Should I Use Checkatrade to Find a Builder? An Honest Look

You need a builder. You Google "find a builder near me." Checkatrade appears everywhere - top of the search results, on TV adverts, on the side of vans. It feels like the obvious choice.

But is it? And more importantly, does it actually solve the problem you're trying to solve?

Let's take an honest look at what Checkatrade does, what it doesn't do, and what else you need once the quotes start arriving.

What Checkatrade actually is

Checkatrade is a paid directory for tradespeople. Builders, plumbers, electricians, roofers - they pay a monthly fee to be listed on the platform. In return, they get visibility to homeowners looking for trade services.

That's the business model. Builders are the customers. Homeowners are the product - or more precisely, the leads that builders are paying to access.

This isn't a criticism. It's how every trade directory works. But it's worth understanding because it shapes how the platform operates. Checkatrade has an incentive to keep tradespeople happy (they're paying) while also keeping homeowners happy (they generate the leads). Those interests sometimes pull in different directions.

The platform launched in 1998 and has been through several ownership changes. It is now part of HomeServe, the home emergency cover business. HomeServe was itself bought by the Canadian investment group Brookfield in a deal that completed on 4 January 2023, and its shares were delisted from the London Stock Exchange the following day, so the "FTSE-listed" description you still see around the web is out of date. Checkatrade's own press material in June 2026 put its membership at more than 50,000 tradespeople. It's legitimate, established, and widely used across the UK.

How Checkatrade works for homeowners

Three things are worth knowing before you search.

Who pays. Tradespeople pay Checkatrade a subscription to be listed. Searching, reading reviews and contacting a member costs you nothing. That is also why the platform is free to you: the trades are the paying side.

The 12 checks. Checkatrade publishes the checks it runs on members. In its own words, a tradesperson must pass "all checks relevant to them" from a set of 12: photo identification (through a third party), proof of address, qualifications where a trade needs an accreditation such as Gas Safe or NICEIC, an open-source search of public records and news, a personal county court judgment (CCJ) check, a business CCJ check, a company history check that looks for phoenixing, financial checks for bankruptcy and insolvency, a duplicate check for people previously suspended or removed, an "enhanced business check" requiring six months' trading for some trades, a director check for disqualified directors, and a customer experience check that reads ratings on other platforms. Checkatrade says most of these are repeated at intervals after joining.

Notice what is not on that list. Public liability insurance is not one of the 12 published checks, so ask to see the certificate yourself. Nothing on the list assesses the quality of anyone's work, and nothing looks at price.

How reviews get there. A review is submitted by the customer and appears under the tradesperson's profile with the reviewer's name and area. Checkatrade says it checks reviews against its published guidelines and told the BBC and the Guardian that it monitors and verifies more than 600,000 reviews a year. The tradesperson can reply publicly. There is more on how to read any review platform sceptically in our guide to verifying builder reviews.

You can also look up tradespeople who are not members. Non-members get a free profile with a clear banner saying they are not a Checkatrade member; you can read and leave reviews on it, but you cannot contact them through the site and none of the 12 checks have been run on them.

What Checkatrade does well

Credit where it's due - Checkatrade adds genuine value in several areas.

Vetting process

The 12 checks above are more than most homeowners would do themselves. Identity, an address, a live company with no strike-off action, no unpaid CCJs, no disqualified directors: that is a reasonable floor, and it filters out the most obvious problems. Our guide on what to check before hiring a builder covers the checks you should still run yourself, insurance among them.

Verified reviews

Checkatrade reviews are attributed to a named customer rather than an anonymous handle, and the builder can respond publicly. That makes them more useful than anonymous Google or Facebook reviews for getting a general sense of a builder's reputation, and you can filter by job type.

They are still reviews. A high score tells you past customers were happy at the point they wrote; it does not tell you the work will pass Building Control in five years' time.

The guarantee

Checkatrade runs a discretionary guarantee that may contribute up to £1,000 per approved claim towards putting sub-standard workmanship right. The current terms cover work completed after 29 January 2026. To be eligible you must have arranged the job through Checkatrade (by phone, quote form or message) or paid using Checkatrade Pay, and you must raise the problem within 6 months of the work finishing. It excludes anything that is not about workmanship, knock-on losses, VAT, call-out fees, materials you supplied yourself and anything covered by insurance. Checkatrade decides whether it applies, and its decision is final.

On a £30,000 extension, £1,000 is a gesture rather than protection. It is better than nothing, and it does not replace your rights under the Consumer Rights Act, but do not choose a builder because of it.

Large network

At more than 50,000 members, Checkatrade covers most of the UK. In urban areas you'll typically find dozens of builders within a few miles. Rural coverage is thinner, but that's true of every directory.

What Checkatrade doesn't do

Here's where the gap sits. And it's a big one.

Checkatrade does not check, review, or compare builder quotes.

It helps you find builders. It helps you read reviews. It verifies their identity and paperwork. All useful things. But once those builders hand you a quote, Checkatrade steps back completely.

It won't tell you if the price is fair. It won't spot missing scope items. It won't flag that one builder excluded scaffolding while another included it. It won't notice that a quote says "kitchen to be confirmed" rather than specifying actual units and worktops.

Finding a builder is step one. Checking their quote is step two. They're completely different jobs - and Checkatrade only covers step one.

This matters because the quote is where most homeowners get caught out. The builder can be perfectly reputable, fully insured, with glowing reviews - and still submit a quote that's missing £8,000 of work. That's not dishonesty. It's just a thin scope. But if nobody checks, you won't find out until the extras start rolling in mid-build.

Other limitations

A few more things Checkatrade doesn't cover:

• No price comparison tools - you can't compare quotes from different builders on the platform
• No scope analysis - they don't assess whether a quote covers everything your project needs
• No negotiation support - you're on your own when discussing price
• The checks are documentary - they confirm who someone is and what their paperwork says. Nobody from Checkatrade has looked at their brickwork.
• Pay-to-play element - builders pay to be listed. The platform has a financial relationship with the tradespeople it's recommending to you. That's not corruption, but it's not fully independent either.

Where the vetting has fallen short

Checkatrade's duplicate check and company history check exist to stop someone who has been removed from coming back under a new name, and to spot a pattern of companies being shut down and reopened. Those checks are real. The documented cases show where they have not been enough.

• In April 2023, BBC Wiltshire reported that a roofing firm whose owners had just been jailed for fraud was still listed on Checkatrade after sentencing, and had been findable through the site while proceedings were active. The three men had traded under at least six company names in different areas. Checkatrade removed the listing after the BBC contacted it.
• On 28 May 2024, the Guardian's consumer column asked whether Checkatrade's vetting "really checks out". A Brighton homeowner paid a Checkatrade roofer £12,900 and was left with a roof that a surveyor later said needed replacing. Checkatrade initially offered the £1,000 guarantee payment, then negotiated £6,000 from the trader and, after press attention, paid a further £5,600 in goodwill. It terminated the roofer's membership.
• On 30 November 2024, the same column reported how rogue traders get past the checks. One homeowner discovered, with a name and address search, that the "family firm with 25 years' experience" she had hired was a company incorporated five months earlier by a man with a criminal conviction and a string of dissolved companies behind him. Checkatrade paid £1,000 under the guarantee and later funded the £5,900 repair. In response it said it had removed 1,000 sub-standard traders in the previous 12 months and that 0.03% of the 3 million jobs a year on the platform result in a claim.

Three published cases in two years, against a platform handling millions of jobs, do not tell you how common this is, and Checkatrade's own figure suggests it is rare. What they do tell you is what the checks cannot catch: a company that is new, a director who has not been disqualified, and a trading name that has never been on the platform before all pass. The Competition and Markets Authority published compliance advice for trader recommendation sites in November 2024 after finding, across the sector, "a lack of effective vetting" and weak complaints processes. Its advice to you is the same as ours: do not rely on a "trusted" badge, and run your own checks.

That is easier to follow than it sounds. Companies House, Gas Safe, NICEIC or NAPIT, FENSA or CERTASS, TrustMark and the FMB all publish free searches, and between them they answer what a badge cannot: whether the company is real, how long it has existed, who runs it, and whether whoever carries out the notifiable work is registered to do it. Our guide to checking a builder is legitimate runs through all eight checks in order, with what a pass and a fail look like on each one.

How to leave a review, including a negative one

Reviews only work if unhappy customers write them too. Checkatrade takes reviews at checkatrade.com/give-feedback; you can also log in to find tradespeople you contacted through the site. Expect to give the tradesperson's name, what the job was and roughly when it was done. Reviews are accepted for non-members with a free profile as well as full members.

You are entitled to leave a negative review. In February 2016 Checkatrade gave undertakings to the Competition and Markets Authority to make clearer that a negative review can be published whether or not the reviewer wants any further contact with the trader, and to tighten its review verification. If you believe a review has been suppressed, or you spot one that looks fake, Checkatrade asks you to report it through its contact form, and the CMA's 2024 compliance advice expects recommendation sites to track poor reviews and run a transparent complaints process rather than bury them.

Stick to facts in what you write: dates, what was quoted, what was delivered, what it cost to put right. A factual review is harder to challenge and more useful to the next homeowner.

The gap between finding and checking

This is the bit most homeowners miss.

You spend time finding a reputable builder. You check their reviews. You verify their insurance. Good. You've done step one properly.

Then three quotes land. One's £48,000. One's £62,000. One's £71,000. They all look professional. They're all from Checkatrade-vetted builders.

Now what?

Most people pick the cheapest. Or the middle one, because that feels safe. But without understanding what's driving the price differences, you're guessing.

The £48,000 quote might exclude building regs, scaffolding, and second-fix electrics. The £71,000 quote might include everything plus a contingency buffer. The £62,000 quote might be from a builder who's estimated the job on the back of a fag packet.

The price difference isn't about who's cheapest. It's about what's included. And you need a different tool to figure that out. Our compare-to page for Checkatrade explains exactly how finding a builder and checking their quote fit together.

Other ways to find builders

Checkatrade isn't the only option for finding tradespeople. Here's a quick rundown of the alternatives.

MyBuilder

Post your job online. Builders express interest. You choose who you want to quote. It's convenient - multiple builders come to you rather than you chasing them. The downside: some builders inflate prices to cover MyBuilder's lead fees.

Bark

Similar model to MyBuilder. You describe your project, Bark sends it to relevant tradespeople, and they contact you. Good for getting multiple quotes quickly. Quality of responses varies.

Rated People

Another job-posting platform. Builders bid for your work. Includes reviews and ratings. The interface is a bit dated, but the builder network is decent.

TrustMark

Government-endorsed quality scheme. Tradespeople must meet specific standards and are regularly inspected. Smaller network than Checkatrade, but the vetting is arguably more rigorous. Particularly relevant if you're using a government grant scheme.

Federation of Master Builders (FMB)

Trade body for builders. Members are vetted, inspected, and must meet a code of practice. The FMB also offers a warranty scheme. A good starting point for larger projects.

Word of mouth

Still the most reliable method. A recommendation from a friend, neighbour, or family member who's actually lived through a build with that builder is worth more than any online review.

Ask people who've done similar work recently. Visit their finished project if you can. A happy customer's endorsement, where you can see the quality of work with your own eyes, is the gold standard.

The honest verdict on directories

No directory is perfect. They're all useful for generating a shortlist. But a listing on any platform - Checkatrade included - is not a guarantee of quality, fair pricing, or comprehensive quoting.

Use directories to find builders. Then do your own due diligence on the quotes.

How to check the quote once you've got it

You've found your builders. The quotes have arrived. Here's what to do next.

Compare scope, not just price. Go through each quote line by line. What's included? What's excluded? What's mentioned vaguely and could go either way? Our guide on how to read a builder's quote walks through this step by step.

Check for common missing items. Building regulations fees, scaffolding, skip hire, decoration, party wall costs - these are excluded from roughly half of all builder quotes. If they're not mentioned, they're probably not included.

Verify material specifications. "Supply and fit bathroom" and "Supply and fit Roca Debba suite in white with Mira Azora thermostatic shower" are vastly different propositions. The first could cost anything. The second can be priced and compared.

Look at the payment schedule. Payments should be tied to milestones - foundations complete, roof on, plastered out - not arbitrary dates. More than 15% upfront is a red flag.

Get an independent opinion. Whether that's a quantity surveyor for large projects, an AI tool for smaller ones, or simply showing the quotes to a friend who works in construction - a second pair of eyes catches things you'll miss.

The bottom line

Checkatrade is a useful tool for finding builders. The published checks, attributed reviews, and large network all add value. If you need a shortlist of tradespeople in your area, it's a solid starting point.

But finding a builder and checking their quote are different problems. Checkatrade solves the first one, most of the time. It doesn't touch the second.

Once the quotes arrive, you need something else entirely. That might be a careful manual review. It might be a quantity surveyor. It might be an AI tool. But it's not Checkatrade.

Use it for what it's good at. Then fill the gap with something designed to analyse the actual numbers.

Check your quotes

Got quotes from Checkatrade builders and not sure which one's genuinely best value? Upload them to MyBuildAlly for instant comparison - scope gaps, pricing benchmarks, and red flags, all in under a minute.