Home repair problems hit one in four homeowners
4.8 million homeowners faced a problem in the last 18 months, and those who had to pay extra to address issues lost £750 on average
Of people who took action after experiencing an issue with a trader, 82% said they faced barriers trying to resolve it
Citizens Advice says homeowners are being left to fend for themselves in a home repairs market with little consumer protections for when things go wrong.
Routine home repairs are turning into nightmares for millions of people, with a quarter of homeowners reporting problems with their most recent repair job according to new research by Citizens Advice.
From living with unfinished or unsafe work to dealing with stressful disputes with traders, the charity has revealed 4.8 million homeowners faced a problem in the last 18 months and it remains one of the top issues to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service.
Around 1.7 million homeowners had to fork out more money to fix earlier work or were overcharged, and they lost on average £750. For one in ten (10%), the extra costs soared to over a staggering £5,000.
But the impact goes beyond just finances. Of those who have experienced an issue with a trader or work on their home, more than a third (37%) of homeowners said it made them feel stressed while just over one in 10 (12%) said it made them feel unsafe.
Loss of trust
Home repairs are one of the biggest areas of complaints to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service, generating almost 37,000 complaints in 2025. The charity says growing distrust in the market is having real consequences for consumers and taking business away from trustworthy traders.
Around three in ten (28%) people who had arranged home repairs in the last 18 months carried out work themselves because they didn’t think they could find a trustworthy trader. While more than a quarter (26%) delayed or avoided repairs altogether for the same reason.
Citizens Advice found that doing more checks before hiring a trader did not protect consumers from experiencing problems, highlighting that better consumer information alone cannot fix deeper issues in the market.
The charity says a low level of trust in the home repairs market is shaping how people find traders, with many relying on informal recommendations rather than formal systems, like government backed schemes, that they find confusing or difficult to verify. Just over a third (36%) of people who used a trader in the last 18 months found them through someone they know, while one in five (20%) who used an approved or accredited trader said it was difficult to verify their credentials.
A clearer route to justice
Citizens Advice says consumers are being left to fend for themselves in a home repairs market with little effective oversight. Many face a maze of complaints processes and dead ends, and struggle to get responses, refunds or accountability when things go wrong.
The charity says it has helped people who have faced spiralling costs, poor-quality workmanship and significant delays after hiring traders for home repairs. In some cases, consumers have been charged thousands of pounds more than expected, left with unfinished or unsafe work, or struggled to get traders to return and put problems right. Others have faced persistent demands for payment despite disputes over the quality of work carried out.
Among those who experienced problems with home repairs, the most commonly cited issues related to energy efficiency improvements, room renovations and installations, and external walls and roofing projects.
Of people who took action after experiencing an issue with a trader, Citizens Advice found 82% said they faced barriers trying to resolve it. One in five (20%) said the process took a long time, 16% said the trader ignored them and 15% said they didn’t know how to escalate the issue beyond the trader.
Currently, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the sector is voluntary and requires traders to opt in, limiting routes for consumers to resolve disputes.
To restore confidence in the market, Citizens Advice is calling on the government to urgently review how the home repairs sector is regulated, including introducing mandatory licensing and widening access to redress. The charity believes a single register for traders would help raise standards across the market 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.”
-ends-
For more information contact: press.office@citizensadvice.org.uk
Tel: 03000 231 080
Out-of-hours contact number: 0845 099 0107
We are the people's champion. We give people the knowledge and confidence they need to find their way forward - whoever they are, and whatever their problem.
Notes to editors:
Citizens Advice commissioned Opinium to survey 5,000 UK adults responsible for repairs and improvements in their home. This includes both homeowners and renters who are responsible for arranging or paying for home repairs on their home. The research was conducted between 13/02/2026 and 04/03/2026.
Opinium ran a separate survey on a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults between 19/12/2025 and 23/12/2025. It found 50.70% own their home and are responsible for arranging or paying for repairs/maintenance, and 6.56% rent their home and are responsible for arranging or paying for repairs/maintenance. The UK adult population is 55,022,253. 55,022,253 * 50.70% is 27,894,777 (shorthand 27.9 million). 55,022,253 * 6.56% is 3,611,016 (shorthand 3.6 million). This means the total who are responsible for arranging or paying for repairs/maintenance on their home is 31,505,793 (shorthand 31.5 million).
Population estimates were calculated of homeowners only. In the last 18 months, 25% of homeowners experienced an issue with the trader on their most recent home repair (770 homeowners). Of a total 4,456 people who own their home and are responsible for arranging or paying for repairs/maintenance, 770 / 4456 * 27,894,777 = 4,820,237 (shorthand 4.8 million)
For homeowners who lost money from their most recent home repair, respondents who experienced an issue and had to pay extra to redo work, or paid more than they expected or budgeted for, were asked how much money they lost as a result of the issue. Money lost could mean paying for poor quality or incomplete work, being overcharged, or paying for additional repairs to fix earlier work. The median average amount lost is used in this reporting. 268 homeowners reported an amount of money they lost. Of a total of 4,456 people who own their home and are responsible for arranging or paying for repairs/maintenance, 268 / 4456 * 27,894,777 = 1,667,693 (shorthand 1.7 million).
Citizens Advice Consumer Service data covers the period of 01/01/2025 to 31/12/2025. A total of 36,903 people raised complaints about home maintenance and improvements to the Consumer Service during this period.
Citizens Advice is the people’s champion - supporting people across England, Wales and the Channel Islands through: the national charity Citizens Advice; the network of independent local Citizens Advice charities; and the Citizens Advice consumer service.
Our network of charities offers impartial advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free.
Citizens Advice helped 2.71 million people face to face, over the phone, by email and webchat in 2024-25. And we had 44 million visits to our website. For full service statistics see our monthly publication Advice trends.
Citizens Advice service staff are supported by more than 19,500 trained volunteers, working at over 1,900 locations across England, Wales and the Channel Islands.
Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer advocate for energy and postal markets. We provide supplier performance information to consumers and policy analysis to decision makers.
Citizens Advice consumer service can help with consumer issues like broken or faulty goods, or problems with energy, heat networks or post. You can get advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service on 0808 223 1133 or 0808 223 1144 for Welsh language speakers.