If you were a Rated People member, you have probably already found out the hard way: a login that stopped working, leads that stopped arriving, and a profile that is no longer there when a customer searches for it. This page sets out what is reported to have happened, what it means for the things you built on the platform, and the routes open to you now. We build websites, so you can guess which route we favour; the page says so where it matters and tries to be fair about the others.
What happened, as far as it is reported
Rated People is reported to have entered liquidation on 16 September 2026. The following day, 17 September, Checkatrade is reported to have bought the Rated People brand and website. Tradespeople who were members say their accounts were closed on the day of the liquidation, with no notice and no run-off period, and that nothing from those accounts was carried over to Checkatrade.
We say "reported" deliberately. The accounts above come from trade blogs, a legal notice and members themselves rather than from a mainstream news outlet or a statement by either company. If you have a letter from the liquidator, that is the document that governs your position, and it will say more than this page can.
What it means for what you had there
Your leads
The leads stopped when the account closed. Any credit you had bought in advance is now a claim against a company in liquidation, which the liquidator handles, and trade creditors in that position are usually paid late and in part. Budget as though the money has gone and submit the claim anyway.
Your reviews
This is the loss that stings. Every review a customer left you on Rated People was held on Rated People’s site, under Rated People’s terms, and it went with the platform. The customers who wrote them still exist, which is the only recoverable part: they can say it again somewhere you own.
Your profile
A homeowner who types the old address now lands on whatever Checkatrade puts there. Your profile is not part of it. If a customer has your Rated People page bookmarked or saved in a message, it leads nowhere, and if your van or your invoices carry the Rated People badge, they now point at a company that has closed.
What Checkatrade’s purchase does and does not give you
Buying the brand and the website means Checkatrade owns the name and the traffic. It does not mean it took on the members, the reviews or the leads. If you want to be on Checkatrade, that is a new application on Checkatrade’s own terms, with its own membership fee, which tradespeople report at £100 to £300 a month once the membership is active. It may well be the right call; it is simply a separate decision, not a continuation.
Your options now
1. Join another directory
MyBuilder, Bark, Checkatrade and the rest are still there, and if directory leads were a large share of your work you need something in the gap, because a website takes months to rank. We have written up what tradespeople report about MyBuilder, Bark and Checkatrade individually. Whichever you pick, treat it as a rented channel from day one: you have just seen what happens to a rented one.
2. Build a presence you own
A Google Business Profile is free and is where most "plumber near me" searches resolve. It is also where your lost reviews can be rebuilt, because the customers behind them can review you there. A website of your own, on a domain registered in your name, is the other half: the enquiries arrive with no competitor on the page, and nobody else’s administrator can switch it off.
3. Both
This is what most of the trades we talk to end up doing, and it is what we would do. A directory for the next six months while the owned presence ramps up, every caller asked how they found you, and a decision at the end of it made with numbers rather than with a fright. Our page on what Rated People members have lost and what a site gives back sets out the comparison in more detail.
The first week
- Message the customers behind your best Rated People reviews. A short text, a thank you, and a direct link to review you on Google. Do it this week, while the closure is a reason they will understand.
- Check your Google Business Profile is claimed, complete and showing the right number. It is the one place you were findable that the closure did not touch.
- Take the Rated People badge off anything you can. Van, invoices, email signature, Facebook page. It now points at a closed company.
- Submit your claim to the liquidator for any credit paid in advance, and then stop counting on it.
- Decide on the gap. Another directory, a website, or both, and start whichever you choose before the quiet month arrives rather than during it.
What we do, if you want the owned half
One plan, £49 (no VAT) a month, no setup fee and no minimum term. That covers the build, hosting, SSL, backups, security updates, uptime monitoring, instant enquiry alerts, review requests and a monthly report. The domain is registered to you from your first payment and everything on the site exports in one click. No setup fee, ever. Domain, site, content and reviews yours from your first payment. The full detail is on our services and pricing page.
Before you pay anything, we rebuild your homepage free within 48 hours so you can see what you would be moving to. Nothing to cancel first, because there is nothing left to cancel.