The Consumer Rights Act 2022 and Building Work

For decades, homeowners fighting builders relied on contract law’s implied terms — sturdy, but generic. The Consumer Rights Act 2022 rebuilt that ground: statutory standards for services and materials, a defined remedies ladder, and protections that survive whatever the paperwork says. Most homeowners have never heard of it. Their builders’ insurers have.

Who and What It Covers

The Act governs contracts between consumers and traders — the homeowner engaging a builder acting in the course of business is its central case. Building work engages the services framework, and because building services supply goods too (blocks, timber, fittings), the Act’s standards reach both the workmanship and the materials. What was agreed only verbally changes nothing: the statutory rights attach regardless of paperwork — a point that matters enormously in the quote-and-handshake world of domestic work (the homeowner disputes practice).

The Standards

• The service supplied with the necessary skill and care;
• Materials and goods supplied of the quality the Act requires;
• The work in conformity with the contract and the information provided — brochures and representations included;
• Where no price was fixed, no more than a reasonable price payable — the statutory answer to the mushrooming bill.

The Remedies Ladder

The Act’s practical gift is sequence. Non-conforming work triggers, first, the right to require remedy by re-performance — the builder fixes it, at his cost, within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you. Where that fails or is refused, proportionate price reduction. Where the failure is significant, termination rights and their refund consequences. A homeowner’s solicitor letter built on this ladder reads very differently from a general complaint — it invokes defined statutory rights in order, each with consequences for ignoring it.

Using It Well

The Act reinforces rather than replaces: your claim still runs on the contract and its implied terms, still depends on evidence (the preparation checklist applies in full), still needs the expert report where workmanship is disputed, and still lives inside the limitation clocks. What it changes is footing: the homeowner now negotiates from statute, not just sympathy. Make sure your letter says so.