Checkatrade.com is the trading name of Vetted Ltd and a subsidiary of HomeServe. The site operates as a directory of vetted and recommended tradespeople. It was founded by Kevin Byrne BCAb and originally headquartered in Selsey, West Sussex, before moving to Portsmouth, Hampshire, in 2019 following its acquisition by HomeServe.

Checkatrade, originally founded as “Scout”, was established in September 1998 by local resident Kevin Byrne after rogue traders descended on Selsey following a localised tornado. Byrne set up Scout as a printed directory of local tradespeople he had personally vetted to complete jobs in the Selsey area.

Byrne soon changed the company name to “The Trade Register”, but a government rule later forbidding the use of the word ‘register’ in a company name saw the change to “Checkatrade” in 2005. Checkatrade has been registered with Companies House as Vetted Ltd since 2001.

In February 2017, HomeServe acquired a 40% stake in Checkatrade, holding an option to extend that to 75% within the following 2 years. By November 2017 HomeServe had acquired the remaining 60% for a further £54m. In 2018, Mike Fairman was appointed as CEO.

Checkatrade relocated to Portsmouth in 2019. As of March 2019, Checkatrade employed over 400 people and had 36,000 vetted trade members.