Reinstatement Contractor Red Flags: Singapore
Short answer: Before you pay a deposit, run two free checks: search the company on ACRA's Bizfile to confirm it's a live, registered entity with a real address, and where the job needs foreign construction workers, check BCA's public register to confirm the firm is registered with the Contractors Registration System.
What this checks, and what it doesn't
This is a company-verification list, not a judgment of workmanship or price. For how to assess a contractor's actual reinstatement experience, see our guide to choosing a reinstatement contractor. For what a fair quote looks like, see what to expect from a reinstatement quote. What's below answers a narrower question: is this company who it says it is, checked against a government record rather than taken on trust.
Two checks before you sign
| Check | What a clean result looks like | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| Company registration | Live status and a valid registered address | ACRA Bizfile (free entity search) |
| BCA contractor registration (where the job needs foreign construction workers) | The company appears in BCA's public register | BCA e-Directory |
Confirm the company is live and registered, on ACRA
ACRA's own guidance is direct about the first step: use Bizfile's free entity search to confirm the business shows a "live" status in ACRA's register and a valid registered address. It costs nothing and takes a couple of minutes. The same guidance says to be cautious if you can't reach the company at its registered address, or if you suspect it's moved.
ACRA's guidance also names a specific pattern worth watching for: a business set up recently, soon after an earlier one that shared the same people or registered address, where you can no longer reach the first business, and the new one asks you to sign a new contract and pay it money to sort out problems left from the first one. This isn't reinstatement-specific; ACRA publishes it as general advice for checking any Singapore business. None of it shows up in a plain name search; ACRA lists that history under Step 2, its paid Business Profile check, not the free entity search. So if anything about a contractor's company history looks recently reshuffled, it's worth asking about directly, especially on a job running into five figures.
The company's Unique Entity Number is worth a glance too. ACRA notes that the first four digits of a UEN show the year of incorporation, so a contractor claiming years of reinstatement experience under a company incorporated only last year is a mismatch worth asking about.
Where the job needs foreign construction workers, check BCA's register too
Singapore's Building and Construction Authority runs the Contractors Registration System, described on BCA's own site as Singapore's nation-wide registry of construction firms. Since 1 June 2025, all firms that wish to hire construction workers on an S Pass or Work Permit must first register with CRS, and firms doing public-sector construction tenders or working as first-level subcontractors on public-sector projects need to register too.
This doesn't cover every reinstatement job; a small operation running a private-lease strip-out with only local staff may have no reason to be on it. But where a contractor is bringing on foreign construction labour, CRS registration isn't optional. BCA's own e-Directory, an online directory of registered contractors, licensed builders, facilities management companies and construction-related suppliers, lets you search the register yourself.
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Related guides
- How to Choose a Reinstatement Contractor
- What to Expect From a Reinstatement Quote
- Find a Reinstatement Contractor in Singapore
- Reinstatement Contractor vs Interior Designer
Sources
- ACRA: Conducting Basic Risk Assessments Using ACRA Business Information
- BCA: Contractors Registration System (CRS)
- BCA e-Directory (registered contractors, licensed builders, FM and suppliers)
Checked September 2026.