We built this because we'd seen the problem enough times
A UK company built to stop the same thing happening again: money paid to a tradesperson before the work is done, and no way to get it back.
£4 billion
of consumer complaints resolved through Resolver, the free complaints service our founder built
Enough of them were the same story that it stopped looking like bad luck. A deposit paid. A job half done. A tradesperson who stopped answering. And a homeowner with no realistic way of getting their money back.
“The Department welcomes the development of this scheme and supports its wider adoption.”
The problem we're solving
Home improvement is one of the few things people buy where they hand over a large sum to someone they've just met, before anything has been done, and often with nothing more than a text message to show for it.
Most tradespeople are honest, and most jobs go fine. But when they don't, the money has usually already moved, and that's what makes it so hard to put right. Recovering money after it's gone is difficult, slow, and frequently impossible.
So we didn't build a way to chase money afterwards. We built a way to stop it moving ahead of the work in the first place.
James Walker
Founder and Director, Trusted Payments
James founded Resolver, the free complaints service that has helped consumers resolve around £4 billion of issues, and is a director of the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman.
He has a degree in Building Surveying and a Masters in the Environmental Design of Buildings, and has run home improvement projects of his own, including a government-funded energy efficiency project, converting an ordinary house into an eco home, and a loft conversion completed in under eight hours.
- BSc Building Surveying
- MSc Environmental Design of Buildings
- Founder, Resolver
- Director, Dispute Resolution Ombudsman
Who we work with
We work alongside the organisations homeowners are already told to check, so using Trusted Payments doesn't mean choosing between us and the schemes you trust. We're endorsed by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman.
Disputes and warranty claims are handled by the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman, independent of us and independent of your tradesperson. That independence is the point. A complaints process run by the company you're complaining about isn't worth much.
What we are, and what we aren't
We're not a bank, and we're not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. We don't lend money, offer credit, or give financial advice.
What we do is straightforward: you and your tradesperson agree the payment stages before work starts, money is released as each stage is finished and signed off, and an independent ombudsman decides if you can't agree.
We'd rather say that plainly than describe ourselves as something we're not.
How we think about it
- Money follows the work
Never the other way round. Almost everything that goes wrong on a job starts with payment running ahead of progress.
- Both sides, not one
Tradespeople get chased for payment too. A process that only protects one party doesn't get used by the other.
- Independent means independent
Disputes go to an ombudsman who doesn't work for us. We don't get to decide who's right.
The company
| Registered name | Trusted Payments Limited |
| Address | Premier House 1st Floor, 1-5 Argyle Way, Stevenage, England, SG1 2AD |
| Coverage | England, Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland |
| What we do | Milestone payments and warranty for home improvement projects |
| Payments | Open Banking |
| Warranty underwritten by | A fully authorised, A-rated insurer |
| Disputes handled by | Dispute Resolution Ombudsman |
| Endorsed by | Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the Dispute Resolution Ombudsman |
| Data protection | ICO registered, with a named data protection contact |
| Security | Cyber Essentials certified |
Last reviewed 16 August 2026