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Monday, June 9, 2008

Checking up on your Licensed Contractor...

Categories:Arizona Real Estate,Buyers,Contractors,Due Diligence,East Valley Homes,Legal Issues,Repairs
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Quite Frequently I get asked for referrals for various contractors and specialty services.  The question is usually framed like this, "Do you have a guy for ....?" 
 
As a precaution, our instructors and brokers who specialize in risk-management, always advise us to recommend at least 3 individuals so that I am not 'steering' or advocating one over the other,(but that is why you called/emailed my right?...to see whom I have first hand knowledge that does a decent, or preferably outstanding job?)  Ideally we want you to perform your own due diligence and check out several before making any decisions.  I will try to give you 3 names/companies to contact - but sometimes I just don't have 3...in that case you will just get what I have.  Even though I might not always have at least 3 contacts to give you, there is one thing I WILL ALWAYS GIVE YOU and that will be the website to check with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors on any individual and/or company claiming to be licensed within the state of Arizona. 
 
It takes less than 2 minutes to check their status and here is some of what you will be able to find out about the entity that is claiming to be licensed:
 
License Number and status of license (current, in-active, etc...)
  1. License Number and status of license (current, in-active, etc...)
  2. Contact Information including phone number
  3. License Class (please don't hire an electrician to do a roofing job - that is out of the field of expertise and they are not permitted to work outside the scope of their license)
  4. Issue Date, Renewal Date and Qualifying Date of the licensed entity
  5. COMPLAINT Information
    • How many complaints are currently open, closed, have been resolved/settled/withdrawn and
    • how many complaints were closed because the contractor has been in bankruptcy
    • Read summaries of complaints against a contractor...and you are within your rights to go downtown and read the full complaint and view supporting documentation.
Don't you need to ask some questions if a potential problem has gotten to a point where someone had to file a formal complaint?  I am not saying that there are not instances where some people are just not going to be happy and are going to complain no matter what....but use your judgment and at least be sure there isn't a problem you should know about BEFORE you hire someone.
 
I don't just 'preach' this ... I believe and practice it.  A couple of years ago we were looking to hire a contractor to do some major remodeling work  on our home.  I had gotten the name of a contractor from a friend.   It turned out that this popular custom home builder had several open and closed complaints.  I went downtown to read them all and they were fairly serious complaints that all had the same theme - this guy didn't pay his sub-contractors and his clients were harassed by the subs for a year or more after the job was completed.  Yeah - he did great work, but because he didn't pay his bills, his client's had liens put on their houses and quite a bit of turmoil getting things resolved after the work was done.  Boy was I glad I had done my homework up front. 

 

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