Guide
What customers actually check before they let you in
Ordered by what makes the difference to whether you win the job, not by what feels most professional to us.
Public liability insurance, and the amount
The first thing anyone with any experience asks for. £1m is common for small domestic work, £2m is expected by most letting agents and small commercial clients, and £5m upwards is normal on larger sites. What matters is showing the insurer, the level and the expiry date. A number with no date attached tells a customer nothing, because it might have lapsed last spring.
Being registered with whoever governs your trade
For gas work, Gas Safe registration is a legal requirement and the registration number is checkable in seconds on the register. Electrical work notifiable under Part P needs a competent-person scheme registration or the work has to be notified to building control. If your trade has a register, the number is the single most persuasive thing on your page, precisely because the customer can verify it themselves without asking you.
Photographs of your own work
More persuasive than any certificate, because it is the only item on the list a customer can judge for themselves. Recent, real, and yours. Stock photographs are recognisable and do more harm than having no pictures at all.
That you are who you say you are
A real address, a landline or a consistent mobile, and a company number if you are limited. The reason this matters is not formality: it is that everything a customer has been warned about involves someone who could not be found afterwards.
Guarantees and what happens if it goes wrong
The last worry, and the one people are most embarrassed to raise. Saying what you guarantee and for how long, before they have to ask, is worth more than another certificate.
Do it now
One link with your insurance, your qualifications and your work on it. Send it with every quote so the customer stops wondering.
Open the free trade credentials page