Check the trader on whichever public register covers their trade, look the company up at Companies House, get written itemised quotes for the same scope from more than one firm, and put the price, the scope and the payment stages in writing before anyone starts. Those four checks remove most of the risk.
Hiring a tradesperson is one of the few purchases where you commit a large sum to someone you have never met, on the strength of a phone call. What follows is those checks in the order worth doing them.
Before you contact anyone
Write down what you need in plain terms, including the part you are unsure about. "The boiler makes a noise and the upstairs radiators stay cold" is more useful to a plumber than "boiler problem", and it lets two quotes be compared on the same job.
Decide what would make you say no. A date you cannot move past, a budget ceiling, a need for the work to be certified — knowing these before you speak to anyone stops you being talked past them.
Check they are who they say they are
Ask for the trading name and, if they operate as a limited company, the company number. You can check it free on the Companies House register: whether the company exists, how long it has traded, and whether it is in liquidation or facing a strike-off notice.
For anything regulated, the register is the check that matters, not a logo on a van:
- Gas work must by law be done by an engineer on the Gas Safe Register. Ask for their licence card and check the number on the register — the card alone proves nothing.
- Electrical work in a home must comply with Part P of the Building Regulations. There is no licence to be an electrician, but members of a government-authorised competent person scheme may self-certify their own work. GOV.UK publishes the current list of authorised schemes, which is the list to check against; NICEIC and NAPIT are long-standing electrical scheme operators.
- Building work that needs Building Regulations approval either goes through a registered competent person or through your local authority building control. Ask which, and get it in writing.
A business that is annoyed by these questions has told you something useful. There is no single UK trade licence, and what exists varies sharply by trade — how to check a UK trader is registered goes through them one by one.
Get quotes you can actually compare
Ask more than one firm, and insist each quote is written and itemised. A single number for a whole job hides everything: whether materials are included, whether making good is included, whether VAT is included, and what happens if they open a wall and find something.
Ask specifically:
- Is this a quote or an estimate? The words mean different things, and which one you have decides what you owe when the bill arrives — see quote or estimate.
- Is VAT included, and are you VAT registered? Not every trader is, so two prices are only comparable once you know how each is stated.
- What is the payment schedule? A deposit is normal for materials on a large job; paying the full amount before work starts is not.
- What is not included?
Be wary of a quote that is far lower than the others. It usually means a different scope, not a better price.
Understand your cancellation rights
If you agree to the work in your home rather than at the trader's premises, you generally have 14 days to cancel without giving a reason, under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Urgent repairs you specifically asked for are among the exclusions.
One point is commonly stated backwards. The trader cannot ask you to waive the right, and does not need to. What the Regulations require is the opposite: work must not start inside the cancellation period unless you make an express request, and for a contract agreed in your home that request has to be in writing. Making it does not cancel your right — if you then pull out, you pay only for what has actually been done. Where no written request was made, or you were never told the right existed, you bear no cost at all. The 14-day right to cancel sets out the detail.
Check insurance and guarantees
Ask for public liability insurance and the insurer's name — it protects you if their work damages your property or injures someone. For larger jobs ask what guarantee covers the workmanship, for how long, and who honours it if the business closes. An insurance-backed guarantee is underwritten by an insurer and survives the trader going out of business; a promise on a letterhead does not.
Reading reviews without being misled
Recent, specific and mixed is the profile of a real review set. A cluster of five-star reviews arriving in a single week is a profile worth doubting.
Since April 2025, writing or commissioning fake reviews, concealing that a review was incentivised, and publishing reviews in a misleading way have all been banned outright under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. Incentivised reviews themselves remain lawful where the incentive is disclosed — it is the concealment that is prohibited. How to read trader reviews explains what that changes.
Read the negative reviews first, and read the replies. How a business answers a complaint tells you more about what will happen when something goes wrong for you than any positive review does.
Get it in writing before work starts
At minimum: what will be done, what it costs, when it starts, roughly when it finishes, the payment schedule, and who is responsible for waste and making good. An email confirming a phone conversation counts. If a dispute follows, this is the document that decides it — and for work agreed in your home, the law already requires most of it.
When something goes wrong
Raise it with the trader first, in writing, and give them a fair chance to put it right. Under section 49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 a service must be performed with reasonable care and skill, and where it is not, section 55 gives you the right to require repeat performance — the trader redoing the work at their own cost. A price reduction under section 56 comes second, where repeat performance is impossible or too slow. When work goes wrong covers the order these remedies come in, which is what most disputes turn on.
If that fails, check whether any trade body or scheme the trader belongs to operates a dispute resolution process, and contact Citizens Advice, which can escalate to Trading Standards.
Keep every quote, invoice and message. The person who kept the paperwork usually wins.