The Expert Podcast

As a licensed contractor you probably run into a lot of times a client that says look I got this lower quote from somebody else. I got a better bid a better offer And you come to find out, these are people that are not licensed as contractors They don't have insurance they don't have surety bonds. They don't have the right documentation. And here's a really good case of where a sheriff in central Florida did a sting operation and they went out and put ads. Two.

Or they contacted people who were doing work on houses and they said look we need to have a red. done a roof done. And they have people give them quotes give them bids. And these are the people that they found allegedly that were unlicensed. Or they were licensed but they didn't have the right kind of work comp insurance for their business.

And this is important if you are a customer a client. That is looking to hire somebody to do work on your property. If they don't have the right insurance and somebody gets hurt, somebody gets injured. You're you could be liable, right If somebody falls down and breaks their leg you could get be liable for hiring an unlicensed. or uninsured contractor.

So this sting that the Sheriff's office did was to try to get some of these unlicensed type operations,

off the streets right? Because if you're a legitimate contractor and you're doing business the right way, it's going to cost you more money to do work because you have to pay these bills You have to pay for insurance, surety bonds work comp all these other fees and your license fee. Whereas somebody who is doesn't have all this Maybe you can cut some corners and offer a lower price, but then again there's more raw. to the customer. And in most cases, when somebody is operating without a license there's a reason for it.

It's not just the fact they didn't want to pay a license fee it's because maybe they're not quite as experienced any good contractor. Any good trades person skilled trades person could get a job instantly at a legitimate contract and company and make more money than they could do an odd jobs as a handyman. The problem is many times they can't get a job because they have maybe a criminal background maybe a drug problem. Maybe they can't pass a drug test. So those people.

Do this kind of work they do handyman jobs They do odd jobs. And. Look I'm not you know we're not judging whether or not that's good or not but it does put people at risk Even if you do a good job of injury

insurance claims. liability for the client for the homeowner. As a. Licensed contractor I'm sure that you're aware of this You may have had apple. that come to you The one I worked for you, but you can't hire them because they may have a criminal record.

They may have some type of background that doesn't allow them to be bonded. Or to be get work comp on them. So or they may not be reliable and show up So now these people are out there. Competing against legitimate contractors and you look, the legitimate contractor may not be trying to gouge customers Their price has got to be higher because they have to hire more quality people pay a higher. higher hourly rate because the people who work cheap usually work cheap for a reason because they they really can't get a job anywhere else.

This thing was the tip of the iceberg. We've seen in some markets where there's hundreds of unlicensed contractors out there. Doing work So if you're a potential client how do you prevent this? Well anytime somebody comes to you to do work, make sure they have a license They can show you. Make sure they have insurance They can show you and verify the insurance call the insurance company to make sure that insurance is still valid because many times what they do is they get insurance and then cancel it..