Methodology

Leader Online is a UK home improvement retailer specialising in doors, flooring, wall panelling, tiles, and other products for renovation and DIY projects. We help homeowners plan practical upgrades with clearer product information, reliable materials, and guidance for getting the details right before work begins.

As part of ongoing work to support homeowners through better-planned home improvement projects, we ran this study to understand where complaints about home maintenance and improvement work are most common, how suspected scam rates have changed, and which job types are most likely to lead to disputes.

To do this, we analysed Citizens Advice Consumer Service data to identify trends in home maintenance and improvement complaints across England and Wales. The dashboard was filtered to complaints relating to home maintenance and improvements, under the House Fittings and Appliances goods/service category. The analysis covers complaints recorded between January 2022 and February 2026.

1. Annual trends

We recorded the total number of home maintenance and improvement complaints by month and year. 

2. Job types

To identify the jobs most commonly associated with complaints, we analysed the dashboard’s Goods/Service breakdown.

3. Complaint types

To identify the most common reasons for complaints, we analysed the dashboard’s Complaint Type breakdown.

4. Local authorities

For the local hotspot analysis, we used the dashboard’s Map by Local Authority data, which shows the number of cases by local authority where known. We then calculated complaint rates per 100,000 people using ONS population estimates for 2024.

5. Potential scams

For the potential scam analysis, we used the dashboard’s Scams Summary data. Monthly potential scam percentages were converted into estimated potential scam complaint counts by multiplying the total number of monthly complaints by the percentage flagged as potential scams. 

Annual potential scam rates were then calculated using a weighted average, based on complaint volume. 

For local scam rankings, we compared the number of complaints flagged as potential scams with the total number of home maintenance and improvement complaints in each local authority. 

Note: Authorities with fewer than 100 total complaints were excluded to avoid overinterpreting percentages based on very small sample sizes.

6. Financial detriment

To assess the financial impact of home maintenance and improvement complaints, we submitted a Freedom of Information request to Citizens Advice. Citizens Advice provided data held by the Citizens Advice Consumer Service relating to Payment Value, Payment Currency, and Detriment Value for cases recorded under the Goods/Service Sub-Header: (AB) Home maintenance and improvements. 

The FOI data covers 1 January 2022 to 4 June 2026, and includes 189,224 cases under this sub-header. 

Citizens Advice confirmed that Detriment Value was recorded in 1,483 cases.

Citizens Advice provided Detriment Value broken down by year, goods/service type, complaint type, and Trader Trading Standards Office. 

The figures shown are based only on cases where a Detriment Value was recorded. Some Detriment Value cases did not have a recorded payment currency. 

Citizens Advice stated that it had assumed these cases were made in GBP after reviewing trader regions, purchase method, and other case details, so we have also assumed that cases with no recorded currency were GBP.

Caveats

All complaint figures are based on reports made to the Citizens Advice Consumer Service. They should not be interpreted as verified offences, upheld complaints, or confirmed cases of fraud. 

The term “potential scams” refers to cases flagged as potential scams in the Citizens Advice data, not necessarily confirmed criminal activity. Local authority data is based only on cases where the local authority was recorded in the dashboard. Areas with blank or unavailable local authority data were excluded from the local authority rankings.

Citizens Advice confirmed in its FOI response that complaints made to the Consumer Service are not verified. The figures reflect what clients told advisers, so Citizens Advice could provide advice or make an appropriate referral to Trading Standards. 

Detriment Value is not a mandatory field for Citizens Advice advisers to capture. As a result, financial detriment figures should be treated as recorded detriment, where available, rather than the total cost of all home maintenance and improvement complaints. 

Detriment Value was recorded in 1,483 cases out of 189,224 total home maintenance and improvement cases in the FOI data. Therefore, financial loss figures show recorded consumer detriment, rather than the total national cost of cowboy builders. The FOI detriment data covers 1 January 2022 to 4 June 2026, while the Tableau dashboard analysis covers January 2022 to 13 March 2026.