The standard
There’s no maintained accreditation standard across UK home improvement. We’re building one.
Eight independent checks. Annual re-verification. Public audit trail per builder.
Our standard and why we verify.
Eight independent checks, stored as data rather than a marketing list. One standard for every builder, each check recorded with how it was established and repeated on the cycle shown. A builder cannot earn a CB-XXXXX number without passing every check its approval needs; right to work and the portfolio never block it.
- 01
Companies House
We confirm the company exists, is active, isn’t subject to a recent dissolution or strike-off, and that no director carries a current disqualification.
- Evidence
- Companies House public record · auto-checked daily for the active set
- Re-checked
- Annually + on every status change
- 02
Public liability insurance
Minimum £2m cover. We check the certificate when a builder joins and again at each renewal, confirming the insurer, the cover level and the expiry date. We track the expiry date and suspend verified status when cover expires. The check confirms the certificate as at the date shown on the record.
- Evidence
- Certificate checked at onboarding and each renewal · expiry-tracked
- Re-checked
- On expiry
- 03
VAT registration
VAT-registered status confirmed with HMRC. Builders below the threshold may declare exemption, recorded with the declaration version.
- Evidence
- HMRC VAT lookup · declaration document for exempted
- Re-checked
- Annually
- 04
Trade-body membership
Where the builder claims membership of Gas Safe, TrustMark, NICEIC, FENSA, FMB or NHBC, we cross-reference against the body’s published register. Claims that don’t reconcile are rejected.
- Evidence
- Published-register cross-check · direct API where offered
- Re-checked
- Quarterly
- 05
Reputation and Trust Portfolio
A photo-verified portfolio, public reviews and track record in one place. Every job won through Compare Builders is rated by a homeowner who’s already been verified: reputation you can’t buy, only earn.
- Evidence
- Photo-verified portfolio · public reviews · rated CB jobs
- Re-checked
- Continuously · every completed job adds to it
- 06
Right to work (principal)
The principal’s right to work is recorded once their identity is verified. A British or Irish passport checked by our ID verification partner may be recorded as the evidence; in other cases it is accepted on the verified identity, with the principal’s own declaration where they made one. Each builder’s public verification page shows whether it has been recorded, and the evidence itself is never published.
- Evidence
- Verified photo ID · British or Irish passport where recorded · principal’s declaration
- Re-checked
- Annually + on principal change
- 07
Photo ID: principal
The principal verifies their identity with a government photo ID and a live selfie. Since 5 October 2026 they can do this online through our ID verification partner, which checks the document, matches the face to it and tests liveness: a clean result can confirm the principal’s identity without a person, any other result goes to a person on our team, and nothing is rejected automatically. Builders verified before then were checked by our team from photos taken in the app, which remains the route for anyone who doesn’t use the online check, and a person always checks those photos.
- Evidence
- Government photo ID and live selfie · online ID partner check since 5 Oct 2026 · team review of in-app photos and any result that is not clean
- Re-checked
- On principal change
- 08
Financial standing
An independent financial-standing check on the company, read from the company number, surfacing CCJs, adverse credit and insolvency risk before a builder is accredited.
- Evidence
- Commercial credit data · read from the company number
- Re-checked
- Annually + monitored for change events
How we maintain it.
Accreditation is only as strong as what happens after the badge is issued. Four mechanisms keep ours honest, written into the code rather than the marketing.
Annual re-verification, scheduled
Every approved builder has a re-verification date set one year forward. The public page flips red when the date passes: a scheduled re-collection of every piece of evidence.
Document expiry monitored
Insurance certificates, trade-body memberships, VAT proof: every document with an expiry date is tracked against a 35-day lookahead. The team gets one queue with urgency buckets. Nothing decays unseen.
Suspension is a hard gate
When a builder is suspended, the matching engine excludes them from every future project immediately. There is no soft flag. Their public page also shows the suspended state with the reason and date.
Every change is publicly audited
Every status change, reference-call outcome and Companies House re-sync writes to an append-only audit log. A privacy-safe subset is visible on every public verification page.
Annual re-verification.
Accreditation isn’t a one off. Every check repeats every year, and document expiry is tracked continuously between cycles.
First reminder
Email to the builder principal flagging the upcoming re-verification window. Documents that expire in the same window are listed.
Second reminder
Email and dashboard banner. The verification team is alerted to begin gathering re-checked evidence.
Suspension
Status flips to suspended. The builder no longer receives project invites. Suspension lifts immediately on refreshed evidence; otherwise archived after 14 days.
Why verify
Anyone can buy reviews. Verification is earned.
Eight independent checks, repeated every year and published on a public page anyone can audit in seconds.
Audit any builder in seconds.
Every verified builder carries a public CB number. The full verification record is one tap away: every check, every status change, every re-verification date. Indexable by search engines. No marketing fluff.
What this is
A repeatable, evidenced, time-stamped accreditation that links to external authorities. Each check is evidenced.
What this isn’t
A subjective rating. We don’t score builders out of five stars. We don’t accept a builder’s word for it. We don’t charge to skip checks. Verification is binary: pass or don’t.
Public verification page.
Every verified builder gets a public profile. Here is what lives there.
Status banner
Active, Suspended, or Not recognised.
Identity
Registered name, trading name, Companies House number.
Trades and service areas
What they do and where they cover.
Insurance
Provider, cover amount, expiry.
Trade-body memberships
FMB, NHBC, TrustMark, Gas Safe, NICEIC, FENSA.
Eight-stage checklist
Every check with the date it was verified.
Verification history
Every status change, time-stamped.
Re-verification due date
With a countdown banner if the date is approaching.
Report an issue
One-tap route to flag anything that looks off.
What disqualifies.
Honest list. These are the patterns we will not accredit, and the patterns that get a verified builder suspended.
- Director disqualifications, recent dissolutions, or strike-off proceedings.
- Public liability cover below £2m, or cover that has been allowed to lapse without renewal.
- Claimed trade-body memberships that don’t reconcile with the published register.
- Patterns of complaints across more than one homeowner that resolve against the builder.
- A failed photo ID or liveness check on the principal.
- Adverse financial-standing findings: outstanding CCJs or insolvency risk against the company.
- Failure to provide requested verification evidence.
- Repeated failure to respond to project invites, leading to a sustained low response score.
- Misrepresentation on the application, even if discovered after approval.
For builders.
Good builders hate bad ones, because the bad ones ruin everyone’s reputation. The standard exists to protect good builders from being undercut by cowboys.
Free to apply
No charge to start the accreditation process. Membership from £49/month once verified, plus a fee only when you win a job. No charge when you aren’t appointed, no charge for cold leads that go nowhere.
Pre-qualified jobs
Every job in the matching pool has passed our scoring: real homeowner, real budget bracket, real project readiness, contact verified by text. Low-intent leads route to nurture, not to builders.
The standard protects you
You won’t be up against an uninsured cowboy who undercuts because they cut corners. Every other builder in the pool has cleared the same eight checks you did. The standard is the floor.