License to Chill
I am starting off today with a topic that frankly infuriates me to no end. That is people who proclaim they are some form of contractor yet display a clearly fake license number on their vehicle.
I was at Publix this past Saturday and there it was “Blah-Blah-Blah Handyman Service” specializing in Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Painting, General Contractor and Sprinklers. License number L-300EEX4599963-030. This of course, was all printed on three magnetic signs, stuck to a plain white van.
First off this must be one really talented individual to specialize in all those disciplines, second, that license number is not a legitimate state certified number. I mentioned to my wife that it looked like a driver’s license number to me and we both had a good laugh.
So, how can you tell if a contractor that you are considering hiring is actually licensed to do the work they say they can do? To begin with, Florida state licenses for air conditioning start with CAC, plumbing CFC, general contracting CGC, and electrical starts with ECC . So if someone says they have a license for a particular discipline and it doesn’t start that way you are probably looking at a fake.
The next thing you can do if you are still not sure is to jump over to this website: https://www.myfloridalicense.com/wl11.asp and plug the license number in. That site is the Department of Business and Professional Regulation which is operated by the state and tracks all legitimate businesses here in the sunshine state. This site also allows you to file a complaint against someone’s license if they perform subpar work on your home or business.
In order to have a license, a business entity must also have insurances for everyone’s protection. We carry a million dollar general liability policy here just in case an accident happens, along with the same amount in workers compensation insurance. We’re all just simple humans trying to do our best on a day-to-day basis, and face it, sometimes mistakes or accidents happen. If you are using an actual licensed contractor you’ll get peace of mind in knowing that when the wheel of misfortune lands on your home, someone is going to be there to pay for the damages. I’d be willing to bet our “Blah-Blah-Blah Handyman Service” mentioned at the beginning of this rant does not provide his or her clients with that peace of mind.
I do want to make one thing very clear. I am all for people starting their own business and little one man or two man operations can sometimes provide great service, and everyone has to start somewhere. I saw a picture of our first truck back in 1983 not to long ago and the one thing that stood out to me was CFC037085 was proudly displayed on the side. So yes, from the one truck then to the sixty plus trucks now, we have always done it right.
Make it a great day until we meet again…
House Whisperer out!!
