For plumbers & heating engineers
Will this customer actually pay you, or leave you out of pocket on the install? A free check for plumbers and heating engineers
You've quoted the boiler swap, the full bathroom, or the commercial pipework, and now you're about to order the parts and put in the hours before you see a penny. On a first-time customer or a main contractor you don't really know, that's your money and your time on credit. The question is simple. Are they good for it, or are you about to do a proper job for someone who was never going to pay you?
Free verdict / no card / they are never told you looked
Why it happens
Plumbers and heating engineers get burned in a few predictable ways. You fit a full boiler or a bathroom, the final invoice sits unpaid, and suddenly you can't get the customer on the phone. Or you take a deposit on trust, order the parts, and the account goes quiet. On commercial work it's the main contractor who folds, and because you're a subbie you're at the back of the queue, watching a company that already owes you thousands go into administration owing everyone. The materials came out of your pocket, the labour was your time, and none of it comes back. It is rarely the small jobs that sink you. It is the big one you did on trust for someone you had never worked with before.
How to check a customer before you lift a spanner
- Search the company name and read the verdict. TRADE means the record looks clean. CAUTION or AVOID means slow down before you order parts or start the job.
- Check whether they are about to fold. Look for any insolvency, winding-up or administration action against them, and any charges or secured debt sitting over the business. If lenders are already circling, you don't want to be the next unpaid creditor.
- Look at the accounts. Filings that are overdue or long out of date are a warning sign that the business isn't being run properly, which is exactly the sort that leaves the final invoice hanging.
- Check the director's history. If the person behind the company has folded businesses before and started again under a new name, that phoenix pattern tells you how likely you are to get paid this time.
Enter the company name and get your free trade-safety verdict in seconds, before you order a single part.
Check a company →Questions plumbers & heating engineers ask
Can I check a customer before I even quote?
Yes, and it's worth doing on anything big. Run the name before you price up a boiler install, a bathroom or a commercial job. The free verdict takes seconds, so you can decide whether to ask for a bigger deposit, stage the payments, or walk away, all before you've spent any time on the quote.
What if they're a sole trader, not a limited company?
A lot of domestic customers won't be a registered company, and there's less on the public record for a private individual. The check works best on limited companies and on main contractors, which is where the real money and the real risk usually sit. For a private homeowner, the sensible move is still a deposit up front and staged payments as the job goes on.
Will the customer know I checked them?
No. The check runs on public records from Companies House, The Gazette and insolvency data. Nobody gets notified and the customer never sees that you looked. It's your business deciding who you extend credit to, the same as any supplier would.
← All trades · Is this company going bust? · Phoenix directors explained