Almost half of Australians are failing to check the licences of the tradies they hire, according to research.
Data from hipages Tradie Trust Index found that 42 per cent of people do not check for licences when hiring tradies, putting them at risk of dodgy home improvements.
Annually, Australians spend $73 billion on tradie services, of which approximately $3.4 billion is spent hiring tradies to fix DIY gone wrong.
With Aussies engaging an average of seven tradies per year for jobs ranging from plumbers to cleaners, it’s clear that we’re a houseproud bunch.
However, homeowners are not always taking these jobs as seriously, failing to follow the proper steps to find qualified licensed tradies to get the job done right from the start.
Hipages recommends homeowners follow the trust trifecta which includes requesting a licence, asking for examples of work and reading online recommendations.
Hipages chief customer officer Stuart Tucker said: “The key to fostering a trusting two-way relationship is a honest and open line of communication. It’s also advisable to formalise all details of a job in writing, particularly with the amount of responsibility that is transferred onto a tradie.
“This month, hipages has made it even easier for customers to connect with trusted tradies through updates to the platform.
Digital and on-demand platforms like the hipages app, which streamlines the tradie recruitment and verification process, have helped reduce research time for homeowners by 80 per cent.
Most Australians spend an average 56 minutes per required job, to find and book the necessary tradie online.
Meanwhile not only is hipages digitising the process to find a tradie, it is now also digitising the important role that word-of-mouth plays in consumer-tradie engagement.
Following the findings of the hipages Tradie Trust Index that revealed 80 per cent of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations when selecting a tradie, hipages has introduced a new “Community’’ feed on its app.
The new feature allows consumers to log into hipages through their Facebook account, to easily discover which tradies are being recommended and hired by neighbours in their local area, as well as understand who their Facebook friends are booking and recommending to their network. It also presents another avenue for hipages tradies to build their reputation locally.