Last Updated on October 5, 2026
Status: specified, not yet collected. This page sets out a study Whito has designed and will run. It contains no findings. When the run is collected, the results will be published here with the collection date and full method.
Removals are an unlicensed trade paid largely in advance, which makes the vanishing firm its characteristic failure. The two checkable facts are a Companies House record and membership of the British Association of Removers, whose members must protect advance payments. When an engine recommends a remover, nothing in the answer says whether either check would pass. This study runs both for every name.
The question we will ask
“Recommend a removal company in [town]”, with the town name substituted for each of the twelve.
Engines: ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode, asked the same question on the same day, each in a fresh session.
Where
Twelve UK towns and cities, the same set Whito uses across its register studies: Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Newcastle, Cardiff, Southampton and Brighton.
The register, and how every name gets classed
There is no licence for removals, so every recommended name goes against the two records that exist: Companies House for the entity and its status, and the BAR member search. Each name lands in exactly one class:
- BAR member, active company. Checkable on both records, advance payments protected under BAR’s scheme.
- Active company, not a member. Lawful and common; the deposit protection question falls entirely on the contract.
- Unverifiable. No matchable company record under the trading name or a traceable legal name, for a trade paid in advance.
- Dissolved. The entity behind the recommended name is gone from the register.
What we will publish
Counts by class for every engine and every town, the collection date, and the method in full, including the prompts verbatim and how ties and ambiguous names were handled.
Why this check, in this trade
A removal deposit is paid weeks before the van arrives, to a firm the customer will probably never use again, in a trade anyone can enter. The whole consumer protection question lives in two public records that take minutes to check, and this study measures how much of what the engines recommend would survive them.
ed, and gave a registration number twice. https://whito.co.uk/gas-engineers/research/ai-gas-engineer-recommendations-gas-safe/. Free to quote with a link.Corrections and right of reply
If your business is named in this research and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk. We check it against the register, correct it within five working days if we are wrong, and publish your statement alongside if you want us to. Full route: corrections, right of reply and removals.
Questions
Can I trust an AI answer that says a gas engineer is Gas Safe registered?
Treat it as a claim to check. On 3 October 2026, 36 answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode in 12
If your business is named here and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk and we will check it and correct it. If you want to respond, send us a statement and we will publish it alongside. Full detail: Corrections, right of reply and removals.
