How to Vet a General Contractor in Europe: The Five Checks That Separate a Builder from a Liability
A plumber touches your pipes; a general contractor touches your money, your schedule, and every other trade on the job. The five checks - registration, insurance, qualification, financial health, references - that tell you which one you are hiring, and how to lock them into the contract.
The general contractor is the most consequential hire in any building project, and the one people vet the least carefully. A plumber touches your pipes; a general contractor touches your money, your timeline, and every other trade on site. Get the plumber wrong and you have a leak. Get the general contractor wrong and you have a half-finished house, a drained account, and a line of subcontractors who were never paid - some of whom, in parts of Europe, can register a charge against the very property you are renovating. This is the sequence for checking one properly.
It is harder than it sounds, because “general contractor” means something slightly different in every European country, and in most of them the title is not regulated at all. Veted lists vetted general contractors across 24 European countries, so you can start from a shortlist that has already cleared these checks rather than a cold search - but whether you hire through us or not, run every step below before you sign.
What a 'general contractor' actually is - and isn't
The role goes by different names: entreprise generale in France, Generalunternehmer in Germany, impresa edile or appaltatore in Italy, empresa constructora in Spain, hoofdaannemer in the Netherlands, main contractor in Ireland. The common thread is one firm that takes overall responsibility for delivering the works, hires and coordinates the subcontractors, and holds the contract with you. What varies is whether any of that is licensed. Germany regulates the individual skilled trades inside a build through the Handwerksrolle, but general contracting as a coordinating role is not itself a protected activity. In most of Europe there is no licence to be a general builder at all. That is precisely why the checks below carry the weight a licence would elsewhere.
Check 1: A real, registered legal entity
Start by confirming the firm exists as a legal entity you could actually hold to account. Every EU country runs a public commercial register; find the business by name and note its registration number, legal form, and directors. Then do the step most people skip: check that the entity on the register is the same one that will appear on your contract and your invoices. A frequent trap is a glossy, well-reviewed brand name up front and a thin, newly-formed company on the paperwork - so that if things go wrong, the entity you would sue owns nothing.
| Country | Commercial register to check |
|---|---|
| Germany | Handelsregister |
| France | Registre national des entreprises (RNE) / Infogreffe |
| Spain | Registro Mercantil |
| Italy | Registro delle Imprese (Chambers of Commerce) |
| Netherlands | KvK Handelsregister |
| Ireland | Companies Registration Office (CRO) |
| Portugal | Registo Comercial |
Then validate the VAT number on VIES, the EU's VAT information exchange system, and check it resolves to the same trading name. A valid VAT registration is not a quality mark - it only tells you the business exists and is declaring its work - but a builder who cannot give you one, or whose number does not check out, has failed the very first test.
Check 2: Insurance that actually covers your job
There are two layers, and the second is the one foreign owners miss. The first is ordinary liability cover for injury and damage during the works. The second, in France, Spain, Italy and Belgium, is decennial cover - mandatory ten-year insurance against structural defects, which the builder must often hold before work begins. We cover this in detail in our guide to the builder's ten-year guarantee across Europe. Ask for the certificate, then check four things: the named insured matches the contracting entity exactly, the dates cover the period your project runs, the described activity matches your actual work, and the insurer is one you can look up.
Check 3: Qualification and trade-body membership
Where a formal qualification exists, verify it. In Germany, the skilled trades inside your build that fall under the licence-required list must be run by, or under, a holder of the Meisterbrief entered in the Handwerksrolle, and the regional Handwerkskammer will confirm the entry. But for general building, most countries set no mandatory qualification, so voluntary trade-body membership becomes the signal - Qualibat in France, national builders' federations and guarantee schemes elsewhere. Membership is not proof of skill, but a firm that belongs to a body it can be reported to, and expelled from, behaves differently from one that answers to no one.
Check 4: The financial-health check almost nobody runs
This is the check that separates a careful client from an exposed one, and it is the one people almost never do. A general contractor holds your staged payments and pays the subcontractors out of them. If the firm becomes insolvent mid-project, your money can disappear and the unpaid subcontractors may come after you - in several European countries an unpaid subcontractor can register a charge against the property itself. Before you part with a deposit, search the commercial register and insolvency filings for any proceedings against the firm, and ask two blunt questions: how long have you traded under this entity, and can I speak to a client from a job you finished two or three years ago? A builder who can only show you last month's work may have no longer track record - or may not want you talking to older clients.
Check 5: References, and put your boots on a site
Online reviews are where this starts, not where it ends - review fraud is now an industry, which is why a star average can never tell you whether the licence and insurance behind a business are current. Ask for two or three recent clients and actually call them: was the job on time and on budget, how were variations priced and disputes handled, and would they hire the firm again. Better still, visit a job in progress. A well-run site is tidy, sequenced, and safe; a chaotic one is a preview of how yours will run.
Lock the vet into the contract
A vet is only worth as much as the contract it ends in. Insist on a fixed, written, itemised scope and quote; a payment schedule tied to completed and inspected stages rather than the calendar; a retention held back until snags are cleared; and the contractor's full registered entity details on the document itself. Our guide to structuring contractor payments in Europe covers the staging in detail. Never pay a large deposit up front, and never pay cash for a discount - the discount is usually the VAT, and with it the paper trail you would need if the job goes wrong.
The red flags, in one place
- Pressure to decide or pay today, or a quote that 'expires' tonight.
- A cash 'discount', or reluctance to issue a proper VAT invoice.
- A deposit above roughly 20 to 30 per cent, or a schedule that has you paying ahead of the work actually done.
- No written, itemised quote - or a single round-number lump sum with no breakdown.
- No verifiable fixed address or registered legal entity.
- A brand or trading name that does not match the entity on the contract.
- Any hesitation to show insurance certificates you can verify with the insurer.
- References that are all very recent, with nothing older than a year.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a licence to be a general contractor in Europe?+
In most European countries, no. General contracting as a coordinating role is rarely a regulated activity, even where the individual trades inside a build are. Germany, for example, licenses skilled trades through the Handwerksrolle but not general contracting itself. That is why registration, insurance and a verifiable track record matter so much: they do the job a licence would do elsewhere.
How do I check a European building company is a real, registered business?+
Find it by name on the national commercial register - the Handelsregister in Germany, the Registro Mercantil in Spain, the KvK in the Netherlands, the CRO in Ireland - and note the registration number and legal form. Then confirm its VAT number resolves to the same name on the EU's VIES service, and check that this exact entity is the one on your contract and invoices, not a different or newly-formed company.
What insurance should a general contractor have?+
At a minimum, liability cover for injury and damage during the works. In France, Spain, Italy and Belgium the builder must also carry decennial insurance - mandatory ten-year cover for structural defects - often before work starts. Always check the named insured matches the contracting entity and the dates cover your project, and confirm the policy is live with the insurer, since a certificate only proves cover existed on the day it was issued.
How large a deposit should I pay a contractor?+
As a rule, no more than 20 to 30 per cent, and never structured so you are paying ahead of the work completed. Tie payments to completed and inspected stages, hold a retention until snags are cleared, and avoid paying cash for a discount - that usually means losing the VAT and the paper trail you would need if there is a dispute.
