An estimated 13 million Brits (87 per cent of homeowners) fear hiring a tradesmen, home improvement marketplace Plentific.com found after conducting a new survey.

While the survey’s results suggest that the nation is relatively relaxed about projects sticking to a timeline, homeowners said they were more anxious to ensure their projects were done to a high standard.

Consequently, the key concern of respondents was finding a reliable professional, with 59 per cent saying their biggest hurdle is finding a tradesman that they know for certain can do their job properly.

This compared with nearly a fifth (19 per cent) who said they were concerned about the work being completed on time, with half (51 per cent) fearing that their finished project will not meet with expectations.

The region with the most confident homeowners was the South West, with 19 per cent 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 per cent said they felt completely comfortable doing so.

Meanwhile, the biggest worry in Brighton was getting ripped off, as 74 per cent of local respondents said they feared their job would be unfairly overpriced; a much higher statistic than the national average of 51 per cent. When it came down to trusting tradesmen in the home whilst on the job, the cities with the biggest fear factor were Cardiff (45 per cent), Liverpool (44 per cent) and Manchester (40 per cent), which all showed greater concern than the national average (33 per cent).

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

UK AVERAGE

18-34

35-54

55+

Finding good, reliable tradesmen who can do the work

59%

45%

56%

68%

Quality of work not up to my expectations

51%

43%

51%

54%

Getting ripped off or the job being over priced

51%

42%

52%

53%

Being able to complete the job within my budget

35%

34%

36%

35%

Being unable to trust tradesmen and their team in my home when carrying out the work

33%

34%

35%

31%

Tradesmen going out of business / bankrupt while on the job

23%

17%

19%

28%

Being unable to view detailed reviews and examples of previous work

19%

20%

15%

22%

Being unable to complete the job within my timelines

19%

20%

19%

18%

I don’t have any fears

13%

9%

13%

15%