Toothless organisation with no authority or responsibility
This organization is very much for the builders, as a consumer\customer do NOT assume your builder having an FMB membership is any sign of quality or assurance that they won't do a bad job or steal money from you.
This is exactly what happened to me and FMB did nothing to help other than email the builder and sit with their finger crossed that he responded.
They told us to hold off any legal proceedings or they wouldn't be able to help us.
So we waited over 6 weeks for some kind of response or resolution.
However, the builder in question Paul Rngureanu from
Alonso Construction Ltd just ignored them completely. FMB did not call or put anything in the post, just emails so once they got no response, they simply removed him from their registration, for him to be able to go do this with other people.
They should have left him on there with poor reviews and a note as to why he is no longer a member.
The FMB is a toothless organization, we have even tried to claim on the FMB recommended insurance only to be told it won't be covered.
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In response to your reply.
Well it turns out that our builder had no trading history, the company was listed in his wife's name because he couldn't register a company himself, also the site assessment was done via video call!
That isn't a proper independent inspection! This shows the poor level of quality that the FMB accepts.
The timelines that you mentioned were not stuck to...
If you search for Alonso Construction Ltd on the FMB site, it just shows that he is not a current member.
For anyone to find out that he was expelled they would need to to know there was an expelled page as this is NOT in your menus and not serachable.
Once they find out about it, they would need to search through 5 sections of your "Expelled members" to see if their chosen builder is on there.
How much harder do you want to make it for consumers to identify fraudulent builders? Maybe password protect the page too so that we have to guess the correct password before accessing it to check on the status of the chosen builder.
That information should be accessible through your find a builder page, THEN you will be doing your job of assuring quality builders get the work...
Reply from Federation of Master Builders
Hi Imran,
Any Builder seeking to become a member of the FMB is required to pass an independent inspection of their building work. The inspections are carried out by the British Board of Agrément or RISA who are the leading construction certification bodies in the UK. Prospective Members must also pass a professional vetting process which includes a check on their trading history, credit history and proof of insurance. We continue to inspect our members at regular intervals throughout their membership with the FMB.
The FMB offers an Alternative Dispute Resolution Service (ADR) to assist members and their clients to resolve any disputes. The FMB are unable to apply our ADR service if the dispute is being dealt with via any third parties. As a consumer, you are free to take any action including formal legal proceedings should you feel that mediation is not sufficient to resolve the dispute.
As outlined on the FMB website, once we have received your completed form, we will process it within 5 working days. A copy of the form is then sent to our member, who must provide a written response within 10 working days. If we do not receive their response, we send further reminders allowing a maximum response time of 20 working days.
When attempting to ascertain a response from our member, the FMB uses a combination of email, letter and telephone correspondence. If our member fails to provide a response within 20 working days, they will be expelled from membership for non-compliance with the FMB Code of Conduct.
Any FMB member who is expelled from membership is listed on the expelled members section of our website.
Updated 22/07/2021
Thank you for providing your feedback. The FMB are always looking for ways to improve the service we provide. Your comments have been noted and will be taken onboard by the FMB.
Kind regards,
The FMB