Citizens Advice calls for stronger protections as 4.8 million homeowners hit by repair problems
Citizens Advice said 4.8 million homeowners faced problems with home repairs in the past 18 months, with those paying extra to resolve issues losing £750 on average.
Citizens Advice has called for stronger consumer protections in the home repairs market after research found 4.8 million homeowners faced problems with repair work in the past 18 months.
The charity said routine home repairs were turning into serious problems for millions of people, with a quarter of homeowners reporting an issue with their most recent repair job.
Around 1.7m homeowners had to pay more money to fix earlier work or said they were overcharged. Those affected lost £750 on average, while 10% faced extra costs of more than £5,000.
Citizens Advice said the impact was not only financial. Of those who experienced an issue with a trader or work on their home, 37% said it made them feel stressed and 12% said it made them feel unsafe.
Home repairs generated almost 37,000 complaints to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service in 2025, making it one of the biggest areas of consumer complaints.
The charity said distrust in the market was changing consumer behaviour and taking business away from reliable traders. Around 28% of people who arranged home repairs in the past 18 months carried out work themselves because they did not think they could find a trustworthy trader, while 26% delayed or avoided repairs altogether for the same reason.
Citizens Advice said carrying out more checks before hiring a trader did not protect consumers from experiencing problems, suggesting better consumer information alone cannot address deeper issues in the market.
The research found 36% of people who used a trader in the past 18 months found them through someone they know, while 20% who used an approved or accredited trader said it was difficult to verify their credentials.
Among people who took action after experiencing an issue with a trader, 82% said they faced barriers trying to resolve it. A fifth said the process took a long time, 16% said the trader ignored them and 15% said they did not know how to escalate the issue beyond the trader.
Citizens Advice said current alternative dispute resolution in the sector is voluntary and requires traders to opt in, limiting routes for consumers to resolve disputes.
The charity is calling on the Government to urgently review how the home repairs sector is regulated, including introducing mandatory licensing and widening access to redress. It said a single register for traders would help raise standards and better protect homeowners.
Dame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Too many people are being let down in their own homes by traders turning routine repairs into stressful ordeals when things go wrong.
“Consumers aren’t just facing minor issues – they’re losing significant sums of money, living with unfinished or unsafe work and are being left to fend for themselves to get problems resolved.
“When homeowners can’t trust a market where millions are spent every year, it damages confidence across the industry, while also making it harder for trustworthy traders to compete and thrive.
“Stronger consumer protections are needed, including a single register for traders and a clearer mandatory route to resolve disputes, raising standards across the industry as a whole.”
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