How to check a tradesperson before you hire them

A logo on the side of a van costs a few pounds to print. It doesn’t tell you the person driving it is qualified, insured or registered anywhere. Before anyone starts work in your home, a handful of checks take less time than a phone call, and most are free.

Gas work is the one with a legal requirement

Anyone who works on gas appliances, pipes or boilers has to be on the Gas Safe Register. Bad gas work can leak, start fires or cause carbon monoxide poisoning, which is why the rule exists. Ask to see the engineer’s Gas Safe ID card before they start.

Check both sides. The front shows a photo, a licence number, start and expiry dates and a security hologram. The back lists the kinds of gas work the engineer is qualified to do, so someone registered for cookers isn’t automatically cleared to fit a boiler. You can confirm the licence number on the Gas Safe Register website or by ringing 0800 408 5500.

Electricians

England and Wales don’t issue a licence you can look up, so anyone can call themselves an electrician. What you can check is whether the firm belongs to a competent person scheme such as NICEIC or NAPIT. Members are assessed, and they can certify their own work under Part P of the Building Regulations, the part that covers electrical safety in homes. A registered firm also notifies building control for you, which saves you the paperwork.

Search the company name on electricalcompetentperson.co.uk, which covers the authorised schemes, or on the scheme’s own site. A sticker on the van proves nothing. If you find no result, ask which scheme they say they’re on and check there.

Check the company itself

If the trader is a limited company, you can search Companies House for free. Look for the status “Active” and compare the registered address with the one on the quote. A company incorporated last month isn’t automatically a problem, but it’s worth knowing. Sole traders don’t appear there, so ask for a business address and a landline, and find out how long they’ve been working locally.

Approval schemes and reviews

Buy With Confidence is run by local authority Trading Standards, and businesses are vetted before they’re accepted. You can search the list at buywithconfidence.gov.uk. Plenty of good tradespeople aren’t members, so a missing name isn’t a red flag. A present one is a decent sign.

Reviews help too, but read the three-star ones first. They usually describe what actually happened rather than how someone felt on the day.

Get it in writing

Ask for a written quote that says what’s included, who buys the materials, when work starts and how long it should take. Be wary of a large cash deposit before any work has begun or any materials have arrived. Ask for proof of public liability insurance; a genuine contractor will have the certificate to hand. Get two or three quotes where you can, and treat a price far below the rest as a question rather than a bargain.

Where a directory fits

A listing on any directory, this one included, tells you a business exists and how to reach it. It doesn’t mean anyone has vetted it. We build listings from public sources and let owners claim and correct their own, so use them to put together a shortlist and then run the checks above.

If you’re looking for someone local, start with Home & Trades and narrow it by city: Birmingham, Manchester or Leeds.