Check Your Builder Before the Money Leaves.
Director history, phoenix company patterns, insolvency, overdue filings and HSE convictions, plus every trade register you should verify before you pay a penny.
Where building work actually goes wrong
Almost none of it is about workmanship at the point you are deciding. It is about who you are paying, and whether they have done this to someone else already.
The deposit is unsecured
Hand over £8,000 and you are an unsecured creditor of that company. If it enters liquidation the following month, unsecured creditors are paid last, and in most small liquidations they are paid nothing at all.
Phoenix companies
A firm collapses owing customers and suppliers, then the same people start again under a new name, sometimes from the same address, within weeks. The new company has a clean record because it has no record. We follow the directors, which is where the history actually lives.
Gas work is not optional
Anyone working on gas appliances, boilers or gas pipework in the UK must be on the Gas Safe Register. It is a legal requirement, not a badge. The registration belongs to the business and the individual engineer, and it covers specific types of work, so check the person who turns up.
HSE convictions and notices
The Health and Safety Executive publishes convictions and enforcement notices by defendant name. The register states it covers the last five years, and new cases appear a few weeks in arrears, so a clean result covers recent history rather than all history. A prohibition notice on a roofing firm tells you something no review site will.
Overdue filings and company age
Late accounts are a legal breach and one of the first visible signs of a firm in trouble. A company incorporated four months ago quoting for a six-month extension is worth a second look, not an automatic no.
Insurance you cannot look up
There is no UK database of live public liability policies. Nobody can tell you online whether a builder's cover is in force today. What you can do is take the certificate details and confirm the insurer is authorised on the FCA register, which we walk you through.
The registers a builder should be on
Trade bodies do not publish machine-readable registers, so we do not claim to check these for you. We tell you which ones apply to your job, what each one actually proves, and give you the direct link. Each takes under a minute, and it catches badges a firm displays on its van but does not hold.
Gas Safe RegisterLegally required
Legally required for anyone working on gas appliances, boilers or gas pipework in the UK.
Gas Safe does not allow automated checks. Search the engineer's licence number on the official register: it takes about 20 seconds and is the single most important check if any gas work is involved.
TrustMark
Government-endorsed quality scheme covering workmanship, trading standards and customer protection.
Check the firm's name here if it displays the TrustMark logo. Displaying the logo without registration is a misrepresentation worth challenging.
NICEIC
Electrical competence. Required in practice for notifiable electrical work under Part P of the Building Regulations.
If the firm claims to be NICEIC registered, confirm it here. Electrical work that should be certified but is not can block a future sale of your home.
Federation of Master Builders (FMB)
Trade association membership requiring vetting and independent inspection.
FMB membership is one of the more commonly claimed and least commonly verified badges in the trade. Worth 30 seconds.
FENSA
Self-certification for replacement windows and doors under the Building Regulations.
Only relevant if the job involves windows or external doors. Without a FENSA (or equivalent) certificate you may need building control sign-off instead.
Competent Person Register (LABC Front Door)
The umbrella search across every government-authorised Competent Person Scheme, covering most notifiable building work.
The broadest single search: if a firm is on any authorised scheme for its trade, it should appear here.
What to demand before you pay
A good builder will not blink at any of this. The reaction you get is itself a useful test.
A written contract before any money moves
Scope, specification, materials, start and finish dates, and a price. A quote on WhatsApp is not a contract you would want to rely on if the work stops halfway.
Stage payments tied to completed work
Payments released when a stage is done and you have seen it, not on a calendar. If materials genuinely have to be bought up front, ask for the supplier invoice and pay the supplier directly where you can.
The public liability certificate, then verify the insurer
Get the insurer name, policy number, cover limit and expiry date in writing. There is no register of live policies, so the check that is actually available to you is confirming the insurer is an authorised firm on the FCA register.
The Gas Safe licence of the person doing gas work
Check the number on the official register on the day the work starts, and check the categories of work it covers. This is the single most important 20 seconds in the whole process if gas is involved.
The building control route in writing
For notifiable work, ask which competent person scheme will self-certify it or whether a building control notice is being submitted. Uncertified electrical or window work can hold up a future sale of your home.
Two recent customers you can actually phone
Recent, local, and ideally work you can go and look at. Photographs prove very little about who did the job.
A payment method with some protection
Paying part of the cost by credit card, where the cash price is over £100 and not more than £30,000, gives you a claim against the card issuer under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act if the work is never done or is badly done. Bank transfer gives you none of that.
Checking the insurer
Once you have the certificate, the insurer named on it should be an authorised firm on the Financial Services Register. If the name does not appear, or appears with permissions that have nothing to do with general insurance, ask the builder about it before the work starts.
Search the FCA registerWhat the builder check is not
It is not a credit score, not a recommendation, and not proof that a builder is honest or good at the job. A clean record means nothing bad has been recorded publicly, which is not the same as nothing bad having happened. Plenty of excellent builders have quiet records and plenty of poor ones have never been prosecuted. Use it the way you would use a reference: one input alongside seeing previous work, getting the contract in writing, and never paying large sums up front.
Common questions
Should a builder ask for a deposit up front?
A deposit is normal on larger jobs, particularly where materials have to be ordered. What is not normal is a large percentage of the total before anyone has been on site. Ask what the deposit is specifically paying for, get it itemised in the contract, and keep the balance tied to stages you can see. If a firm insists on half the money before starting and will not explain why, treat that as information.
What is a phoenix company, and why does it matter for building work?
It is where a company fails owing money and the same people continue trading through a new company, often with a similar name and the same address. It is not automatically illegal, but it means the clean-looking company you are about to pay has no track record of its own, and the people behind it have already left customers unpaid at least once. Our report follows every director to their other companies, counts the dissolutions and insolvencies, and names the predecessor company so you can ask about it directly.
Do you check the Gas Safe Register automatically?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Gas Safe blocks automated access entirely and has no self-serve API, so anyone claiming to check it for you in an instant report is not doing what they say. We give you the direct link, the licence number to ask for, and what to look at when you get there. It takes about 20 seconds and it is worth doing yourself on the day.
Can you check a sole trader builder?
Partly. Sole traders do not file at Companies House, so there is no company record, no directors and no filing history to examine. HSE convictions, employment tribunal decisions and the trade registers still apply, and the report tells you plainly which sources returned nothing because the firm is not a limited company rather than because it came back clean.
What does the free builder check include?
Company status and age, registered office, whether accounts or confirmation statements are overdue, insolvency status, how many directors the firm has, and a red, amber or green verdict with the top warning signs. Enough to know within a minute whether you should slow down before paying anything.
What does the £9.99 report add for a builder?
The full director network with every other company each director is involved in and what happened to it, phoenix pattern analysis, charges and secured borrowing, the complete HSE conviction and enforcement notice history, employment tribunal decisions, the full builder register checklist with direct verification links, the insurance checklist including how to validate the insurer, and a PDF you can save or send to your partner before you commit.
Check the builder before the deposit
Free check, about twenty seconds, no sign-up. Full report £9.99 if you want the whole picture.