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Can an unlicensed company work for a licensed contractor on plumbing or roofing type work. They would be paid on a bid bases, hire employees.

FloridaLicenses

An unlicensed company wants to be paid by my licensed company to perform work, I would oversee work

1 reply

May 23, 2019
That's an interesting question, and it points to some grey area in licensing laws. First and foremost - all licensing laws should be adhered to when performing work that requires licensure. It's absolutely common for construction businesses to want to maneuver around or manipulate licensing laws to work in a way that's advantageous - but getting too cute when dealing with licensing regulations could result in fines and potentially even criminal penalties.

Florida has an eye on situations like license renting - and pulling permits for an unlicensed business to perform the work results in a misdemeanor on the first offense, and potentially in felony penalties after that under Fla Sta. 489.127. However, where a licensed construction business contracts for the work represented in the permit and actually provides that work to the project, it could potentially be enough to ward off liability. But again, trying to get the better of licensing rules is typically not worth the risk. While it's not necessarily uncommon for licensed contractors and trades to hire unlicensed subs or laborers, if unlicensed parties are the ones actually performing the work requiring licensure, issues could arise.

Of course, there's always the option of becoming the qualifying agent of a business' qualifying agent - and a licensed contractor can serve as a qualifier for more than one business. Of course, that's a much larger responsibility and could expose a licensed contractor to significant risk if the company they're qualifying is unsound.

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