How to check a tradesperson before you hire (UK, 2026)
Five minutes of checking prevents most of what goes wrong. Here is exactly what to check, by job type, and what Taskerama checks before a tasker can offer.
Always, for anyone
- Their name and business. A limited company can be checked free on the Companies House register.
- Reviews across more than one place. A perfect rating from three reviews tells you less than 4.7 from ninety.
- Completion rate, if the platform shows it. It reveals no-shows in a way stars do not. Taskerama shows it on every profile.
- Public liability insurance for anything in your home. Ask for the certificate, or look for the Insured badge on a Taskerama profile.
Gas work, legally required
Anyone working on gas appliances, boilers or pipework must be on the Gas Safe Register. This is the law under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998. Ask for the licence card, check the number on the register, and check the back of the card for what they are qualified to do. No marketplace should be listing gas work, and Taskerama does not.
Electrical work
Notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations, such as new circuits, consumer units, and work in a bathroom or outdoors, must be done by someone registered with a competent-person scheme (NICEIC, NAPIT, ELECSA) or notified to building control. Search the scheme's register by postcode. For changing a socket or fitting a light, registration is good practice rather than a legal requirement.
Taskerama does not list notifiable electrical work without a registered electrician, and EV charger installation is open only to taskers with a verified licence badge.
Waste removal, the one that catches people out
If someone takes waste away from your home, they must be a registered waste carrier with the Environment Agency (or SEPA, NRW or NIEA outside England). The legal duty is yours as well as theirs. If your rubbish is fly-tipped, you can be fined for failing your householder duty of care.
Check the free public register and ask for the carrier number and a receipt showing where the waste went. On Taskerama, only taskers with a verified waste-carrier badge can offer on rubbish and clearance tasks, and the registration number appears on your receipt.
Working with children or vulnerable adults
Ask for a Basic DBS certificate issued in the last 12 months. Anyone can apply for their own Basic DBS for £21.50. For regular unsupervised work with children, an Enhanced check through an organisation is the right standard. On Taskerama, DBS badges are checked by our team and shown on the profile without revealing anything on the certificate.
Driving and deliveries
Moving goods for payment needs "hire and reward" insurance, and moving other people's goods commercially needs goods-in-transit cover. Ordinary car insurance does not cover it.
Red flags
- Cash only, or wanting to take the conversation off-platform immediately.
- Pressure to pay a large deposit up front for materials.
- No fixed address, no company, no insurance certificate.
- A price that is far below everyone else's.
- Reluctance to give a registration number you can check.
Let the platform do the first checks
On Taskerama every tasker verifies government ID with a live selfie before their first payout, and DBS, licence, waste-carrier and insurance badges are checked by our team against the public register. Your payment is held until you confirm the job is done, and refunds go back to your card. You still make the final call, but you start from a checked shortlist.
Post a task free and compare offers from verified taskers.
Primary sources
Everything above is drawn from these. They are the versions to trust if we have fallen out of date.
Next steps
Related guides
- What can a handyman legally do in the UK? (2026)The clear answer on gas, electrics, plumbing, waste removal, working at height and asbestos: what a general handyman may do, what is notifiable, and what is illegal without registration.
- 12 questions to ask a tradesman before hiring (and what the answers tell you)A practical checklist of questions to ask before you agree a price, what a good answer sounds like, what a bad one is really telling you, and where to ask them.
- How to find a good handyman in the UK (2026)The safest way to find a handyman, the four questions that reveal competence in thirty seconds, the red flags to walk away from, and the jobs a handyman legally cannot touch.
- How to write a task that gets good offers (and accurate prices)The details that change the quotes you get: access, measurements, photos, timing and budget. A template you can copy and post free on Taskerama.
Prices and rules change. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will fix it. How we research and check these guides.