How to check a builder on Companies House before hiring

Before you hire a builder, you can spend fifteen minutes finding out whether the company taking your money is real, solvent, and run by people with a track record, or none of those things. The information is free, the search is on a government website, and it tells you things no review site will.

This guide walks through every step of a proper Companies House check, what each piece of information means, and how to combine it with the other verification you should be doing.

Step 1: Find the company name on the quote#

The first place to look is the quote itself. A legitimate limited company will state:

• Its full registered name (ending in Ltd, Limited, LLP, or PLC)
• Its company number (eight digits, sometimes with a leading zero, e.g. 09876543)
• Its registered office address

If the quote shows a trading name only ("Dave's Building Services") with no Ltd, no company number, and no registered office, the builder is likely operating as a sole trader. Sole traders are not on Companies House. That is not automatically a problem (most small UK trades operate this way), but it does mean the verification path below does not apply, and you will need to rely on insurance, references, and trade-body membership instead.

If the quote says "Ltd" but does not include a company number or registered address, push back before you proceed. A genuine limited company will not object to giving you the number. HMRC requires it on quotations and invoices in any case.

Step 2: Search Companies House#

Go to find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. This is the official register, free to search, no login required. Paste the company name into the search box. You will get a list of matches.

Cross-check the registered office address on the result against the address on the quote. If the quote shows a residential address in Manchester but the Companies House record shows an accountant's office in Cardiff, that is not unusual (limited companies often use their accountant's address as the registered office), but it is a fact worth noting.

Step 3: Check the company status#

The first thing on the company's profile page is the status. The ones you are likely to see, and what each means in practice:

If the status is anything other than Active, treat it as a stop sign until the builder gives you a credible explanation in writing.

Step 4: Look at the incorporation date#

How long has the company existed? The incorporation date is on the right of the profile page.

A company incorporated in 2009 with consistent filings is a different proposition from one incorporated three months ago. New companies are not disqualifying (every business starts somewhere), but they warrant the next step: checking whether the directors have a history elsewhere.

Step 5: Check the directors#

Click the People tab. You will see current officers (directors and any company secretary).

For each director, click their name. You will see every other UK company they have been an officer of, past and present. This is where you spot patterns most homeowners miss:

• Multiple recently-dissolved companies with the same director in the same trade. This is the classic phoenix-company pattern (more on that below).
• Disqualifications. Companies House records director disqualifications, which are legally significant.
• Resigned-then-reincorporated. The same director leaving one trading company and starting a near-identical one within weeks, often around the time the previous one entered insolvency.

A clean director with one or two long-running companies is reassuring. A director on their fifth construction company in eight years, with three of them dissolved, is not.

Step 6: Read the filing history#

Back on the main company page, click Filing history. You are looking for two things.

Are accounts up to date? Companies are required to file annual accounts and a confirmation statement. If the most recent accounts are overdue, or the confirmation statement is overdue, that is a red flag. The company may be administratively neglected, which often correlates with operational problems.

Are there any insolvency-related filings? Look for:

• "Notice of intention to appoint an administrator"
• "Compulsory strike-off action", including any "discontinued" notices, which usually mean a strike-off was paused because a creditor objected
• Unusually frequent capital or share-structure changes, which can signal restructuring under financial pressure

Filed accounts also tell you the company's size. Micro-entity or dormant filings indicate a very small company. Most domestic builders fall into this category, and that is fine. But if the limited company you are hiring for a £80,000 extension has filed dormant accounts for the last three years, ask why.

Phoenix companies: what to look for#

A phoenix company is when directors deliberately fold a company that owes money to creditors, then re-register a near-identical business the next day to continue trading. The new company has no debts because it is legally a different entity. Customers and suppliers from the old company are left unpaid.

The pattern on Companies House looks like this:

1. Director runs Company A (for example, "Smith Construction Ltd"), incorporated 2018
2. Company A enters liquidation in March 2024 owing money to suppliers and customers who paid deposits
3. The same director incorporates Company B (for example, "Smith Building Services Ltd") in April 2024
4. Company B operates from the same address, often with the same staff and the same website (sometimes the website is not even rebranded)

Phoenix activity is legal in the UK as long as no statutory rules are broken, such as re-using a prohibited company name without court permission. It is not a guarantee of bad intent; sometimes a business fails through no fault of the directors. But for a homeowner about to pay a deposit, it is a strong signal to ask harder questions: who lost money in the previous failure, and why should this time be different?

What Companies House will NOT tell you#

The register is good for a specific set of questions. It will not tell you:

• Whether the builder's work is good
• Whether they have valid public liability insurance
• Whether they are members of any trade body
• Whether they are Gas Safe registered, NICEIC-approved, or FENSA-certified
• Whether previous customers were happy
• Whether the people you will actually meet on site are employees, sub-contractors, or labour-only crews

For those checks, you need to combine Companies House with:

• A current public liability insurance certificate (typically £2m–£5m cover); request a copy, do not just take their word for it
• Trade-body membership numbers, verified with the body itself rather than the builder
• Two recent references from completed projects similar in scope to yours
• A visit to a current or recently-finished job to see the standard of finish in person

How long should this take?#

About fifteen minutes per builder. Less once you have done it a few times.

If you are comparing three quotes, run all three companies through Companies House before you book any site visits. It is faster than one site visit, and it rules out the worst risks before you spend an hour walking around your kitchen with someone you will never use.

When to walk away#

Walk away if:

• The company status is anything other than Active
• The directors show a pattern of recently-dissolved construction companies
• Filings are significantly overdue with no plausible explanation
• The builder refuses to give you a company number when you ask for it
• The registered office address does not match anything plausible (for example, a residential address in a different region than the one they claim to operate in, with no explanation)

A single one of these is usually enough. Two together is decisive.