Will AskBaily work with sole traders or only limited companies?

Both are welcome, provided you're registered with HMRC for CIS and carry £2m+ public-liability insurance. We verify Companies House status (where applicable), CIS registration, and your insurance certificate before your first lead lands.

Do I still need TrustMark to be on AskBaily?

TrustMark is not mandatory but it materially improves your match rank. Homeowners filter for TrustMark-registered businesses on the homeowner side, so the moat is real.

How does AskBaily handle Building Regulations and Planning Permission for jobs in London?

AskBaily flags the consent path on the brief itself — full planning, prior approval (Class MA permitted development), or building-control-only — pulled from the Planning Portal lookup. You see the consent risk before quoting.

What about the London Plan and Conservation Areas?

Conservation Area status (Article 4 directions, listed-building consent) is captured per-postcode and surfaced on the homeowner brief. We don't route conservation-area work to firms without listed-building experience flagged on their profile.

How does VAT work on AskBaily-routed jobs?

VAT is between you and the homeowner — AskBaily takes its take-rate on the net contract value (excluding VAT). Reverse-charge VAT for sub-contractor work follows the standard HMRC rules; we don't intermediate it.

For contractors · London · United Kingdom · GBP

Join AskBaily in London: The Anti-Checkatrade Contractor Platform

London general contractors are drowning in lead-platform fees. On Checkatrade, MyBuilder, RatedPeople, you pay attempts — subscriptions of £40–£300 per month, lead-unlock fees of £5–£80 each, and a 4-to-5-firm shortlist that guarantees four losers for every winner. AskBaily flips that. We charge a closed-job take-rate of 8–15% of contract revenue and nothing else: no listing fees, no lead-unlock fees, no losing-bid spend, no monthly subscription. The first time you see an invoice from us is after a homeowner has signed a contract with you. Every partner is verified against TrustMark / Companies House / HMRC CIS so the homeowner sees your real credentials and the brief carries the consent path before you ever quote.

The London math: 8–15% take-rate vs the lead-fee model

Checkatrade and the wider Checkatrade / MyBuilder cohort run a shared-lead economic model: every brief gets sold to multiple firms, each pays for the chance to bid, and only one wins. That is a tax on attempts, not on outcomes. AskBaily charges only on wins. Three worked examples on real Londonproject sizes:

Small job

Checkatrade: £900–£1,400/yr listing + per-lead fees of £8–£35

AskBaily: 8–15% of closed-job revenue, £0 until you win

Break-even after 1 confirmed job/yr

Mid-size renovation

Checkatrade: £25,000 kitchen extension via Checkatrade lead pack — 4 leads at £20 = £80, win-rate ~1-in-5

AskBaily: 12% of £25,000 = £3,000 only on the win

Direct cost compares cleanly: £400+ in Checkatrade lead spend per win vs win-only AskBaily

Premium / luxury job

Checkatrade: £120,000 loft conversion — incumbent lead-pack costs ~£600 in attempted-bid fees

AskBaily: 10% of £120,000 = £12,000 only on signed contract

No losing-bid spend; you only pay when the homeowner signs

How London regulatory credibility is verified

The single biggest reason London homeowners distrust shared-lead platforms is that any pro can pay to appear, regardless of their actual licensure status. AskBaily flips that: every partner is verified against the TrustMark / Companies House / HMRC CIS registry on intake, and re-verified every 90 days. The authoritative reference is TrustMark (government-endorsed quality scheme), Companies House registration, and HMRC Construction Industry Scheme (CIS). When your registration lapses, you drop off the match queue automatically — there is no manual gate to slip through. Permits and consent paths are pulled live from the Planning Portal England portal so the homeowner brief carries the real consent timeline, not a guess. You quote against the actual permit pathway, never against unknowns. Liability and warranty cover are also verified at intake — region-appropriate insurance certificates are checked for active dates and adequate coverage limits before the first lead is routed.

Why London homeowners prefer AskBaily over Checkatrade

On Checkatrade, a homeowner submits a brief, then three to five firms bombard them within hours — phone calls, emails, push notifications. The homeowner becomes a triage problem for themselves. AskBaily replaces fan-out with a single match: Baily, our AI scoping agent, talks to the homeowner first to extract the real scope, budget range, timeline, and consent path. We then match exactly one verified contractor to the brief. One conversation, one contractor, one quote. Homeowners get back their evenings; you get a brief that has already been pre-scoped for cost-range and consent path before you ever read it.

The other moat is that AskBaily's homeowner side is a real product — not a directory. Homeowners can resume scoping conversations from the day before, share photos, attach floor plans, and see transparent take-rate pricing on their side too. They feel that they're using a product, not running a gauntlet of pros. That quality of front-end experience converts faster, which is why our match-to-signed-contract rate sits roughly 3× higher than the Checkatrade shortlist economics.

How onboarding works in United Kingdom

Step one: submit your TrustMark / Companies House / HMRC CIS registration number and a current insurance certificate. We verify the registration against the public register and the insurer against your active cover dates. Step two: upload three to five recent project photos with brief descriptions of scope and timeline — this is what the homeowner sees on your match card. Step three: a 20-minute video call with our partnerships team to walk through how the matching cadence works, what the invoicing looks like, and how the homeowner-facing experience renders. Step four: your first match. From signed-up to first-match is typically 48 hours.

There is no setup fee, no monthly subscription, no listing fee, no badge fee, no premium-tier tier — there is only the closed-job take-rate. The first AskBaily invoice you ever see is after a homeowner signs a contract with you. We take the take-rate from the homeowner's payment when contract milestones release. You see your net payout before the matching engine even shows you the brief.

Apply now: London contractor onboarding

48-hour review · No setup fee · No monthly subscription · No losing-bid charges. AskBaily verifies your TrustMark / Companies House / HMRC CIS status, runs an insurance check, and slots you onto the London match queue with no fixed cost. The first invoice arrives only after a homeowner signs.

Start your application →

Frequently asked questions — London

Will AskBaily work with sole traders or only limited companies?: Both are welcome, provided you're registered with HMRC for CIS and carry £2m+ public-liability insurance. We verify Companies House status (where applicable), CIS registration, and your insurance certificate before your first lead lands.
Do I still need TrustMark to be on AskBaily?: TrustMark is not mandatory but it materially improves your match rank. Homeowners filter for TrustMark-registered businesses on the homeowner side, so the moat is real.
How does AskBaily handle Building Regulations and Planning Permission for jobs in London?: AskBaily flags the consent path on the brief itself — full planning, prior approval (Class MA permitted development), or building-control-only — pulled from the Planning Portal lookup. You see the consent risk before quoting.
What about the London Plan and Conservation Areas?: Conservation Area status (Article 4 directions, listed-building consent) is captured per-postcode and surfaced on the homeowner brief. We don't route conservation-area work to firms without listed-building experience flagged on their profile.
How does VAT work on AskBaily-routed jobs?: VAT is between you and the homeowner — AskBaily takes its take-rate on the net contract value (excluding VAT). Reverse-charge VAT for sub-contractor work follows the standard HMRC rules; we don't intermediate it.

Also see: Why pros choose AskBaily · All international recruitment regions · AskBaily vs Checkatrade · United Kingdom market report