Does CASE Equal Good Renovation?
Honestly, no.
We need to be clear on what CASE actually covers, and does not cover, for homeowners.
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A couple of weeks back, CNA released an article:
“downpayment losses jumped 4-fold to $1.9M, with renovation contractors accounting for $728K”.
This is for sure concerning. However, we found that this specific quote by the CASE president requires some context to prevent homeowners from misunderstanding.
“All the cases where consumers lost their prepayments and deposits were a result of consumers who had patronised non-CaseTrust accredited renovation contractors.”
While this statement might be factually correct, it can easily create the impression that - CASE-accredited firms = good renovation experience and Non-CASE = bad.
Which is 100% not true.
Just take a look at some of the poor reviews submitted by homeowners to us for CASE-accredited firms.
It is important then for homeowners to understand - what does CASE accreditation actually cover?
1) Firms (Need to) Pay to Get the Accreditation
The application fee is around $3,000, followed by annual management fees of about $1,500, depending on the size of the company.
2) They Protect Your Deposit
If the firm shuts down, your downpayment is guaranteed to be refunded.
For example, a $50k project might have a $10k initial downpayment. This $10k will be protected.
For us, this is the biggest value CASE offers, which is why we decided to do the same. Any homeowner using the firms referred by us will have their deposit guaranteed too. After all, if we want to build reliability, we have to put our money where our mouth is, right?
3) Other Requirements: Standard Contract Terms, Basic Business & Prepayment Protections…
Other requirements include:
CASE-accredited firms must follow a set contract template, which includes 12-month warranty and max of 20% deposit collection
A redress system for dispute resolution
Other prepayment protections - Meaning if a firm shuts down and you've paid $22K but only $20K worth of work is done, you get back your $2K. (Similar to the deposit protection)
You may read them over here.
In our opinion, these other requirements, outside of the deposit protection, is “standard”, and not really indicative of whether your renovation will turn out good or not.
Hence, is Case a Good Litmus Test for a Good Renovation Experience?
Our answer is 100% NO.
The best value in CASE accreditation is the deposit guarantee. But let’s be real, a good renovation experience is about way more than just protecting your deposit.
For us, the HDB license is the minimum benchmark before we even consider shortlisting firms. CASE accreditation does not matter, because we look at the results.
Side note on the ‘$728K downpayment losses - it sounds like a huge number, but let’s put things into perspective.
Assuming the average reno contract is $50K, with a $10K downpayment—that means we’re looking at about 72 cases only.
BTO alone launched 25,000 units this year, and we are not even counting resale or private properties.
So, 72 cases? That’s barely 0.2% of the new homes out there. But we all know the percentage of bad reno experiences is definitely higher than 0.2%.
That’s why we want to state clearly what CASE does, so that homeowners can prioritise accordingly.
At the end of the day, accreditation really doesn’t mean that much. Finding a reliable ID or contractor is about more than just looking at a certification. It’s about doing your research, checking past projects, and working with firms that genuinely care about delivering quality work.
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