Last updated: 26 July 2026

We are an information service, not an authority

CheckAFirm is an information aggregation service. We collect information that is already published on public registers and present it in one place with a summary score and plain-English explanations. We do not investigate firms, we do not inspect their work, we do not interview anybody, and we have no independent knowledge of any firm beyond what those registers say.

The data is supplied “as-is”

Data is supplied by Companies House, the Health and Safety Executive, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, trade register operators and other third parties on an “as-is” basis. It may be incomplete, delayed or incorrect at source. Registers are updated on their own schedules and some publish weeks after the event. Records are matched by company name, company number or person name, and name matching is never perfect: two different people can share a name, and one firm can trade under several.

We do not warrant that any report is complete, current or free from error. Always verify anything that matters directly with the firm and with the relevant register before you rely on it.

We are not a credit reference agency

CheckAFirm is not a credit reference agency and is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our 0 to 100 figure is not a credit score, not a credit rating, and not a measure of creditworthiness. It is an information summary produced from public records using a published method, designed to answer “should I be careful about paying this firm?” and nothing more. It must not be used to set credit limits, to make lending decisions, or for any purpose for which a regulated credit reference is required.

Nothing here is advice

Nothing on this site or in any report is financial advice, legal advice, investment advice or professional advice of any kind. Nothing is a recommendation to use, or to avoid, any firm or individual. If a decision matters enough, take advice from a qualified professional who can look at your specific circumstances.

A report is not a verdict on honesty or competence

A report says what the public record contains. It does not say whether a firm is honest, whether its work is any good, whether it will turn up, or whether it will finish the job. Plenty of excellent firms have an unremarkable public record and plenty of poor ones have nothing recorded at all.

Absence of a record is not proof of a clean history

This is the single most important limitation on the site, so it is worth being blunt about it.

  • HSE public registers only cover a limited recent period. Convictions and enforcement notices drop off after a number of years, so older matters simply will not appear.
  • Most disputes never reach a register at all. Unpaid work, abandoned jobs, defective workmanship and settled claims are usually invisible in public data.
  • Sole traders and partnerships do not file at Companies House, so there may be no company record to check in the first place.
  • A firm can be new, or can trade through a new company, and carry no history with it.
  • Where we could not query a register automatically we say so and give you a link. That is not the same as us having checked it and found nothing.

A green verdict means nothing adverse was found on the sources we checked. It is not a clean bill of health and it is certainly not a guarantee.

Do not use a report as your only check

A report must not be used as the sole basis for any hiring, payment or contract decision. Use it the way you would use a reference: one input among several, alongside seeing previous work, speaking to past customers, getting the contract and the payment schedule in writing, confirming insurance, and never paying large sums up front.

Our liability

Our total liability to you in connection with any report is limited to the price you paid for that report. We are not liable for business losses, loss of profit, loss of contracts, wasted expenditure, or any loss that was not reasonably foreseeable when the contract was made.

Nothing on this site excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited. Nothing here affects your statutory rights as a consumer, which are set out in our terms and conditions.

Links to other websites

Reports contain links to official registers and third-party websites so you can verify what we show you. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy or availability of those sites, and a link is not an endorsement.

Right of reply for firms

If you run a firm and you believe a report about it is wrong, we want to hear from you and we will act.

  • Email hello@checkafirm.co.uk with the company number, the page or report concerned, and what you say is inaccurate.
  • If we have matched you to the wrong record, which is the most common problem where names are similar, we will correct it and exclude the record from future reports.
  • If the item is accurate but comes from a register, we will tell you which register publishes it. Correcting it at source, whether that is Companies House, the HSE or a trade register, corrects our report at the next refresh.
  • If you are named personally and you wish to object to our processing, the route to do that is set out in our privacy policy.

We aim to acknowledge every right-of-reply email within five working days.