Five checks before you let a tradesperson into your house
When water is coming through the ceiling you will take whoever answers the phone. That is exactly when people get stung. These five checks take about two minutes between them, and they are worth doing even in a hurry.
1. For gas work, ask to see the Gas Safe card
Anyone working on gas appliances in the UK must be on the Gas Safe Register. They carry a photo ID card with a licence number and an expiry date. Look at the back of it: it lists the specific types of gas work that engineer is qualified for. Somebody registered for cookers is not registered for your boiler. You can check the licence number on the Gas Safe Register website in under a minute.
There is no polite way to skip this one. Badly done gas work kills people, and an unregistered engineer will also invalidate your home insurance.
2. For electrical work, ask which scheme they are registered with
Domestic electrical work in England and Wales falls under Part P of the Building Regulations, and most of it has to be either certified by a registered electrician or notified to building control. Registered electricians belong to a competent person scheme such as NICEIC, NAPIT or STROMA. Ask which one, and expect an answer without hesitation.
If you ever sell the house, the certificate for notifiable work is one of the things a buyer’s solicitor will ask for.
3. Ask for the public liability insurance certificate
Not “are you insured”, which everyone says yes to. Ask them to send the certificate. Check two things: that it has not expired, and that the name on it matches the person or company you are actually dealing with. This is what covers your house if something goes wrong while they are working in it.
4. Get it in writing before anyone starts
A written quote should say what is included, what is not, and what happens if they open up a wall and find something worse. Verbal estimates are where disputes are born. If a job genuinely cannot be priced until they have had a look, the written version should still say what the hourly rate is and what triggers a new price.
Keep it. Photograph the problem before they start, too. It costs nothing and it settles arguments later.
5. Do not pay in full up front
Materials on account for a large job is reasonable. The whole amount before any work happens is not. Be wary of cash only, of pressure to decide today, and of a price that drops sharply the moment you hesitate.
A legitimate business will have a company name you can look up, an address, and a way of being contacted next week as well as today. Somebody who cannot give you those is somebody you cannot chase.
If it does go wrong
Put the complaint in writing to the trader first and give them a chance to fix it. Keep photographs, the written quote and the payment record. For gas or electrical work that looks unsafe, report it to the relevant register or scheme, and to your local authority building control for notifiable electrical work.
The reason vetting matters is that it moves these checks from your doorstep to before the job is ever offered. Every tradesperson on InAJam has to hold public liability insurance to join at all, and gas and electrical trades have to upload their certification before they are sent that kind of work.