Reviewed by the S Reid Roofing Ltd team — last reviewed 2026-09-15
Quick answer
Verify the business name, contact details, insurance, reviews and trading history independently. Be cautious where someone pressures you to decide immediately, cannot clearly explain the proposed work or asks for disproportionate upfront payment. A landline number and a fixed trading address are simple checks that add real confidence a genuine business stands behind the quotation.
At a glance
- A verifiable trading history is one of the simplest checks available.
- Genuine contractors rarely object to being asked for insurance confirmation.
- Pressure to decide immediately is a warning sign worth taking seriously.
- A vague explanation of the work is as telling as a vague price.
Independent checks worth making
Rather than relying on what a contractor tells you about themselves, check what can be verified independently: the registered business name and address, how long it has been trading, and reviews from sources you did not find through the contractor's own website. A landline number and a fixed business address add confidence that there is a real, accountable business behind the quotation.
If the contractor operates as a limited company, its details can be checked against the public register held by Companies House, which shows how long the company has existed and who its directors are. This is a free, quick check and adds a layer of verification beyond a website or a van sign. Trading Standards services, coordinated nationally through the Citizens Advice consumer helpline, are also worth contacting if you want to check whether a business has been the subject of prior complaints in your area.
Where cold calling is involved — someone knocking on your door offering to fix a roof they say they have noticed from the street — extra caution is warranted. This is a well-documented route for opportunistic and sometimes fraudulent work, and it is reasonable to decline an immediate decision and instead ask for written contact details so you can check them independently before agreeing to anything.
Warning signs worth taking seriously
Most legitimate contractors are unhurried about being checked, because they expect it. The behaviours worth treating with caution are the opposite of that.
- Pressure to sign or pay before you have had time to consider the quotation.
- Reluctance or refusal to confirm insurance details.
- An inability to explain the proposed work beyond a general description.
- A request for the full cost of the work upfront.
- Contact details that cannot be verified independently.
- Unsolicited claims of finding damage during an unrequested inspection.
If something feels wrong once work has started
If a contractor already engaged behaves inconsistently with what was agreed — demanding extra payment without a clear explanation, changing the scope without discussion, or becoming evasive when questioned — it is reasonable to pause the work and seek independent advice before allowing it to continue. Keeping a written record of what was agreed, and what was actually done, makes any later dispute far easier to resolve.
Checks that are proportionate to the job
The depth of checking worth doing should be proportionate to the size and risk of the job. For a small repair costing a modest sum, a verified trading identity, a sensible explanation of the work and a written quotation may be all that is needed. For a full re-roof or other substantial project, it is worth going further — checking Companies House records, reading a wider spread of reviews, confirming insurance in writing, and being satisfied with the payment schedule before any deposit changes hands. Treating every enquiry with the same intensity is unnecessary, but under-checking a large project because the initial impression was good is a common and avoidable mistake.
What we would check
During an inspection, areas we would normally look at for this include:
- Registered business name, address and trading history.
- Insurance confirmation appropriate to the scale of work.
- Independent reviews from more than one source.
- Clarity of the explanation given for the proposed work.
- Whether payment terms are proportionate to the stage of work.
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