How to check a builder is legit: the free ten minute company check

The quote is in, the start date is pencilled, and the builder wants a deposit. This is the moment your stomach tightens, because the question underneath is blunt: will this business still exist when the job is half done? Many people settle it by gut feel, or by asking a neighbour. There is a better way, it is free, and it takes about ten minutes.

Every limited company in the UK sits on a public register run by Companies House. Anyone can look up any company, no account needed. It will not tell you whether someone tiles beautifully, but it answers the money questions: does the company behind the quote legally exist, how long has it been registered, are its filings up to date, and has anything formal gone wrong. We matched 1,197,361 listed UK trade businesses to that register, so we can also show you what normal looks like before you run the check on yours.

What the register shows for over a million trade businesses

Of the listed trade businesses we matched to the register, 1,185,270 have a company the register currently shows as active. That is the boring, reassuring headline: the overwhelming picture behind UK trade listings is real, live companies. The typical one has been on the register for 6 years, and 391,109 of them, about a third, have been there ten years or more. When a builder tells you the firm has history, the register is often happy to back them up.

One reading mistake to avoid: time on the register is not the age of the business. Plenty of tradespeople work for years as sole traders before incorporating, so a company registered in 2022 can sit on top of fifteen years of graft. A recent incorporation date is a reason to ask a friendly question, never a verdict.

The ten minute check, step by step

Take the exact company name or company number from the quote, the invoice, or the bottom of the website, and search for it on the Companies House website. Then look at five things:

1. Status. It should say active. Dissolved means the company no longer legally exists; liquidation, administration or a proposal to strike off mean something formal is in motion and you should ask about it before any money moves.
2. Incorporation date. This tells you how long the company has been on the register. Remember it understates real trading history for anyone who started as a sole trader.
3. Filing history. Late or overdue accounts are worth a question. A company that keeps its paperwork current is telling you something about how it runs.
4. The name you are paying. The company name on the register should match the name on the quote and the bank account you are asked to pay. If the names differ, ask why before you transfer anything.
5. Insolvency notices. Formal insolvency steps are published in The Gazette, which is also free to search. It is rare to find anything, which is exactly why finding something matters.

That is the whole check. You are not investigating anyone; you are reading a public record that exists so people can trade with confidence. Solid businesses come out of it looking better, which is why many tradespeople with long, clean records put their company number on everything.

No company on the register? That is often completely fine

A large share of good tradespeople are sole traders. Sole traders do not appear on the company register at all, because there is no company: the law does not require one. Absence from Companies House is not a warning sign, it is a business structure. For a sole trader you simply lean on the other public evidence instead: reviews across several independent sites, certifications you can verify with the issuing body, how long their presence reaches back, and whether their contact details hold steady across the places they are listed.

The register also explains why so many trade companies look young on paper. More than half of the active companies behind our listings joined the register in 2020 or later. Part of that is arithmetic: older companies leave the register over time, so any snapshot of live companies leans recent. Part of it is that many established tradespeople incorporate years into their working lives. Either way, that is the context to hold onto when a quote arrives from a company registered eighteen months ago.

What the check catches, in numbers

Across the listed businesses we matched, 2,378 currently show a company status you would want to know about before paying: dissolved, in liquidation, under a proposal to be struck off, or in another formal insolvency process. A further 9,713 have a status we have not yet confirmed. These are counts across the businesses we list and have matched to the register, with statuses refreshed on a rolling basis; they are not a rate you can apply to every tradesperson in the country. The point is simpler: the situations this check exists to catch are real, they are current, and ten minutes of reading the public record is how you avoid meeting one with your deposit.

And a status on that list is still a question, not a conviction. Companies get dissolved because someone retires. Directors restructure and move the work to a new company for dull, legal reasons. What an adverse status tells you is to slow down and ask, and that the answer should make sense before money moves.

So should you pay the deposit?

Consumer guidance from Citizens Advice and the Federation of Master Builders is consistent on the shape of a fair arrangement: keep any upfront payment small, tie payments to stages of work actually completed, and be wary of anyone pressing for a large sum before starting. A deposit for made-to-order materials, like windows or a bespoke kitchen, is normal; ask for it to be documented, and ask whether the supplier order can be evidenced. Pair that with the company check above and the decision usually makes itself: a business with a real, active company behind it, asking for a staged payment plan in writing, is showing you exactly the paper trail you want.