I received an email from another website that consumers often ask about. This particular advertisement offers "$299 for a General Contractor for a FULL Day--Good for 9 Man Hours of Labor!" [Okay, I'll ignore the sexism]. The deal details says that the contractor is "fully licensed and insured general contractor" -- not true. The company is not a state licensed contractor much less a fully licensed General Contractor (which is a specific license in GA) and the company has been administratively dissolved by the Georgia Secretary of State and has no registered agent. I can't tell you if they are insured or not. So they are advertising that this can be used for room additions, finished basements, full kitchen/bath remodeling....... but they do not hold the required state contractor's license that would allow them to pull a building permit for that type of work or to construct it.
All I can say is that I hope no consumers fall for these types of ads, but I know they do everyday. Your "savings" may include risking the entire value of your home. It took me a few minutes to check this online. Even if a consumer were to have paid me $50 for my time, think how much I could have saved them upfront versus a nightmare situation where they actually used an unlicensed contractor to perform work
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for which a state license is required and then find out that the protect did not have required permits or inspections.
Disclosure: Just so it is very clear, Hometalk is not responsible for this post or its content. Nor do I have anything against the website that sent out this emai, although, I wish that they would verify basic information before they sent out this type of coupon.
Then you finally sign up to take two test. One being business and the other trade.
If you pass both test, you are still not done. Next you have to have a bond, insurace and workerscomp policy or exemption before you can officially ever begin to bid jobs.
As for the occupational licenses, they were eliminated because too many people were getting them and then claiming to be licensed contractors. Today they are called business licenses.
If you want to check to see if a company is really a licensed contractor in Florida, go to www.MyFloridaLicense,com and look up the company name or the contractors name or the license number. If they are legimate they will be listed there.
That way you will not be responsible for the liabilty which could result from hiring an unlicensed contractor in Florida.
As for companys who sell their licenses to others, that is also against the law here and should be reported.
Remember, in Florida the law states that all construction contracts must include the name of the company, the phone number, the address and THE LICENSE NUMBER.
Good Luck
Gary