Care and Repair says it wants to save the public from scammers

An Edinburgh charity has launched a new Tripadvisor style website reviewing tradespeople in the capital in a bid to save residents being scammed.

Care and Repair Edinburgh has partnered up with the Referenceline website to give the public access to its database of reputable traders.

The charity, which itself carries out a range of services from small DIY repairs to larger domestic improvements and home-from-hospital adaptations, released its database after getting fed up of hearing about people, particularly from older generations, being scammed.

In our experience, many older people in Edinburgh can be apprehensive about calling tradespersons

As well as being able to read reviews of trusted tradespeople, users are able to submit their own reviews scoring them out of 10.

The site also contains full contact details, the average price charged for work and what memberships they have with professional bodies.

“In our experience, many older people in Edinburgh can be apprehensive about calling tradespersons,” Louise Love, interim chief executive of Care and Repair Edinburgh, told TFN.

“For years, we’ve been able to put them in touch with our approved contractors who subscribe to our strict code of conduct regarding quality of work and transparency of cost.

“The reviews on the site can be trusted because they are completed by those who have used the services and independently published by the site, as opposed to the contractors. So the public can be sure that these are genuine and not simply posted by the contractors themselves or by disgruntled competitors trying to tarnish an otherwise good reputation.”

To try out the site visit it at referenceline.com.

The charity is also keen to hear from contractors who are interested in gaining accreditation with the charity and being included on the list.