Dispute Policy
How disputes about a job are raised, reviewed and resolved.
Last updated: 1 May 2026 (version v1.1 — may be updated before launch)
1. What this policy is — and what it is not
1.1This is the published Dispute Policy referred to in the Worker Service Provider Agreement (clauses 6.6A, 9.1 and 9.3 to 9.6) and the Customer Terms of Service (clauses 10 and 11). Get Trady is an independent intermediary. When you book a job, the contract for that job is between you and the tradesperson; Get Trady is not a party to it and does not carry out the work. Three points follow, and they apply throughout:
- Get Trady does not hold your money. Payments are collected and held by Stripe. Get Trady receives only its own platform commission and does not receive, hold or control the funds for the job.
- Get Trady does not decide who is right. It runs a structured process, gathers what both sides submit, and issues a recommendation. A recommendation is a suggestion; it has no effect unless both parties accept it.
- This policy does not create a right to a refund. The figures in it are indicative starting points used to keep recommendations consistent from one dispute to the next. They are not an entitlement and do not replace or limit your legal rights.
1.2We do not act as arbitrator, adjudicator or expert, and we do not give legal advice. You may go straight to your legal rights, or to a court or an ombudsman, at any time — using this process is not a precondition to anything.
2. Before you raise a dispute
2.1Most problems are resolved without a formal dispute. Message the tradesperson through Get Trady first, describe what is wrong, attach photographs, and give them a fair opportunity to put it right. Keep the conversation on the platform — it forms part of the record if a dispute follows. Raise a formal dispute if that does not work, or if the problem is serious: a no-show, work clearly below standard, or damage to your property.
| Job type | Window to raise a dispute |
|---|---|
| Standard job | 48 hours from the job being marked complete |
| Tier 4 (milestone) job | 72 hours from each milestone being marked complete |
2.2Raising a dispute inside the window stops the payment-release timer. Get Trady may consider a dispute raised after the window at its discretion, but late disputes limit what can be done through the platform. Your legal rights against the tradesperson are unaffected either way.
3. What happens when a dispute is raised
3.1The dispute is logged from your booking and both parties are notified immediately. Every action from that point is timestamped and recorded in a dispute event log that neither party — nor Get Trady — can alter after the fact. Both parties receive a copy of that log at the end of the process.
3.2The money for the job stays where it is. Funds are collected and held by the platform’s payment service provider, Stripe Payments UK Limited, and remain held there for the duration of the dispute. They are not moved to Get Trady, which does not receive, hold or control them and cannot move them other than as set out in section 8.
4. The 30-day timeline
| Day | What happens |
|---|---|
| Day 0 | Dispute logged. Both parties notified. Event log opens. |
| Day 2 | The tradesperson should acknowledge the dispute. Failure to do so may result in a strike and escalation to Tier 2 review. |
| Day 5 | The tradesperson should submit a written response and supporting evidence — photographs, time logs, materials receipts. Failure to do so may result in a strike and escalation. |
| Day 10 | Get Trady issues a Tier 1 non-binding mediated recommendation, formed using the framework in sections 5 and 6. |
| Day 17 | Each party accepts or rejects the recommendation in the platform. |
| Day 23 | If the recommendation is rejected, Get Trady conducts a Tier 2 internal review. |
| Day 30 | Final stage. If both parties accept the Tier 2 outcome, the agreed distribution of the held funds is implemented. If either party rejects it, the dispute moves to the external routes in section 9. |
4.1At no point in this timeline does Get Trady impose an outcome: Days 10 and 23 produce recommendations, and Days 17 and 30 are where you and the tradesperson decide. The day markers describe the shape of the process, not a commitment by Get Trady to act by a particular date. The deadlines that bind are the ones in the contracts, and they bind the parties.
5. How a recommendation is formed — defect categories and refund bands
5.1To keep recommendations consistent, quality problems are sorted into categories. Each category opens an indicative range, not a figure — a starting point for a conversation, not a calculation of what you are owed.
| Category | What it covers | Indicative range |
|---|---|---|
| Cosmetic only | Paint splashes, mess left behind, minor surface marks. The work functions as intended. | 5–10% of the job value |
| Minor functional | The work functions but not fully or not reliably, and is straightforward to correct. | 10–25% of the job value |
| Major functional | A substantial part of the work does not do what it was supposed to, or needs redoing. | 30–60% of the job value |
| Complete failure | The work was not carried out, or is unusable as delivered. | 80–100% of the job value |
| Property damage | Damage caused to your property during the job. | Not a refund band — see section 7 |
5.2These ranges are indicative and non-binding. A recommendation may fall outside a range where the facts warrant it. Nothing in this table gives either party a contractual entitlement to any particular sum, and nothing in it affects your statutory rights. Where a dispute spans more than one category, each element is considered separately rather than the whole job being forced into a single band.
6. Work that is only part-finished
6.1Where a job stopped part-way and a dispute applies, the recommendation separates materials from labour. Materials bought for the job and supported by receipts are normally recommended for payment in full, whether or not they were installed. Labour is assessed against the stage the work had reached, using the indicative scale below — applied to the labour element of the quoted price.
| Stage reached | Indicative labour share |
|---|---|
| Not started — no attendance, or attendance with no work carried out | 0% |
| Site preparation — access, protection, strip-out or set-up complete | 10–20% |
| First fix — concealed work in place but not yet finished or commissioned | 30–50% |
| Second fix — visible elements installed, awaiting testing, finishing or making good | 60–80% |
| Substantially complete — work usable, with snagging outstanding | 85–95% |
| Complete — including testing, certification and making good | 100% |
6.2The scale is an indicative aid to consistency expressed as ranges, not a contractual formula. Trades vary and not every job has a recognisable first and second fix; where the scale does not map cleanly, the stage is assessed on the evidence submitted rather than forced into a row above. Where certification was required (for example a Gas Safe certificate, an EICR, or Building Regulations notification), work is not treated as complete until that certification has been provided.
7. Property damage
7.1If a tradesperson damages your property while carrying out a job, that is an insurance matter, not a refund matter. Every tradesperson is verified as holding public liability cover of at least £1,000,000 before they take work, and at least £2,000,000 where they accept Tier 4 work. A property damage claim is against the tradesperson’s public liability insurer.
7.2Where you raise a damage claim, we give you the tradesperson’s insurance certificate, the insurer’s claims contact, a written summary of the verified booking, and the dispute event log with any evidence submitted. We do not assess the damage, value it, or determine liability for it. The payment for that job remains held pending the outcome of the insurance claim.
8. When and how money moves
8.1This is the part of the policy that matters most, so it is set out plainly. Get Trady does not hold the funds and does not have discretion over them. Every payment, release and refund is executed by Stripe; Get Trady’s only receipt is its platform commission. Funds for a disputed job move only in one of the following four circumstances:
| # | Trigger for a release or refund |
|---|---|
| 1 | The customer instructs it — for example by approving the work or agreeing to a release. |
| 2 | The customer and the tradesperson agree — including by both accepting a recommendation in the platform. |
| 3 | A court orders it. |
| 4 | A pre-defined platform rule published in this policy applies — the automatic release windows in section 2, and the last-resort rule in section 9. |
8.2There is no fifth trigger. Get Trady does not release or refund money because it has formed a view about who is right. A recommendation that is not accepted by both parties moves nothing.
9. If the dispute is not resolved
9.1If the 30-day process ends without agreement, the funds stay where they are and both parties receive a written summary of the dispute — the booking, the communications log, the evidence submitted, and the recommendations issued. From there, either party may reach a written agreement at any time; bring a claim through Money Claim Online for claims under £10,000; bring a claim in the County Court; or use an alternative dispute resolution provider where one applies, including The Furniture & Home Improvement Ombudsman where Get Trady holds membership.
9.2The last-resort rule. If 90 days pass from the date the dispute was raised and neither party has accepted a recommendation, commenced court proceedings, or engaged in good faith with the dispute for a continuous period of 60 days within that window, the funds are released to the customer. Get Trady gives both parties 14 days’ written notice before the funds are released. This is a published platform rule, applied automatically and identically in every case; it is not a finding about the merits, and it does not prevent the tradesperson from pursuing a claim for payment through the courts.
10. What is required of the tradesperson
10.1The Day 2 and Day 5 steps are set out in the Worker Agreement. Failing either may result in a strike and escalates the dispute to Tier 2 review. Strikes are counted on a rolling three-month window; three strikes in any three-month window trigger a review of platform access, which may result in a warning, a restriction, or removal from the platform.
10.2A tradesperson may appeal a strike within 14 days of it being recorded. Get Trady reviews appeals in good faith. That decision is final for the purposes of the strike record only; it does not affect any underlying contractual claim, which remains a matter for the courts.
10.3Where a strike arises from a job or dispute that is subsequently resolved in the tradesperson’s favour, Get Trady removes that strike from their record automatically, without the tradesperson needing to appeal. This mirrors clause 8.4 of the Worker Service Provider Agreement.
11. Records and evidence
11.1Everything submitted during a dispute is retained: messages, photographs, time logs, receipts, acknowledgements and decisions, each with a timestamp. The event log cannot be edited by either party or by Get Trady after the fact. Both parties receive the full record at the close of the dispute, whether or not it settled. Retention periods are set out in the Privacy Policy.
11.2Photographs submitted through the platform may carry metadata, including a capture time and, where the device recorded one, a location. Where that metadata is present we record it and make it visible to whoever is reviewing the dispute. Metadata is corroborating information only. Many genuine photographs carry no location at all — basements, plant rooms and stairwells routinely have no signal, and location services may simply be switched off. The absence of metadata is not treated as evidence against a party, and no outcome turns on it automatically. We do not verify that photographs depict what a party says they depict; categorisation is a judgement made on the whole of the evidence submitted by both sides.
12. Your legal rights
12.1Under section 49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a tradesperson must carry out the work with reasonable care and skill. That obligation is owed by the tradesperson, who supplies the work — not by Get Trady, which does not carry out the work. Where workmanship falls below that standard you may be entitled to a repeat performance, a price reduction, or in serious cases to treat the contract as at an end. Those are statutory rights against the tradesperson and they exist independently of this policy, which does not limit, replace or waive them, and does not require you to use the platform process before exercising them.
13. Changes to this policy
13.1Get Trady will give at least 30 days’ written notice, by email and by notice in the platform, before any change to this policy takes effect. A dispute already raised is dealt with under the version of the policy in force on the day it was raised.
14. Contact
14.1Questions about this policy, or about a dispute in progress: hello@gettrady.co.uk. KT Partners Ltd is the operator of Get Trady, a company registered in England and Wales.
Get Trady is a service of KT Partners Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 14433679). Registered office: 2nd Floor College House, 17 King Edwards Road, Ruislip, London, HA4 7AE.
Questions about this page? Email hello@gettrady.co.uk.