How to verify your tradesperson’s credentials in Northern Ireland

Why “day of hire” matters

Public liability insurance can lapse, be cancelled, or be refused renewal at any time. Trade registrations (Gas Safe, NICEIC and so on) can be revoked for a string of reasons - failure to renew, a complaint upheld against the registered tradesperson, failure of an annual assessment. The platform that verified them six months ago has no way of knowing about any of this in real time.

Five minutes spent re-checking on the day of hire is the cheapest insurance you’ll buy on the project. Every official register below is free to search: Gas Safe Register, NICEIC, NAPIT, FENSA, OFTEC and HETAS.

Public liability insurance - for any tradesperson

Every tradesperson coming onto your property should have current public liability insurance covering at least £1,000,000. This is the cover that pays out if they accidentally damage your property, your neighbour’s, or cause an injury.

• Ask for a current insurance schedule (not a quote, not last year’s certificate). It will list the insurer, the policy number, the cover amount, and the cover dates.
• Check the policy is in force on today’s date - and on the date the work is due to start, if that’s further out.
• Check the policyholder name matches the trading name they’re working under.
• For larger jobs, verify directly with the named insurer (a quick phone call) that the policy is in force and not in arrears.

All six NI registers at a glance

Six public registers cover almost every credentialled trade you will ever hire in NI. The table below summarises each: who needs to be on it (legally or in practice), what the register is called, where to verify, what certificate you should expect to receive on completion, and how often a contractor’s registration is reassessed.

Source: each scheme’s own published 2026 register rules, NI Building Control enforcement guidance and the relevant statutory instruments (Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, Clean Air (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 for solid fuel, the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 for all other notifiable work).

Gas Safe Register - all gas work

The Gas Safe Register is the single legally recognised register of gas engineers across the UK, including Northern Ireland. It replaced CORGI in 2009 and is mandatory by law for anyone working on natural gas or LPG appliances, pipework, meters or flues. If a tradesperson isn’t on Gas Safe, it is a criminal offence for them to touch your gas, regardless of how qualified they say they are.

Many older NI homes still aren’t on the mains gas network, so Gas Safe comes up less often here than it does in Belfast city or in newer estates with Phoenix or Firmus connections. But where mains gas is present (or where bottled LPG runs a boiler, hob or fire), Gas Safe is the only valid registration. There is no NI-specific alternative.

To verify, go to gassaferegister.co.uk and use the “Check the Register” search. You can search by business name, postcode, engineer name or licence number. The result will show the business’s current registration status, the engineers attached to it, and crucially the qualifying categories each engineer holds (natural gas, LPG, cookers, boilers, fires, water heaters, commercial catering, and so on). Each appliance type is a separate qualification - an engineer registered for boilers is not automatically registered to fit a gas hob.

On the day, every Gas Safe engineer carries a photo ID card with a unique licence number, an expiry date and a list of categories on the reverse. Ask to see it, then cross-check the licence number against the online register. The card itself can be in date while the business’s registration has been suspended in the weeks since - the live online register is the source of truth, not the card. The most common gotcha is an engineer who is genuinely Gas Safe but only for one category (e.g. cookers) attempting boiler work they aren’t signed off for.

NICEIC - electrical work

NICEIC is the largest electrical competent-person scheme in the UK. It assesses domestic and commercial electrical contractors against BS 7671 (the UK wiring regulations) and runs annual on-site assessments to keep registration current. NICEIC-registered contractors can self-certify their work to Building Control, which avoids a separate Building Regulations application.

In Northern Ireland, the regulatory backdrop is a little different from England. Part P of the Building Regulations doesn’t apply in NI in the same form, but the NI Building Regulations (Technical Booklet E and the wider Part D/E) still expect electrical work to be designed, installed and tested by a competent person and certified accordingly. Building Control in NI districts continues to treat NICEIC (or NAPIT) registration as the practical evidence of competence, and your home insurer will too. For any new circuit, a consumer-unit change, or any rewire in a kitchen, bathroom or outdoor circuit, you want a certified installer issuing an Electrical Installation Certificate (EIC) or a Minor Electrical Installation Works Certificate (MEIWC).

To verify, go to niceic.com and use the “Find a Contractor” search by company name or postcode. NICEIC has several registration categories - the main two to recognise are Approved Contractor (full commercial and domestic scope, audited against BS 7671 at the contractor’s premises and on live jobs) and Domestic Installer (limited to dwellings, lighter audit). Either is valid for typical homeowner work, but for anything beyond a standard domestic job - three-phase, EV chargers on commercial supplies, larger installations - Approved Contractor is the stronger signal. Each result shows the registration number, expiry and the scope of work covered.

Common pitfalls in NI: an electrician who was registered last year but didn’t renew after a failed assessment, or a sole trader trading under a new company name where only the old name is on the register. Always cross-check the trading name on the quote against the register entry, and ask to see a recent EIC from a previous job - the certificate carries the registration number and date.

NAPIT - electrical work (alternative to NICEIC)

NAPIT (the National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers) is the other main competent-person scheme for electrical work in the UK. Functionally, NAPIT registration carries the same regulatory weight as NICEIC: a NAPIT-registered electrician can self-certify electrical work, issue EICs and MEIWCs, and notify Building Control. Many smaller NI electrical firms and one-person businesses choose NAPIT because the membership and assessment structure suits a sole-trader operation, where NICEIC is sometimes seen as more contractor-oriented.

For homeowners, it doesn’t matter which scheme an electrician is in - what matters is that they are in one of them, and that the registration is current on the day. Treat a NAPIT certificate exactly the same as a NICEIC one when you come to sell the house.

To verify, go to napit.org.uk and use the “Find an Installer” search. You can search by NAPIT membership number, company name or postcode. The result shows the current status, the trading address and the scopes covered (electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and renewables are all separate scopes under NAPIT - confirm the electrical scope is active if that’s the work you’re hiring for). NAPIT also publishes a downloadable certificate from each member’s profile, which is a useful extra check.

What can go wrong: NAPIT covers several trades, so an installer may legitimately be a NAPIT member for plumbing but not for electrical, or vice versa. Always read the scopes on the search result, not just the membership badge on a van or quote.

OFTEC - oil-fired heating and tanks

OFTEC (the Oil Firing Technical Association) is the competent-person scheme for oil-fired heating in the UK and Ireland. It is by some distance the most important register for the average NI homeowner. According to the NI Housing Executive’s House Condition Survey 2016, around 68% of NI homes rely on heating oil as their primary fuel - the highest oil-heating share in the UK by a wide margin. If you own a home in NI, the odds are strong that OFTEC, not Gas Safe, is the register you will actually use.

OFTEC registration covers oil boiler installation, servicing and commissioning, as well as oil storage tank work. It also lets the technician self-certify Building Regulations compliance for the install, which is what your insurer and any future buyer will want to see. Crucially, OFTEC categories are granular - a technician registered to service a boiler may not be registered to install a new tank, and the boiler categories themselves split by appliance type.

The key OFTEC categories to recognise:

• OFT10-105E - servicing, commissioning and decommissioning of domestic pressure-jet oil-fired appliances. This is the category for an annual boiler service on a standard NI oil boiler.
• OFT10-101 / OFT10-102 - installation of domestic vaporising and pressure-jet appliances. Required for fitting a new boiler, not just servicing an existing one.
• OFT600A - oil storage tank installation, including bunded plastic and steel tanks. Required for replacing or relocating an oil tank, which carries its own bund, base and clearance requirements under NI Building Regs.
• OFT50 - waste oil-fired appliances (less common, mostly farms and workshops).

To verify, go to oftec.org and use the “Find a Technician” search by name, business or postcode. The result shows the technician’s current registration status, their OFTEC number and the categories they are signed off for. Always match the categories to the work you are commissioning - a tank swap and a boiler service are different jobs requiring different sign-offs.

For any new install or replacement, ask for the OFTEC CD/10 (oil appliance) or CD/11 (oil storage tank) commissioning certificate. Without it, the work is not properly notified to Building Control and your home insurance may decline a claim involving the appliance. The most common NI issue is a technician who is OFTEC-registered for servicing but uses that registration to justify an install they are not signed off for - check the category, not just the number.

HETAS - stoves, biomass and solid fuel

HETAS is the competent-person scheme for solid fuel and biomass appliances across the UK - wood-burning stoves, multi-fuel stoves, log boilers, biomass boilers and the associated flues, chimneys and hearths. It operates UK-wide, so the NI register entries sit on the same site as the rest of Great Britain. A HETAS-registered installer can self-certify the install for Building Regulations purposes and issue a commissioning certificate the homeowner keeps for insurance and resale.

HETAS matters more in NI than the population share alone would suggest. A lot of rural NI properties run a stove as a primary or supplementary heat source, often paired with an oil boiler. Wood burners are increasingly fitted in newer urban homes too. Fitting a stove involves a chimney or twin-wall flue, a correctly specified hearth, a CO alarm and (under current Building Regs) an air-supply calculation. Done wrong, a stove install is a fire and CO risk, which is why home insurers explicitly ask for a HETAS certificate.

To verify, go to hetas.co.uk and use the “Find an Installer” search by name, business or postcode. The result shows the installer’s current registration status, their HETAS ID and the scopes they cover - typically “solid fuel installer” for stove fitting, with additional scopes for biomass, sweeping or chimney lining. Confirm the scope matches your job, not just that the name is on the register.

What can go wrong: a registered sweep who is not registered as an installer, an installer whose registration has lapsed mid-job, or an installer who completes the work but never lodges the notification with HETAS - in which case no commissioning certificate is ever issued and the install is treated as unauthorised. Ask for the certificate before the final balance is paid, not after.

FENSA - windows and external doors

FENSA (the Fenestration Self-Assessment Scheme) is the competent-person scheme for replacement windows and external doors. It is owned by the Glass and Glazing Federation and operates UK-wide, NI included. A FENSA-registered installer can self-certify that the replacement units meet current Building Regulations - thermal performance, safety glazing, ventilation, means of escape from upstairs windows - and lodges that certification with Building Control on the homeowner’s behalf.

In Northern Ireland, replacement windows and external doors are notifiable work. If the installer is not on a competent-person scheme, you legitimately need a separate Building Regulations application and a completion certificate from your local council’s Building Control office. That is slower, more expensive and easy to forget about, which is why most homeowners hire a FENSA (or CERTASS) installer and let the scheme handle the notification. The FENSA certificate is one of the documents a conveyancing solicitor will ask for when you sell.

To verify, go to fensa.org.uk and use the “Find an Installer” search by company name or postcode. The result confirms the installer’s FENSA number, current registration status and trading address. CERTASS is a valid alternative scheme - search at certass.co.uk if your quote comes from a CERTASS-registered firm. Treat a CERTASS certificate as equivalent to a FENSA one for Building Regs and conveyancing purposes.

What can go wrong: a salesperson promises “FENSA-approved” but the install is actually subcontracted to a non-registered fitter, and no certificate is ever issued. The certificate arrives by post or email roughly 30 days after completion - if it doesn’t, chase the installer and FENSA directly. The work is not properly notified until the certificate exists.

Ground work, drainage, structural - check qualifications and references

For trades that don’t have a single national register (general builders, groundworkers, plasterers, joiners, tilers and so on), the verification is more about competence than registration:

• Ask for proof of any trade qualifications they claim - NVQ, City & Guilds, BPEC, etc.
• Ask for CSCS card details if you’re asked to grant access to a building site (the Construction Skills Certification Scheme verifies basic safety training). Check the card on cscs.uk.com.
• Ask for at least two recent references - addresses and contact numbers - and phone them. Ask whether the work matched the quote, whether the timescale slipped, and how the relationship was at the end.
• For structural alterations, the design should be signed off by a chartered structural engineer (search at istructe.org for The Institution of Structural Engineers register).

Putting it all together - a 60-second pre-hire check

Before any deposit changes hands:

• Insurance certificate - read the dates, confirm at least £1m cover.
• Statutory registration (Gas Safe / NICEIC / NAPIT / OFTEC / HETAS / FENSA / Certass) - search the relevant register on your phone, in front of the tradesperson if possible.
• Companies House - confirm the trading entity exists and is in good standing.
• Two references - a quick phone call each.
• Written quote with full scope, fixed price, payment schedule, start and finish dates.

Five minutes. The good tradespeople will be glad you checked - it shows you take the job seriously and they want their certifications seen.

How NI Trades fits in

We do all of these checks at application stage when a tradesperson joins NI Trades - identity, public liability insurance, claimed registrations against the relevant public register, two references contacted by phone or email. That gets the worst applicants out of the system before they ever appear to a homeowner. But the public registers are the source of truth, and they update faster than any private platform can. We’re open about that throughout the platform - every “Verified” badge is dated to the application check, and every customer is reminded to re-check on the day of hire. This is exactly why.