Trust & Safety
How to Check a Service Provider Before You Hire Them
By TaskForce · · 2 min read
A short safety checklist for hiring someone to work in your home or on your business, and how TaskForce's verification helps.
Letting someone into your home or trusting them with your money deserves a few minutes of checking. Whether you find providers through a marketplace, a Facebook group or a friend's recommendation, the same principles apply.
What TaskForce checks for you
Contractors cannot bid on TaskForce until our team approves them. During registration they submit their NIC (front and back), proof of address, a police report and bank details, and each document is reviewed individually and marked verified, rejected or sent back for resubmission.
For the Home Services category, where the contractor may be working in your home, we go a step further: a contractor cannot bid on a Home Services job unless both sides of their NIC are verified. We also keep a blacklist of NICs, emails and phone numbers that cannot register.
What you should check yourself
- Read the profile. Look at their rating, completed jobs, portfolio photos and verification badges.
- Read the pitch. A specific, relevant pitch is a good sign. A generic one is not.
- Ask questions in the chat. Confirm scope, materials, timing and anything unusual. A good contractor answers clearly.
- Compare at least two offers. Wildly low prices often mean the contractor has misunderstood the job or will upsell later.
- Agree changes in writing. If the scope changes, confirm the new price and timing in the platform chat.
Red flags
- Asking you to pay in cash or by bank transfer outside the platform. You lose payment protection and any record of what was agreed.
- Pushing you to move to WhatsApp or another app before accepting an offer.
- Refusing to answer simple questions about the job.
- A price that changes significantly after the job is accepted.
- Pressure to confirm the job as complete before you have checked the work.
Why staying on-platform protects you
When you pay through TaskForce your money is held until the work is done, and your chat history is saved. If you and a contractor disagree, our team can read the conversation between you both as evidence, which is the main thing we rely on to resolve a dispute fairly. Take the conversation off-platform and that protection disappears. Read more in what happens when something goes wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Are all TaskForce contractors verified?
Every contractor is reviewed and approved by our team before they can bid. Verification badges on a profile show which individual documents, such as the NIC, have been checked.
Can I report a contractor?
Yes. Contact us through the support page and we will investigate.
Why can't I pay the contractor directly?
Paying through the platform protects both sides: the client's money is held until the work is done, and the contractor knows the funds are secured.