Patrick Kenny

Almost 1,250 consumer contacts to the CCPC’s national consumer helpline in the first half of this year related to the home building and improvements sector, making it the second biggest call driver for that period. 

The top issues cited by consumers include traders refusing to resolve problems or unwilling to resolve them to the consumer’s satisfaction, consumers waiting a long time for work to be started after agreeing a start date with the trader, and traders not turning up when scheduled to fix an issue reported to them by the consumer.

The watchdog has now published an open letter to traders in addition to writing directly to almost 3,000 traders across the State to remind them of their legal obligations under the Consumer Rights Act 2022.

Patrick Kenny, member of the CCPC, said: “Issues with the home building and improvements sector are consistently one of the biggest call drivers to our helpline and can be very costly to consumers.

“Consumers in Ireland and across Europe have important rights when it comes to service contracts and it’s important they know that, but equally important is that traders providing the service to them are aware of their responsibilities under the law.

“That’s why we’ve contacted various trade associations, and written to the sector directly, to remind them of their obligations and provided them with clear guidelines on their responsibilities and in particular, what they have to do when things don’t go to plan.

“There is an onus on traders to ensure they follow all relevant legislation — failure to do so can result in enforcement action by the CCPC.”