Home / Advice

Advice & research from the public record

Notes from the record.

Plain-English guides and original research on hiring traders well: how to read reviews, check credentials and spot trouble early, with the public evidence attached. No ads, no paid placement.

Advice18 entries · Updated JUL 2026

What homeowners and AI assistants see about your business

You searched your own business name, or a customer said an AI assistant mentioned you. This is exactly what both of them can see: your reviews with their dates, your company record, your certifications, each with its source. And the free ways to check it and put it right.Read →

Who is allowed to take your rubble? The waste carrier check

If your builder's waste ends up dumped in a lay-by, the fine can land on you: up to 600 pounds without a court ever getting involved. The good news is that the law only asks you to take reasonable steps, and the main one takes thirty seconds. Here is how the waste carrier check works, and what an honest firm's paper trail looks like.Read →

Locked out at 11pm: how to choose a tradesperson in a hurry

Four locksmiths, all 4.9 stars, 15% battery. Read for the words that match the job: nearly half of locksmith reviews talk about speed, more than twice the average across hundreds of thousands of UK reviews, while builder reviews talk about tidiness and quotes, and 'on time' mostly belongs to trades you book an appointment with.Read →

Turning up is the whole job: what 620,000 UK reviews actually praise and punish

The most common praise across more than 620,000 dated UK trade reviews is simply a recommendation, about 48%, with friendliness and professionalism some way behind. Punctuality is mentioned in only 1 in 10. Failing to turn up is the sharpest divider of all: no-show language appears more than 100 times more often in 1 to 2 star reviews than in 5 star ones.Read →

Check the date before you check the stars: how old trade reviews really are

Star ratings tell you how happy past customers were. The dates tell you whether that is still the same business. We read the dates on more than 1.2 million UK trade reviews: over two thirds were posted more than two years ago, and nearly four in ten are older than five. Here is the sixty second check that catches it.Read →

How long does planning permission take? The honest answer from 942,498 decisions

The official target says eight weeks. Across 942,498 real council decisions, the typical decided full application waited 62 days, only four in ten decisions made the target, and the single most common day to receive a decision is the deadline itself. Here is what to plan for instead.Read →

Loft conversion or conservatory: which gets planning permission?

Conservatories are approved at more than 9 in 10 when decided; loft conversions at about 4 in 5, the lowest rate of the project types on our chart. But plenty of both never need an application at all. Here is the ladder in full, why lofts sit at the bottom, and how to tell which side of the line you are on.Read →

Gas Safe registration: how to check it properly, and what to do if the work is already done

Gas work is the one trade where the credential is not a badge, it is the law. Here is how the register actually works, what the front, back and digital versions of the ID card tell you, what landlords must do, and the exact steps to take if unregistered work has already happened in your home.Read →

Tree work and tree surgeons: the permission question, and the checks that stand in for a licence

Anyone can call themselves a tree surgeon; there is no statutory register. But tree work itself leaves an unusually public paper trail: council permission. We analysed the tree-work applications councils publish. Approval is the norm, the typical wait is about six weeks, and the autumn queue is real. Here is how to use all of it.Read →

Do I need an architect for an extension?

No law says you must hire an architect, and many extensions need no planning application at all. But 21,551 two-storey applications decided over five years have plenty to say about when design help earns its fee. Here is the honest version of the answer, from the one party on this page with nothing to sell you.Read →

Anyone can call themselves an electrician. Here's how to check who's actually registered.

Gas engineers must be on a register to touch your boiler. For electricians there is no licence at all, and the title is not protected. The system that protects you instead is worth two minutes of your time to understand, and the check at the end of it is free.Read →

The survey said damp. Read this before you book a free damp survey.

A free damp survey is usually carried out by a company that sells damp treatment, so the diagnosis and the sale arrive in the same visit. On the industry's own public register, damp contractors outnumber the surveyors who diagnose rather than treat by roughly six to one. Here is the order of steps that protects you, whoever ends up doing the work.Read →