FAQ
Straight answers on trust, money, and growth
Built for customers who want to know who is coming to the house — and for investors who will ask how we verify licences, take payment, and expand past Montréal.
What FindPlumbers is
On-demand licensed plumbers — not a directory, not a call centre.
What is FindPlumbers?
FindPlumbers is a two-sided marketplace: someone needs a plumber now, a nearby licensed plumber accepts the job, does the work, and gets paid through the app. We are a platform — we do not employ the plumbers and we are not the plumbing contractor on the job.
Why plumbing?
Plumbing is physical, licensed, and different in every house. Software can write and think; it cannot crawl under your sink at 2am. The trade is aging out while housing stock still needs pipes fixed — demand is sticky and supply is constrained.
How is this different from Angi, HomeAdvisor, or a Google search?
Those products are mostly lead generation or listings. FindPlumbers is built for now: live availability, a card hold with a price ceiling before you request, dispatch to nearby plumbers, tracking, and payout when the job is done — with a licence gate before anyone can take work.
Trust & licences
How we reduce the chance that anyone can pretend to be a plumber.
How do you verify that a plumber is real?
Several layers. (1) They submit legal name, licence number, province, and front/back photos. (2) In Québec we automatically check the official RBQ open registry for an Active Entrepreneur licence with plumbing subclass 15.5 and a name match — strong matches are approved without a human. (3) Edge cases go to a staff review queue. (4) They must finish Stripe Connect KYC (government ID + bank) before they can get paid or go available. (5) Phone OTP, ratings, Report/Block, and dispute holds sit on top. No single check is perfect; the stack is the product.
What is the RBQ check?
The Régie du bâtiment du Québec publishes a daily open dataset of active contractor licences (Données Québec, CC-BY). We look up the number the plumber entered. If it is Active, type Entrepreneur, includes subclass 15.5 (plomberie), has no blocking restriction, and the name matches the registry holder, we auto-approve. Attribution goes to RBQ / Données Québec.
Can someone still fake a licence?
A stolen photo alone should fail: the number must exist in the registry with the right trade class, and payouts require Stripe identity verification to a real bank. Name mismatches and odd cases stay pending for humans. We cannot promise zero fraud; we design so fraud is expensive and detectable.
What about Ontario, the US, or other countries?
Licensing is local by law — there is no global plumber database. Our software uses jurisdiction adapters: Québec RBQ is live; other provinces and countries plug into the same interface when we launch there. Until an adapter is trustworthy, those plumbers stay on manual review. Expansion is city-by-city, not a world toggle. See our expansion plan for the sequence: deepen Montréal → Canada → one US metro → further markets.
Pricing & payments
Hold first, charge for work done, split with the plumber.
How does pricing work for customers?
You see a call-out fee, hourly rate, and a maximum card hold before you request. We authorize that ceiling; when the job finishes we capture what was actually done. Work beyond the ceiling needs your explicit approval and a second charge. If nobody accepts, the hold is released.
What do plumbers earn?
Plumbers keep 80% of the job total; the platform keeps 20%. Payouts go to the bank account they connect through Stripe. Optional Instant Payouts (where Stripe supports them) may carry Stripe’s own fee — disclosed in the app.
Why Stripe, not e-transfer or cash in the app?
Stripe Connect is how we authorize holds, capture, refund, tip, and pay connected plumbers with an audit trail — and it is the correct App Store path for a physical service (not in-app digital goods). Interac e-Transfer is not available as a Stripe marketplace rail for this flow. Customers pay by card / Apple Pay; plumbers receive bank (or Instant) payouts via Stripe.
Business & expansion
Questions we expect from partners and investors.
What is the biggest risk?
Liquidity. A beautiful app with three plumbers cannot answer requests. We launch one neighbourhood at a time, recruit licensed plumbers before pouring consumer demand, and use plumber referrals to grow supply through the trade. Software can be ready before density; the company still has to earn density.
When will you expand beyond Montréal?
After we can reliably dispatch and complete paid jobs in the first city. Then more Canadian cities on CAD, then a deliberate US metro with its own state licence adapter and Stripe setup. Each market is a local launch: payments country, licence source, and legal review — not a feature flag.
What is hard to copy?
Operational trust (registry + KYC + ops), a working authorize/capture/payout state machine, and density in a city. Listings are easy to clone; a licensed on-demand loop with money that settles correctly is not.
Are you a plumbing company? Who is liable?
We are a platform that connects customers with independent licensed plumbers. The plumber performs the work as an independent professional. Terms and insurance requirements evolve with counsel as we enter new jurisdictions; we do not pretend consumer law is identical everywhere.
Privacy & accounts
Store-required basics, said plainly.
Do you track my location forever?
No. Location is while-in-use for dispatch and job tracking. We do not keep a long location history — a plumber’s last point is overwritten in place, and live tracking uses ephemeral channels. Details are in the privacy policy.
Can I delete my account?
Yes — in the app and on findplumbers.world/delete-account. We hard-delete personal data subject to legal and payment retention needs (for example incomplete charges). Active jobs or unsettled money can block deletion until resolved.