10 Things to Know Before Hiring Your Contractor

Hiring a contractor is one of the most consequential decisions you will make during any building or renovation project. The right choice can mean the difference between a smooth process and months of frustration, cost overruns and unfinished work. The ten checks below are not complicated, but many homeowners skip them entirely, and the consequences of that skip are almost always more expensive than the time it would have taken to do them properly.

This list applies whether you are hiring someone to replace a roof, extend a kitchen, refurbish a bathroom or manage a full house renovation. The scale changes the stakes, but the principles remain the same. A good contractor will not be troubled by any of these questions. A poor one will often reveal themselves through their response to just one or two of them.

Verify licences and insurance

This is the first thing to check and the one most frequently skipped. Every legitimate contractor working in a regulated trade should hold the appropriate licences for the work they are carrying out. The exact requirements depend on the type of work and the region, but as a general rule, electrical, gas, structural and certain plumbing work requires certified professionals.

Ask to see the licence, and then verify it independently. Most licensing bodies maintain searchable public registers. Checking takes two minutes and tells you whether the licence is current and whether any complaints have been lodged against the holder.

Insurance is equally important. Public liability insurance protects you if a contractor or their worker damages your property or injures someone during the work. Employers liability insurance is required if they employ anyone. Ask for a certificate and check the expiry date. If a contractor cannot produce these documents promptly, treat that as a clear signal to walk away.

Some contractors operate without insurance as a way of keeping their quotes competitive. What they are actually doing is transferring the financial risk to you. If something goes wrong on an uninsured site, you may find yourself bearing costs you had no expectation of facing.

Check references thoroughly

Every contractor will tell you they have happy clients. The useful information is not that they have references but what those references say when you speak to them directly.

Ask for three to five references from recent projects of similar scale and type to yours. Then call them. Do not email. A phone conversation yields far more information than a written reply. Ask whether the work was completed on time. Ask whether the final cost matched the original quote. Ask whether there were any problems during the project and, if so, how the contractor handled them. Ask whether they would hire the same contractor again.

If you can, arrange to visit a completed project. Photographs in a portfolio are selected to flatter; seeing work in person gives you a much better sense of the standard. Look at the joins, the finishes, the alignment of any tiled or boarded surfaces. These are the details that separate adequate work from genuinely good work.

Be cautious of contractors who offer to provide written testimonials rather than direct contact details. There is no way to verify the source of a written testimonial, and the practice is common among those who know their actual clients would give a different account.

Understand the written contract

Do not begin any work without a written contract. This applies to all projects, however small, and however much you trust the person you are hiring.

A proper contract should specify the scope of work in clear, detailed language. Vague descriptions like "kitchen refurbishment" are not adequate. The contract should list exactly what is included: which surfaces, which fittings, which finishes, which trades. It should also state explicitly what is not included, so that there is no ambiguity about what is and is not covered.

The contract should include a schedule with start and finish dates, or at least a clear method for establishing those dates once materials are ordered. It should specify who is responsible for obtaining planning permissions or building regulations approval where required. It should include a process for handling variations, which are changes to the agreed scope, and should require those variations to be agreed in writing before the additional work begins.

Read the contract carefully. If there is anything you do not understand, ask for clarification before you sign. A contractor who is reluctant to explain the terms of their own contract is someone to be wary of. If the project is large enough to justify it, have a solicitor review the document before you commit.

Clarify payment schedules

How you pay a contractor shapes the entire dynamic of the project. The general principle is straightforward: payment should follow completed work, not precede it.

It is reasonable for a contractor to ask for a deposit before work begins, particularly if they need to order materials. A deposit of ten to twenty per cent is standard on larger projects. Anything above a third of the total cost as an upfront payment should prompt careful thought. Full payment in advance is not something any responsible client should agree to.

Stage payments, tied to specific milestones, are the most common arrangement on larger projects. The milestones should be clearly defined in the contract. Completion of foundations, completion of structural work, completion of first fix, completion of second fix: these are the kinds of stages that make sense. Avoid arrangements where payment stages are defined loosely, as "when X is roughly done" creates exactly the kind of ambiguity that causes disputes.

Keep a retention, typically three to five per cent of the total cost, which is released some weeks after practical completion. This gives you financial leverage if minor defects emerge after the contractor has finished and moved on to another job.

Ask about subcontractors

Most general contractors use subcontractors for specialist work: electricians, plumbers, plasterers, glaziers. This is entirely normal and does not indicate a problem. What matters is how the relationship is managed and whether you know who is coming onto your site.

Ask your contractor which trades they will be subcontracting and whether those subcontractors are ones they have worked with before. Long-standing working relationships between a main contractor and their regular trades usually produce better outcomes than ad hoc arrangements.

Clarify who is responsible for the subcontractors' work. In most arrangements, the main contractor remains responsible for the quality of all work carried out under their management, regardless of who physically carried it out. Make sure this is reflected in the contract. You should not find yourself in a dispute where the main contractor is pointing at a subcontractor and the subcontractor is pointing back.

Ask whether the subcontractors themselves hold appropriate licences and insurance for their trades. A responsible main contractor will be able to confirm this without hesitation.

Get multiple quotes

Obtaining multiple quotes is not just about finding the lowest price. It is about understanding the range of approaches to your project and identifying any significant discrepancies in what each contractor is proposing.

Three quotes is a reasonable minimum for most projects. Send the same detailed brief to each contractor so that you are comparing like with like. If one quote is substantially lower than the others, investigate the reason before assuming it represents better value. A low quote may reflect a misunderstanding of the scope, lower-quality materials, or an intention to add charges later through variations.

Look at what each quote includes and excludes. Some contractors include waste removal; others do not. Some include materials in their quote; others expect the client to source them separately. The headline price is rarely the full picture.

Price is one factor in your decision, but it should not be the only one. A contractor who is ten per cent more expensive but has strong references, clear documentation and a professional approach will almost always produce a better outcome than a cheaper option who cannot meet these standards. The cheapest contractor on a poorly managed project is rarely the cheapest option by the time the work is done.

The ten checks listed here take time, but they are not onerous. Most can be completed in a few days of straightforward enquiry. The clients who carry them out consistently report better experiences, fewer disputes and outcomes that match what they originally expected. The clients who skip them are, in many cases, the ones who later wish they had not.