According to a survey of 200 home improvement contractors and more than 1,000 homeowners, 43% of contractors are spending between two and five hours per month dealing with disputes.

Nearly a fifth (17%) of contractors admit to spending between six and ten hours a month liaising with customers over disagreements, and one in 10 (11%) spend more than ten hours a month. Only 7% of contractors said that they spend no time at all dealing with disputes.

Those figures suggests that disputes are a regular feature in the professional lives of most home improvement contractors.

Assuming an hourly rate of £35, a contractor can lose £70 to £350 on handling disputes alone, which has the potential to significantly setback their business financially. 

Costs rack up even more when a customer dispute is escalated to the courts. The survey shows that more than a third (36%) of respondents have had an unhappy customer make a court claim against them.

Despite the financial and reputational damage a trip to court can create, uptake of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services to prevent disputes from reaching this stage isn't as widespread among contractors as could be expected.

Two-fifths (42%) of those surveyed are not part of an ADR scheme, and just over a quarter (28%) don’t actually know what ADR is, even though it has been a legal requirement since 2015 for traders to signpost customers to an ADR provider if a complaint cannot be resolved.

ADR includes softer methods like mediation and conciliation, which helps a customer and contractor to resolve a dispute by finding a fair resolution away from court. Expert determination, which sees an expert within the field of the dispute provide a legally binding ruling without involving either party in the decision-making process, can often resolve cases within a matter of days, rather than weeks.

Ciarán Harkin, Managing Director of Dispute Assist, commented: “There is currently a lot of turbulence within the home improvement sector. As the cost-of-living crisis continues, many customers are rejecting the increased costs that contractors have passed to them.

“Unfortunately, given the current constraints within the supply chain, these cost increases can arise unexpectedly, despite contractors’ best intentions.

“As a result, many within the sector are likely to find themselves facing a higher number of customer disputes.

“However, our data shows a concerning trend that the majority of home improvement workers are spending vital working hours attempting to settle disputes themselves, while possibly causing irreparable damage to their reputation.

“Therefore, it is important that contractors begin to explore the range of dispute resolution options available to them. ADR offers easily accessible, less time-consuming, and cheaper solutions to disagreements, without requiring contractors or their customers to ever step foot in a courtroom.

“With 80% of those that do know what ADR is having chosen to join a scheme, it is clear to see that more education is required to teach a greater number of contractors how to protect their finances and reputation in an already challenging economic climate.”

The Future of Disputes in Home Improvement