for taking these precautions. A decent one will create a plan before works start.
  • Insurance required against theft, fire and similar problems, and public liability insurance. The latter should run to millions of pounds.

Once you have a preferred builder, this is the time to pay for a full credit check through an online service like Experian. For a small fee, this will provide you with current financial details for the builder’s business – and whether there are any warning signs – in the form of a high credit risk score or any county court judgements recorded against them.

Assuming they pass the financial credibility test, the builder should be asked to provide a detailed price breakdown and sign a standard agreement, such as the JCT Home Owner/Occupier’s contract, which is designed to be fair to both parties.

If they refuse to sign it and insist on their own contract, they should be made to explain which aspects of the standard agreement they object to. This might give you clues as to what they expect may happen as work progresses, which can help you to determine if they’re a cowboy builder.

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