Meet Wolly.

Who Wolly is

Wolly sells compliance. He is all about himself. He tells you something is a legal requirement when it is not. He sells you every test every year whether you need it or not. He ties you into a long contract and hopes you miss the date to leave.

Wolly is a character and not a company. He stands for a way of selling. You will know him when you meet him. Every time he appears on this site he says something we think buyers should question. Then we tell you what the law and the regulator actually say.

Who we stand up for

Small businesses. The café owner and the shopkeeper. The salon and the workshop and the pub. People who did not go into business to learn fire law. They deserve to know what applies to them and what it should cost. They should be able to find out without a sales call. That is why everything here is free.

Independent contractors and small compliance firms. There are thousands of good ones across the country. They are the electricians and fire engineers and water hygiene specialists who turn up and do the job properly. They do it for a fair price and without tying anyone in. We are on their side.

Our plain English guides are written for them too. Use them to explain your work to your clients. Point a customer to the page that says why a C2 must be fixed or why a sample matters. If you are good at what you do then a well informed customer is your best customer.

Where the big providers fit

The large national providers have a place in this market and we say so. Some organisations need one contract that covers every site in the country. Some run very large or complex buildings that need a big team behind them. For them a national provider can be the right answer.

What we question is a large company’s contract sold to a small business that does not need it. When we write about a named provider we only use what that provider has published itself. We give our honest opinion on fit and we label it as opinion. Anyone can reply to anything we write.

Who we stand against

Anyone of any size who mis-sells compliance for their own benefit. Calling something a legal requirement when it is not. Selling work the building does not need. Hiding the price or the notice date or the cost of leaving. That is Wolly and that is what we are here to call out.

We do not stand against selling. Good contractors need to sell their services and we want them to. A fair quote for work that is genuinely needed is exactly what a buyer wants.

Our promise

Every fact is linked to its source. Every opinion is labelled as opinion. Nobody pays to appear here or to be reviewed or recommended. Compliance Buyer is not a sales funnel and you cannot book any work through it. Our only job is to help you buy well. Read more about us and our editorial standards.

Be informed. Be in control.

Start with the free compliance check for your kind of business. Ask the free assistant any question at the top of any page. If you are a contractor who wants to share what you know then write for us.