A.The Home Improvement Guarantee agreement demonstrates your commitment for the project or work to begin and gives the builder or tradesmen the reassurance to supply materials and commit resources to the job or project. You can agree with your builder or tradesmen to pay in the full amount, or if over £2000, by agreed stage payments, these agreed payments are be paid into the account before the next stage begins.
A.Your money is held in a secure HSBC “Client Account” . This service is provided by Transpact which is a HMRC and FCA registered and authorised payment service provider: registered number 503403
A. When the work is completed or by any agreed stage payment date and you are happy with the completed job or project. You contact us and authorise payment.
A. You can, if you wish, pay the full amount into the account. However, if stage payments have been agreed you must pay into the account the next stage payment seven days prior to the work commencing.
A. All questions should, in the first instance, be taken up with the contractor.
A. In the unlikely event of a dispute between you and the contractor. Please contact us and we will try to resolve the matter by mediation. If the matter cannot resolved ,a surveyor will be sent to inspect the work, his recommendations are then binding on both parties. If the work is unsatisfactory the contractor will be instructed to complete the works to the standard required. Should he refuse or be unable to finish the job, we will instruct a new contractor to complete the job or project.
A. Your money is always safe in the HSBC client account. If the builder or tradesmen goes bust or is unable to complete the works we will instruct a new contractor to finish the job or project.
A. You can make your payments by, bank transfer or internet banking. We do not accept debit or credit cards.
A. If you require a vetted contractor to give you a quote for your project please just click the button request a HIG on the Home page and fill in the short form with your contact details and the type of work you need.We will then source three contractors in your area to contact you to arrange to visit the property and give you a quote.
If you have already chosen a contractor, or have one in mind, you can still be protected by a Home Improvement Guarantee but,of course, we would have to vet them. So, for maximum protection all you need to do is to fill a short form with your contact and project details and our advisers will help you find the best tradesmen in your area.
A. Your deposit is protected by an Insurance Backed Guarantee so that in the unlikely event that the contractor ceases the trade before they start work on the project, another contractor will be assigned to start the project.
The deposit amount that you paid in the beginning will be paid to this contractor by the insurance company.This means that your deposit is always safe with a Home Improvements Guarantee..
A. After you have signed an agreement with an HIG vetted builder, the agreed contract amount (that must be £2000 or above) is deposited in HSBC “Trust Account” that is managed by us and our secure processing partner Transpact. You can either choose to pay the full amount after successful completion of the project or opt for stage payments that shall be released to the contractor after your approval. Both client and the contractor can see the account online at anytime.
A. HIG provides rated tradesmen throughout the country. Our vetted tradesmen can undertake following types of projects:
House extensions
Garage conversions
Loft conversions
Window replacements
Roofing
Bathroom and kitchen Fitting
Electrical works
Plumbing and heating works
Landscaping projects
A. You need not worry, as your money is always safe in the “Client Account”. In the unlikely event a contractor is unable to complete the project for any reason, we can instruct another vetted contractor to complete the project.
A. The Home Improvements Guarantee is a completely free of charge service for homeowners. You don’t have to pay anything for using our services and selecting HIG trusted builders or tradesmen.
A. If an unlikely event of dispute arises for any project, we provide helpful mediation. And even if there is no agreement between the contractor and the client through mediation, we appoint a surveyor to look into the details of the dispute and resolve it. The recommendations of the surveyor are binding in such cases on both the parties. So you do not need to go through the time, stress and expense of legal action to resolve a dispute
A. You will need to go through, and pass, our contractor vetting procedure. We will need your experience and qualification details along with references of recent clients you have worked for. We will also check relevant insurances and liability policies. You are required to have these policies valid all the times and sign our code of conduct.
A. This warranty is an Insurance Backed Guarantee and guarantees our contractors guarantee for up to TEN years. For example if the contractor gives you a written guarantee for 7 years then the Home Improvements Guarantee will issue an Insurance Backed Guarantee that will guarantee your contractors guarantee for 7 years. So if you have a problem in 5 years time and the contractor has ceased to trade ,for whatever reason, your guarantee is still valid.
The warranty is automatically included on every Home Improvement Guarantee project.
A. All of our tradesmen are approved through our vetting procedure and have signed our quality charter. Further more all contractors will not get paid if you are unhappy with their work – so they have to be good at what they do.