Before any prices are compared, we read the firm's name, phone number and email off the letterhead and look for them on three public registers. Matching on the phone number or email domain is exact; matching on the company name alone is reported as likely rather than certain, because a quotation often carries a trading name while the registration sits under another.
Firms registered with HDB to carry out renovation work in HDB flats. Registration means the contractor has agreed to HDB's rules on permitted works, noise hours and debris disposal, and can be held to them. A firm that is not on this list is not thereby a bad contractor — but for work in an HDB flat it is worth asking why. Source: HDB · licence numbers begin HB
A voluntary, paid accreditation on top of HDB registration. It requires a standard contract and deposit protection. Most perfectly good contractors do not hold it, so we never report its absence as a mark against a firm — only its presence as a point in their favour. Source: CASE · Consumers Association of Singapore
Window installation is a separate licence from renovation work, because a badly fitted window is a public safety matter. If a quotation includes window works and the firm is not on this register, someone else has to do that part — and it is worth knowing who before the job starts. Source: HDB · checked only when a quote contains window work
The result appears as one line per contractor in your report: a tick and the licence number if we found them, or a note to verify if we did not. We never contact a contractor, and we never pass your quotations or your details to a renovation firm.
If a phone number on a quotation is registered to more than one company — which happens with shared offices and related companies — we say we could not tell which firm it is, rather than naming the wrong one.