[Closed] Castles (Semi Detached) Made of Sand

Hi

I live in a 1930's semi and some of the brickwork and pointing could use a bit of TLC. Pointing was touched up at some point but mainly with sand it appears. There is also a crack in the mortar above an old UPVC window that looks to my untrained eye like a lintel needs to be fitted and will result in a mid-sized triangle of brickwork needing to come down / go back up again. It has been like this for several years and doesn’t appear to be getting worse so am hoping the crack isn’t anything more sinister than that. What should I be looking out for when trying to find someone to assess what needs to be done? Am I just looking for any old bricky and hoping that they will be honest about the work which needs doing or are there any trade bodies I should be looking out for? Also, any idea how busy these trades are at the moment and so whether it is a particularly good or bad time to try to get someone at a reasonable cost?

Cheers.