Hiring a builder and paying them
Most jobs that go badly wrong were visible in the quote. The warning signs are consistent, they are easy to check, and thirty seconds on the right register settles most of them.
The checks worth thirty seconds each
Companies House for the company age and any pattern of dissolved predecessors. The Gas Safe Register and the NICEIC or NAPIT registers by number, not by the logo on the van. TrustMark or the FMB directory for scheme membership. The public liability certificate, checking cover level and expiry date. And two recent jobs, visited — ask the owner what went wrong, because something always did, and how it was handled is what you are actually measuring.
Stage payments follow work, not the calendar
Nothing or a small deposit under 20%. Then foundations complete and inspected, walls to damp-proof course, roof on and watertight, first fix, plastering, practical completion less a 5% retention, and that retention released a few months later once the snagging is done. Established builders have credit accounts with merchants and do not need your money to start. A large deposit before anything arrives on site is the single most common feature of jobs that go wrong.
Get it into a contract
The JCT Home Owner Contract and the FMB domestic contract are both short, plain English and cost very little. A written contract protects the builder as much as it protects you, which is exactly why good builders are happy to sign one and why reluctance to sign is informative.
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