Why these beat a badge
Not because badges are worthless. Because these are checks you run yourself, on sources that are not selling anything, about the specific firm attending your specific job, at the moment you are deciding. A badge is a third party's conclusion from an earlier date. These are primary evidence, now.
Run them on us too. Nothing on this page is a check we would rather you skipped.
1. Companies House, two minutes
Search the company name or number on the Companies House register, which is free and run by the government. You can view company data and document images, filing history, registered office address, and search for disqualified directors.
What you are looking for:
- Does the name on the quote match a real registered company? Trading names are legal and common, so a mismatch is a question rather than a problem. The question is which entity you would be contracting with.
- Incorporation date. A company incorporated six weeks ago is not disqualified from doing good work, but it changes what a track record can possibly mean.
- Filing history. Accounts and confirmation statements filed on time are a weak but real signal that somebody is running the administration.
- Anything overdue, or a proposal to strike off. Worth a conversation before you pay a deposit.
- The directors, and whether any appears on the disqualified directors register.
One caveat, and Companies House states it on its own front page: "Companies House does not check the accuracy of the information filed." The register tells you what a company said about itself and when. That is still far more than a logo tells you, and it is the only one of these checks that works on absolutely every firm.
2. The gas register, if there is any gas in the job
This one is not optional and it is not a preference. Regulation 3 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 requires that "no person shall carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or gas storage vessel unless he is competent to do so", and that no employer or self-employed person carries out work on a gas fitting or service pipework unless they are a member of a class of persons approved by the Health and Safety Executive. Gas registration is the mechanism by which that is satisfied.
Check the engineer, not just the company, and check on the register rather than on the card. A registration card carries the categories of work the holder is qualified for on the back, and a boiler engineer is not automatically qualified for everything a card implies.
For a water leak this often does not apply at all. Detection, pipework repair and reinstatement on the water side are not gas work. Which is worth saying plainly: if a firm tells you gas registration qualifies it to find a leak under your floor, that is a category error, not a credential.
3. The water register, for anything on the supply side
WaterSafe is a free online search. It describes itself as a free, industry-backed online directory and national accreditation body, operated with the APHC, CIPHE, SNIPEF and WIAPS. Approved contractors have to hold at least an NVQ Level 2 in Mechanical Engineering Services (Plumbing) plus a Water Fittings Regulations qualification, with a ratio of at least one qualified plumber per five employees doing water supply work, and they can self-certify certain work and issue Certificates of Compliance.
That certificate is the practical reason to care. On supply-pipe work a water company may want evidence the work complies, and an approved contractor can provide it without a separate inspection. We have written up what the approval does and does not cover in what a WaterSafe approved plumber actually is.
4. The insurance certificate, read rather than mentioned
"We're fully insured" is a sentence, not a check. Ask for the certificate and read four things off it: the name of the insured entity, the policy period, the limit of indemnity, and the insurer. Then check the insured entity's name against the company you found on Companies House. A certificate in a different company's name is the commonest thing that goes unnoticed.
Two distinctions almost nobody is told, both from the Health and Safety Executive's own guidance on the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969:
- Employers' liability insurance is compulsory; public liability insurance generally is not. The HSE guidance puts it directly: "While public liability insurance is generally voluntary, employers' liability insurance is compulsory." Employers' liability covers claims by employees. Public liability covers claims by members of the public and other businesses, which is the one that responds if your ceiling comes down.
- Employers' liability cover has a statutory minimum of £5 million, and the HSE notes that in practice most insurers offer at least £10 million. A business can be fined up to £2,500 for any day it is without suitable insurance, and up to £1,000 for not displaying or making available the certificate to an HSE inspector.
So the useful question is not "are you insured" but "what public liability limit do you carry, and can I see the certificate". A sole trader with no employees may lawfully have no employers' liability policy at all, which is not a red flag; the absence of public liability cover, on a job that involves opening your floor, is a different matter.
5. An itemised quote, in writing, before anyone travels
The last check is the only one that is not a register, and it is the one that prevents the most arguments. Ask for the rate structure in writing, by email or text, before the van moves. You are looking for:
- Whether the price is hourly or fixed for the job, and if hourly, whether the first hour is priced differently.
- Whether there is a call-out charge or a minimum on top.
- What happens to the charge if the leak is not found.
- Whether parts, waste removal and making good sit inside the figure or outside it.
- Whether a written report is included, and whether it is written to support an insurance claim.
There is a legal backstop if you do not do this. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, where no price has been fixed, the contract is treated as including a term that "the consumer must pay a reasonable price for the service, and no more", alongside the implied terms that the service is performed with reasonable care and skill and within a reasonable time. That is a useful safety net and a poor substitute for a figure agreed in advance, because arguing about what is reasonable after the event is slow and unpleasant.
We have set out line by line what a leak detection quote should itemise, which is the version of this list with the trade detail in it.
What these five checks still cannot tell you
All five, run perfectly, establish that a real, insured, registered business with a filing history is quoting you a stated price. None of them establishes competence at your job. A firm can be impeccable on every register and have never traced a leak through a screed floor.
That gap closes on the phone, not on a website, and it closes with questions about method and scope: which detection equipment they carry, whether they repair as well as locate, whether they put the floor back, and what the report will contain. Our eleven questions are those, written to be asked of us as readily as of anyone else.
Run them on us
We hold no directory badge, so these checks are the whole of what you can verify about us independently, and we would rather you did them than took our word for anything. What we will tell you in writing before anyone travels: £150 per hour, the rate fixed once agreed, the total dependent on the hours the job takes, no fee for the search if we do not find the leak, and a full leak detection report written to be accepted by insurers on a trace and access claim. How we price has the rest, and the contact page is where to start.
