Rated People Enters Liquidation — Checkatrade Buys the Brand and Website
What happened
Rated People Limited entered Creditors' Voluntary Liquidation on 16 September 2026, closing every tradesperson account the same day — with no advance warning to members.
The next day, Checkatrade Group completed the acquisition of selected Rated People assets, including the brand name and website. Checkatrade is owned by Brookfield Corporation through its HomeServe subsidiary, acquired in 2022 for over £4bn.
Crucially, subscriptions and memberships were not part of the deal. Tradespeople who had a Rated People account will need to create a new Checkatrade account if they want to continue receiving leads from homeowners who post jobs on the Rated People website. Those jobs now go directly to Checkatrade members.
Checkatrade has said that former Rated People members who join will be able to import their old reviews at some point — but no date has been confirmed.
Questions about outstanding invoices, refunds, or membership credits go to the appointed liquidators, S&W Group, at ratedpeople@swgroup.com.
What this means for tradespeople
If you were paying Rated People for leads, that money is gone and those leads have stopped. There's no automatic transfer, no grace period, and no guarantee your reviews will follow you.
For plumbers, electricians, and other tradespeople who relied on Rated People as a lead source, this is a sharp reminder of platform risk. When a third-party platform controls your customer pipeline, you're one liquidation away from starting again.
The tradespeople who felt this least are the ones who'd already built their own Google reviews profile. Your Google Business Profile can't go into liquidation. Nobody can buy it out from under you. The reviews you collect there stay with you, show up in Maps and Search, and work whether Rated People, Checkatrade, or any other platform exists or not.
What to do about it
- If you were on Rated People: Check whether Checkatrade makes sense for your area and trade. Compare the monthly cost (currently £99–£130+/month depending on trade) against what you were paying.
- Either way, build your own review base. A steady stream of Google reviews gives you a lead source no platform can take away. TapReview is a £9/month tool that helps UK tradespeople get more Google reviews by sending automated review requests via WhatsApp and SMS after every job.
- Contact the liquidators if you're owed money or had an active subscription: ratedpeople@swgroup.com.
Source: Rated People — Joins Checkatrade Group