Protect your home. Protect your investment.
Whether you’re extending, renovating or building from scratch, Covarah helps protect your money, your project and your peace of mind.
What changes for you
You pay for building work the way it gets done: one stage at a time, with the evidence in front of you.
Never pay for unfinished work
Each stage’s money is held in escrow with Transpact until you’ve seen the work and approved it.
Every decision documented
Scope, stages, prices and changes are agreed in writing, and messages, calls and documents sent through Covarah stay on the project record.
Less risk of costly disputes
With everything agreed and recorded from the start, there’s less to argue about later. If something does go wrong, there’s a clear process.
Build with confidence
Your builder starts each stage knowing the money is there, and you always know exactly where it is.
Payments are held by Transpact, authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 546279). Covarah never holds your money. How your money is protected
What it looks like, stage by stage
Every stage of the job follows the same five steps, so you always know where things stand and where your money is.
Fund the next stage
Before work starts, not after it’s done. You pay that stage into escrow with Transpact, never the whole project at once.
Your builder gets to work
They post updates as they go, so you can follow progress without chasing.
See the evidence
When the stage is finished, your builder marks it complete and adds photos and a note, so you can see exactly what you’re approving.
Approve, or raise a concern
If something isn’t right, raise a concern instead of approving. Nothing is released without your approval.
Coming soonA check-in from our team if you haven’t responded within three days, so nothing depends on you catching a notification at the right moment.
Release the payment
Approve the stage, then release the payment to your builder through Transpact. Then fund the next stage, and it starts again.
How undocumented changes turn into lost deposits
It’s a familiar story. A project starts at one price, then the builder finds “another problem” that needs more money, a few times over. Without paperwork, the budget can quietly double before anyone questions it. Sometimes the builder disappears before the job’s finished.
On Covarah, every change is a written variation you approve before the price changes.
It sets out what’s changed, why, what it costs and how it affects the timeline. Your budget only grows when you sign it off, and there’s no extra charge to your builder for recording it properly.
An approved variation becoming its own stage, funded into escrow before the extra work starts.
Questions homeowners ask
The short answers. The full FAQ covers contracts, payments, disputes and security in more depth.
What if my builder isn’t part of a scheme?
It doesn’t matter. Covarah protects you and your builder, whoever they are. No scheme membership needed.
What if I’m not happy with the work?
Raise a concern instead of approving the stage. Nothing is released without your approval, and if it turns into a dispute, the money stays held in escrow throughout.
We step in first, with the project record already in front of us. If that doesn’t settle it, you both agree an independent mediator, adjudicator or arbitrator.
What if I don’t respond in time?
Nothing is released automatically. The money for that stage stays held in escrow until you approve it. If the wait is holding up the job, your builder can raise it with us.
A check-in from our team if you haven’t responded within three days: a real person getting in touch, not a silent countdown.
Is this the same as paying by credit card?
No. Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act lets you claim from your card provider if something goes wrong with a purchase costing between £100 and £30,000 that you paid for at least partly by credit card. That’s a claim you make after the event. With Covarah, every stage is protected before work starts: its money is held in escrow until you’ve approved the work.
What happens if only part of a stage is disputed?
For now, a dispute holds that stage’s payment in escrow until it’s settled.
Splitting a stage into parts, such as materials, electrics, plumbing and labour, so only the part in question is held back and everything else you’ve approved is paid as normal.
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