How to check a tradesperson for free: the public-record checklist

A glossy profile can be built in an afternoon. A public record takes years to accumulate, and it does not care about anyone's marketing. That is why the best pre-hire homework is not more scrolling; it is ten minutes with the public record, which is free to read and already knows a lot about almost every trade business in the country. These are the checks a rogue trader hopes you skip. Most tradespeople pass every one of these checks without breaking stride. Ten minutes of confirmation is not an accusation; it is how good businesses get chosen.

Start with the company behind the quote

Take the company name or number from the quote and search it on Companies House. You are looking for three things: the company exists and shows as active, the name matches who you are being asked to pay, and the filing history looks current. This works at scale because most of the trade really is on the register: we have matched 1,197,361 UK trade businesses to a company register entry, and about a third of the active ones have been on the register for ten years or more, as of July 2026. Solid histories are common; that is exactly why reading one takes the anxiety out of the decision.

Two readings to avoid. A recently registered company is not a young business: many established tradespeople work for years as sole traders before incorporating, so time on the register understates real history. And no company at all is often no problem at all, because sole traders are not required to register a company; judge them on the other checks instead. Our full guide to reading the register, including what dissolved and strike-off entries mean and when they are innocent, is linked in the deep dives at the end of this piece.

Find their newest review

Ignore the star average for a moment and find the date on the newest review, on every site where they have a presence. That single date tells you whether the glowing reputation is current or historical. It matters more than you might think: across 1,272,034 dated reviews we hold for UK trade businesses, more than two thirds were posted over two years ago, as of July 2026. A star average counts all of them equally; the calendar does not.

An old review is still real evidence of a real job; the mistake is reading it as evidence about this year. And a quiet timeline has innocent explanations: word-of-mouth order books, seasonal trades, businesses that stopped inviting reviews, and directories that only publish totals. So treat a quiet profile as a question, not a verdict: ask what they have worked on recently. The deep dive on review dates, including the sixty second version of this check, is linked below.

Certifications: check the scheme, not the sticker

A logo on a van is a claim; a scheme register is a fact. Every serious certification scheme runs a public register you can search in a minute. For gas work this is not optional: in the UK it is illegal to carry out gas work for payment unless the business is on the Gas Safe Register, so checking the register is the one check with the force of law behind it. Ask for the engineer's Gas Safe number, then look it up on the official register; our Gas Safe number checker takes the number you were given and sends you straight to the official register with it, and shows you what to look for.

For electricians, NICEIC and NAPIT are competent-person schemes rather than licences; England has no general electrician licence, which makes the scheme registers the closest thing to an official record and worth the minute. One important honesty rule in both directions: if you cannot find someone on a register we hold or link to, that never proves they are unregistered. Numbers get mistyped, names change, and registers update on their own schedules. Check with the scheme itself before drawing any conclusion, and give the business the chance to clear it up.

Building work? Look at their planning trail

For extensions, lofts and anything that needs permission, there is a public paper trail most people never open: council planning registers. Applications name agents and record outcomes, so a builder or architect who says they know your council usually has a visible history there. We hold 1,306,778 UK planning applications from council registers, as of July 2026. A quick search of your council's portal for the firm's name is the by-hand version, and it is free.

Insurance: see it, then confirm it

There is no public register of tradespeople's insurance, which is exactly why this check has three steps rather than one. First, ask to see the public liability certificate; any insured business can produce it. Second, read it: the insurer's name, the cover amount and the expiry date. Third, confirm it is real with the insurer, using contact details you find yourself rather than any phone number printed on the certificate. Forged certificates with the forger's own number printed on them are a known trick, and the independent phone call is what defeats it.

Make sure their story matches everywhere

Pick any two places the business appears, a directory profile, their website, a social page, and compare the basics: trading name, phone number, address, and roughly the same story about what they do. Consistent details across independent sites are the everyday signature of a real, settled business. A mismatch is not proof of anything, but it is a fair thing to ask about, and how someone answers a polite question tells you plenty.

Quotes, deposits and paying safely

The last check is paperwork discipline, and Citizens Advice guidance is the standard here. Aim for written quotes from three firms when you can; Citizens Advice suggests at least three, with the work described. Keep any deposit small: aim low and never pay more than a quarter up front, get a receipt, and prefer staged payments tied to work you can actually see completed. Paying by card adds protection, and for bigger jobs it is worth asking about deposit protection or an escrow arrangement. If the deal was agreed at your home, you normally have a fourteen day cooling-off period for contracts signed off-premises, which Citizens Advice explains well. None of this insults a good tradesperson; the organised ones usually propose it first.

What we do with these checks

This checklist is also a fair description of how our site works: what we show comes from the public record, with the source and date kept on what we hold. On our profiles we show the date on every review where the source publishes one, and a last reviewed signal when we can compute it. Where we hold register records, we show what we hold with its collection date and link the official register, which stays the definitive source.