Reviews Policy

Review guidelines for homeowners

We encourage homeowners to leave honest and helpful reviews about their experiences with tradespeople. Reviews help other homeowners make informed decisions when choosing a tradesperson and can also help reliable and professional tradespeople build their reputation and win future work.

When can homeowners leave a review?

You can leave a review for a tradesperson you have hired through TradesShop, provided that the work has started or you have paid money towards the job, such as a deposit or other agreed payment.

If you have had an experience with a tradesperson that does not meet these requirements but you believe TradesShop should be made aware of the circumstances, please use our contact form to get in touch with us.

What to include in a review

Reviews should provide an honest, accurate and factual account of your experience with the tradesperson. When writing a review, you should consider the following:

  • Reviews are limited to 2,000 characters.
  • The review should focus primarily on the work carried out by the tradesperson.
  • You may also comment on the tradesperson's behaviour, communication and professionalism where relevant to your experience.
  • Reviews should be constructive and should avoid accusations, abusive language and personal attacks.
  • Make sure the information you provide is truthful and based on your own experience.

What not to include in a review

We ask all users to be respectful and considerate when leaving reviews, even where a job has not gone as expected. A review is an opportunity to describe your genuine experience and should not be used to harass, threaten or unfairly target another person.

You must NOT:

  • Make statements that are false, inaccurate, misleading or deliberately deceptive.
  • Include personal or private information about a tradesperson, homeowner, employee or any other individual, such as a home address, private telephone number or other confidential contact details.
  • Use offensive, vulgar, obscene, racist, hateful, threatening or derogatory language.
  • Include links, advertisements or promotional material intended to direct other users away from TradesShop.

When will we remove a review?

TradesShop.co.uk aims to publish genuine reviews that comply with this policy. We do not remove a review simply because it is negative or because a tradesperson disagrees with it.

However, we may remove a review where we determine that it does not comply with this policy or our terms and conditions. This may include circumstances where:

  • No work has started and no payment has been made to the tradesperson.
  • The review does not relate to a genuine job posted through TradesShop or to a genuine customer or homeowner.
  • The reviewer has received, or was offered, payment or another benefit in return for posting the review.
  • The review contains personal information or identifying details relating to a homeowner, tradesperson, employee or third party.
  • The review contains offensive, vulgar, obscene, hateful, racist, threatening or derogatory language.
  • The review contains content that is unlawful or promotes, describes or facilitates unlawful activity.
  • The review is false, inaccurate, misleading or otherwise does not represent a genuine experience.
  • The homeowner or reviewer asks us to remove their own review.
  • We are legally required to remove or temporarily disable access to the review, including where required by a valid court order or other lawful authority.
  • The review breaches our terms and conditions or other applicable TradesShop policies.

Tradespeople have the right to raise concerns about reviews that have been left about them. We will consider objections received and may investigate the review where appropriate. If we determine that the review breaches this policy or our terms and conditions, we may remove or restrict the review.

Can a review be amended or deleted?

If a homeowner wants to amend a review, they can do so by logging into their TradesShop account, where the relevant functionality is available.

If a homeowner wants to delete a review, they can contact us directly through our contact form and request its removal.

How we process reviews

We take steps to help ensure that reviews published on TradesShop are genuine and relate to real customer experiences. A review will generally only be submitted where:

  • The review is associated with a job posted on TradesShop by a homeowner.
  • The tradesperson being reviewed was hired for that job through TradesShop.
  • The homeowner is logged into their TradesShop account when submitting the review.

Reviews, including negative reviews, may be monitored as part of our efforts to maintain the quality and integrity of the TradesShop platform. We will not remove a review simply because it is negative. We may remove or restrict a review where it breaches this policy, our terms and conditions, or applicable law.

We may also accept reviews for tradespeople from customers who hired them outside TradesShop, where this facility is made available by TradesShop.

Where an external customer review is requested through a tradesperson's TradesShop account, the customer may be asked to submit the review directly to TradesShop. We may request reasonable evidence, such as a paid invoice or other information relating to the completed work, to help verify that the review relates to a genuine customer relationship.

A review submitted through this process may only be published once TradesShop has completed any verification checks that we consider appropriate.

We do not tolerate false, inaccurate, fabricated or misleading reviews. We may use automated and manual checks to identify potentially inappropriate or fraudulent review activity.

Where we identify behaviour that breaches this policy, our terms and conditions or applicable law, we may take appropriate action. This may include removing reviews, restricting review activity or suspending or closing accounts where appropriate.

How we source and publish reviews

Once a tradesperson has been hired for a job through TradesShop, we may invite the homeowner to leave a review about their experience. Invitations may be sent through email, notifications or other communications available through the TradesShop platform.

Reviews are rated using a star rating system from 1 to 5 stars, with 5 stars representing the highest rating.

Where an overall rating is displayed for a tradesperson, it is calculated using the ratings from the reviews associated with that tradesperson, subject to the calculation method used by TradesShop.

TradesShop does not permit reviews to be purchased or created in exchange for payment, rewards or other incentives intended to influence the reviewer's rating or comments.

Where we identify a review that has been submitted in breach of these requirements, we may remove it and take other appropriate action.

Review guidelines for tradespeople

We encourage tradespeople to respond to reviews they receive. Responding gives you an opportunity to provide your perspective and explain any relevant circumstances in a professional and constructive manner.

We understand that not every job goes according to plan and that a homeowner may leave a low rating or negative review. A single negative review does not necessarily reflect the overall quality of a tradesperson's work.

A professional response can help provide additional context and demonstrate that you are willing to communicate with customers and address concerns appropriately.

When responding to a review, you must:

  • Keep your response constructive and avoid accusatory, abusive or offensive language.
  • Not include personal information about the homeowner that could identify them, including names, addresses or private contact details.
  • Keep your response factual and based on your genuine experience.
  • Not use your response to threaten, intimidate, harass or pressure the homeowner.
  • Not use your response to publish advertising or promotional material intended to take users away from TradesShop.

TradesShop.co.uk reserves the right to remove or restrict a tradesperson's response where it breaches this policy, our terms and conditions, applicable law or other platform rules.

Where appropriate, we may notify the tradesperson using the contact details associated with their TradesShop account.

If either party has concerns about an original review or a tradesperson's response, they can contact us so that we can consider the matter.

Why do we have this policy?

This policy helps us maintain the integrity, reliability and usefulness of reviews published on TradesShop.

We may review and update this policy from time to time to reflect changes to our services, applicable legislation, regulatory requirements and industry standards.

All users are expected to comply with this Reviews Policy as well as our Terms and Conditions and all applicable laws.

Last updated: August 2026