Is it impossible to dodge a dodgy builder? Finding a decent tradesman shouldn’t be this hard

As a species, we humans share many characteristics. Opposable thumbs, a love for pizza, a dislike of losing at football. Perhaps most common, though, is the ability to recount horror stories about tradesmen.

I have yet to meet someone without a handyman grievance. You’ve got one, right? A plumber who did more harm than good, the builder who left a wall looking like a colander, an electrician who nearly electrocuted the cat.

Needless to say, I have multiple gripes of my own. There was the plumber in my London flat who installed two taps and a massive hole in the wall. The decorator who charged £150 to paint one tiny wall. But these sub-standard contractors are as nothing compared to the moron who project-managed my house restoration in Lancashire.

I was a complete novice when it came to property renovation and he took advantage of that. After eight months, when I finally got up the courage to sack him, I made a list of everything I was unhappy with regarding his work. There were 42 grievances on that piece of paper, although I should have added a 43rd: my inability to see through him until it was too late.

I’d ploughed my life savings into a new start and this unscrupulous and inept man took a big chunk of that money. In the end, I had to hire another (brilliant) tradesman to finish the house and put right multiple cack-handed jobs. Then, two days after I finally moved in and just a week before Christmas, I broke my shoulder when a temporary staircase to the attic collapsed with me on the top step. Looking back, it’s a miracle I didn’t break my back.

I still live in the house and I’m very happy here. But it will always be tainted by the builder who brought me to tears and near financial ruin. Which brings me to my point: why is it so difficult to find a good tradesman?

Hundreds of years after humans started building shelters, finding a plumber/electrician/roofer/plasterer is still largely based on word of mouth. But even that’s a lottery. My disaster of a tradesman came recommended and he was still about as useful as a blancmange.

There are multiple websites purporting to recommend reliable and trusted tradespeople, but I’m sceptical as to their ability to offer cast-iron guarantees of good workmanship. I once hired a decorator with a myriad of great references who proceeded to disappear for four days. When I finally caught up with him, he claimed he couldn’t work because he was ‘on antibiotics’.

Maybe the number of workmen in any given area has something to do with it? Is it easier to source help based on the ratio of tradespeople per household? According to new research by Direct Line for Business, London comes out on top in this regard with one tradesperson for every 130.6 households.

The South East boasts just over 27,500 tradespeople, each servicing 137.5 households. Other areas with high numbers of tradespeople are, as previously mentioned, London (26,705), East England (19,870) and the South West (16,155).

However, handyman help is most sparse in the North East with one tradesperson servicing 305 households, more than double that of the East of England. Other regions in need of more handy help include Scotland (one per 286 households), the North West (one per 230 households) and Wales (one per 224 households).

While the Direct Line study is interesting, I’ve lived at opposite ends of the country and found little difference in the quality of work on my respective homes. But I’d be keen to see if the volume of complaints about tradesmen differs from region to region. Direct Line, over to you.

Helen Nugent is Online Money Editor of The Spectator