How the Hub works
Simple on the surface, strict underneath. Here is exactly what happens when you buy, when you supply, and when something goes wrong.
Up to 20 independent checks before a business is marked Assured
Every lead goes to three businesses at most
Reviews only come from real, completed jobs and orders
Paid listings are always labelled
Every refund is handled by a person
The 20 checks
Every business goes through the checks its categories need. Required checks apply to everyone; the rest apply when the work calls for them.
Identity and legitimacy
Identity of the person responsible
Address and operating base
Business registration and status
Directors, owners and sanctions
Duplicate and previous-removal check
Financial standing
Personal judgments and insolvency, where lawful
Business judgments, insolvency and repeated dissolve-and-reform patterns
Tax and trading registration
Competence
Regulated licences and permits
Qualifications and certifications
Accreditations and scheme membership
Practical competence: a portfolio or a supervised test job
Insurance, safety and safeguarding
Public liability insurance
Employers' and professional cover
Health, safety and method statements
Criminal-record check, only where the law allows and only for lone work in homes or with vulnerable people
Circular integrity and reputation
Environmental compliance and duty of care
Circular practice audit
Verified customer references
Reputation and enforcement screening
How we check
At the source.
Live official registers, insurers, schemes and awarding bodies, contacted on details we find ourselves, never the phone number printed on the document.
People, not just paperwork.
Identity documents are read electronically and matched to a live selfie, with protection against photos, masks and deepfakes.
References we call ourselves.
Relatives, staff and business partners are not accepted.
Fraud defences.
Every upload is fingerprinted, so a document reused on another account is caught. Businesses removed before cannot return under a new name.
Two people for a refusal.
Every refusal is confirmed by a second analyst, and nobody decides on a business they are connected to. Applicants get reasons and one appeal.
Raw identity images deleted within 24 hours of verification.
We keep the result, not the picture.
Our promises
Twenty rules are built into the platform itself. No member of staff, customer, partner or paying member can override them.
Reviews you can believe
Only the customer on a completed job or order can review it. Reviews cannot be bought, rewarded or swapped. Businesses can reply in public, but cannot remove an honest negative review. Reports are moderated, and every removal gets a written reason. This is how we meet the UK ban on fake and concealed incentivised reviews.
The Hub guarantee
When a job booked and paid through the Hub isn't done as agreed and the dispute route doesn't put it right, eligible customers can claim under the Hub guarantee, up to £1,000 or the local equivalent.
The guarantee is in addition to your legal rights, never instead of them.
