What happened to Rated People? What trades need to know in 2026

What happened to Rated People? The company behind it, Rated People Limited, went into creditors' voluntary liquidation on 16 September 2026, and the next day Rated People announced that Checkatrade Group had bought the brand and website. Every trade membership ended, and the jobs homeowners post there now go to Checkatrade members.

Most of what ranks for Rated People was written before the closure, and the newer posts mostly come from rival lead sites. This guide sticks to the official record: the Companies House file, the notices in the Gazette, and what Rated People and Checkatrade now say on Rated People's own pages, all read on 27 October 2026.

We build websites for trades, so we have an interest in you owning your marketing. That is the lesson at the end. The rest is what a former member needs to know and do.

What happened to Rated People, and when?

Rated People Limited went into creditors' voluntary liquidation on 16 September 2026. That means it could not pay its debts and is being wound up, with its assets sold for its creditors. Checkatrade Group bought the brand, the website and the old trade account data, and Rated People announced it on 17 September.

The dates, from the official record:

1. 14 September 2026. A director signs the statement of affairs, the company's own list of what it owns and owes.
2. 16 September 2026, 11.30 am. At a meeting at S&W Partners LLP in London, the company resolves to wind up voluntarily. James Thompson and Ben Woodthorpe of S&W are appointed joint liquidators the same day (Companies House insolvency record).
3. 17 September 2026. Rated People's blog announces that Checkatrade Group "has completed the acquisition of selected Rated People assets, including the brand and website".
4. 18 September 2026. Homeowners who posted a job before this date are asked to post it again.
5. 24 September 2026. The resolution to wind up and the appointment of the liquidators are published in the Gazette.
6. 1 October 2026. The liquidators' appointment, the resolution and the statement of affairs are filed at Companies House.

One date you may read elsewhere is not on the record. Several posts say trade accounts closed on 16 September. Rated People's own pages say only that it "closed all memberships before it became part of Checkatrade".

I was a Rated People member: will I get my money back?

Nobody can say yet, and the only estimate on the record is bleak. Every question about your membership, payments, refunds or money you are owed goes to the liquidators, S&W, at ratedpeople@swgroup.com. Checkatrade bought selected assets, not the company, and Rated People's pages send every money question to the liquidators.

The best guide so far is the statement of affairs filed at Companies House. It was signed by a director on 14 September 2026, before the liquidators took over, and it estimates:

• Nothing available for unsecured creditors. A trade owed a refund would normally be one of them.
• About £9.9 million of unsecured claims in total.
• Ahead of them in the queue: about £487,000 owed to staff and HMRC, and about £2.9 million owed to a secured lender.

It is an estimate, and several assets on it are marked "Uncertain", so the liquidators' own reports may come out differently. They are the people who decide claims.

What to do now:

• Email the liquidators at ratedpeople@swgroup.com with your business name, your Rated People account details and what you paid for and did not get. The Gazette notice also gives their phone number: 020 4617 5500.
• Ask them how to register as a creditor, so you get their reports.
• Check your bank statements for any Rated People payment taken on or after 16 September, and put it in the same email.
• Do not pay anyone who contacts you offering to recover the money for a fee. The liquidators' details are on the Gazette notices linked above.

Can I get my Rated People reviews and lead history back?

You can ask for your lead history, but your reviews stay on Rated People. Its trade sign up page says "Your existing Rated People reviews stay where they are", and nothing on Rated People's pages offers a way to move them to Checkatrade or anywhere else.

Your lead history. Checkatrade now holds the old trade account data, and Rated People's announcement links to a Trade Data Retrieval form. It asks for your business name, postcode, email and phone. If Checkatrade can match you to an eligible account, it says it will email you within 30 days with instructions to access:

• your previous invoices;
• the jobs and leads you bought;
• the customer details that came with them.

The form also asks whether you want to hear from Checkatrade about its products. You can leave that unticked. Rated People's help page says eligible members "will have received an email from Checkatrade", so check your inbox and spam folder first, and use the form if nothing came.

Your reviews. Former members' profiles are still online. Rated People's sitemap lists thousands of them, and the one we opened on 27 October 2026 still showed its star rating, its reviews and a "Get a quote" button. Rated People says every job posted on the site now goes to Checkatrade members, and its pages do not say whether a former member can have a profile taken down. Checkatrade runs the site now, so ask Checkatrade.

While your profile is still up, save a copy of it with the review dates, for your own records.

Where do Rated People leads go now?

To Checkatrade members. Rated People's announcement says every job posted on Rated People "will now be matched with a tradesperson from Checkatrade's network", and its help page says leads "will now be routed to Checkatrade tradespeople". Homeowners use the site as before. The jobs just go to a different set of trades.

Rated People's pages give two ways in:

• A fixed lead plan: matched leads sent to you automatically, at a price set on your trade and area, on a 12 month term.
• The Opportunities Board: a free Checkatrade account where you browse jobs in your area and pay only for the leads you unlock.

If you are a homeowner reading reviews on Rated People, bear in mind that the profile you are looking at may belong to a trade who was a member before September. Rated People says the job you post will go to Checkatrade members.

Should I join Checkatrade to keep getting Rated People jobs?

Only if the sum works for your trade, the same as before. Joining Checkatrade is now the only way to get jobs posted on Rated People. Rated People's announcement says membership "starts at £30 per month" with access to jobs from both sites.

Read that £30 carefully. When we checked Checkatrade's own pricing on 15 September 2026, £30 a month was the Approved tier, which shows you only when someone searches for your business by name. Lead plans sat under Growth, from £59 a month and priced on your postcodes. Rated People's page does not say which plan its £30 is. Ask before you sign, and get the price for your trade and area in writing.

The old Rated People deal was different. Its trade page, when we read it on 28 August 2026, sold "One fee. Unlimited leads". Checkatrade's fixed plans run for 12 months, so you are committing for a year, not a month.

Our Checkatrade cost guide sets out the tiers and the contract, and is Checkatrade worth it works through the break-even for your own jobs.

Where else can trades get work now?

The other directories charge in different ways, so match the model to your jobs:

• TrustATrader charges a yearly membership with no fee per lead, and limits members per trade in each area. Our guide on whether TrustATrader is worth it has the detail, and Checkatrade vs TrustATrader puts the two side by side.
• MyBuilder is free to join and charges a fee each time a customer shortlists you, from £7 before VAT and set per job (checked 2 October 2026). See is MyBuilder worth it.
• Your own website and Google Business Profile, which keep working whatever happens to any platform.

The full list, with how each one charges, is in Checkatrade alternatives.

If Rated People was most of your work, do not swap it for one platform straight away. Give yourself a month of logging every enquiry and where it came from, and you will know what you have actually lost.

Why don't reviews on a platform belong to you?

Because they sit on the platform's website, under its terms, and go where the platform goes. Some Rated People members built up reviews over years. When the company failed, the reviews stayed with the website, and the website went to Checkatrade.

That is not a story about one company. It is how every directory works. The reviews that stay with your business are the ones on your Google Business Profile and on a website you own, on a domain registered in your name.

Three things to do this week:

1. Ask your recent Rated People customers for a Google review. You cannot copy old reviews across: a Google review has to come from the customer. Our guide on how to get Google reviews has the wording to send.
2. Make asking easy. The free Google review QR code generator gives you a link and a code for invoices, the van and the end of every job.
3. Put the reviews where you control them. A page of your own with your best work, the towns you cover and your reviews means the next platform to close takes nothing that matters with it.