Cowboy traders: can a new clampdown stamp out the builders from hell?

An app and a register of trusted traders may give greater protection to consumers but it is too late for some In hindsight, Sheri Ingram , 35, can see the red flags. Lee Slocombe, a builder hired to renovate her ex-boyfriend’s home in the south Wales valleys, offered to do the work cheaply because he had materials left over from another job, then asked for money upfront to buy additional supplies.

“At the time, we believed him,” says Sheri, who was in her early 20s when it happened, and had just left university. The couple budgeted about £8,000 for work that included removing a supporting wall and building an extension with a balcony.

Read the original report at The Guardian.