Most homeowners who have been defrauded by a Florida contractor could have avoided it with two five-minute searches on free state websites. This guide walks through exactly what to check, what the results should look like, and the specific red flags that should make you walk away before you sign.

Why this check is not optional

Florida’s contracting industry is regulated by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). Unlicensed contracting is a misdemeanor on the first offense and a felony on repeat offenses under § 489.127, Fla. Stat. — but “unlicensed” here is not the only failure mode you need to guard against. More common is improperly licensed: a contractor operating under a license class that does not cover ADU construction, a license that has lapsed, a license under disciplinary review, a license held by a qualifier who is not actually running the company, or a license that is real but belongs to someone else entirely.

Every one of these scenarios is the homeowner’s problem, not the contractor’s, if the job goes bad. An unlicensed contract is voidable but often unenforceable in the other direction too — and you may forfeit rights to the Construction Industries Recovery Fund and to insurance recovery. The five minutes this check takes pays for itself the first time you use it.

Before you start

You need the contractor’s full legal business name (as they plan to contract with you), the individual name of the person you have been negotiating with, and ideally a license number they have given you in writing. If the contractor has not volunteered a license number, ask for it before you go further. A legitimate builder responds to that request within a few minutes with a number. A contractor who delays, deflects, or asks why you want it is showing you who they are.

Step 1: Search MyFloridaLicense

Open MyFloridaLicense.com in your browser. Click “Verify a License” on the homepage — the link is near the top of the page, labeled clearly. You will land on a search page with several tabs; choose “Search by Name” or “Search by License Number” depending on what you have.

Enter the name or number and submit. If you are searching by company name, try a few variations — “ABC Builders LLC” may be indexed as “ABC Builders” or “ABC Construction LLC.” If nothing returns, search the qualifier’s individual name. Every Florida construction license is attached to a qualifying individual (the person who took the competency exam), and the qualifier is the real license holder.

Step 2: Read the license record

A valid Florida contractor license record will show you:

License type and number. The number is prefixed by a code that tells you the license class. CGC = Certified General Contractor. CBC = Certified Building Contractor. CRC = Certified Residential Contractor. RG/RB/RR = Registered General, Building, or Residential (local, not statewide). For a residential ADU, you want CGC, CBC, CRC, or a registered license that is valid in the county where you are building. Anything else — CCC (roofing), CFC (plumbing), EC (electrical), CAC (AC), CPC (pool) — is not a license to build an ADU. A specialty contractor cannot legally be your general contractor on this job even if they are excellent at their trade.

Status. “Current, Active” is what you want. Other statuses include “Null and Void,” “Delinquent,” “Inactive,” “Suspended,” and “Revoked.” Any of those means the contractor cannot legally pull a permit. Do not sign.

Expiration date. Florida contractor licenses renew biennially, in even years on August 31 of the current cycle. If the expiration is soon, confirm with the contractor that they have filed their renewal.

Primary qualifying agent. This is the individual whose exam qualifies the license. The name here should match — or be an officer of — the company you are negotiating with. If you are talking to “Mike” and the qualifier is “Robert Smith” at “Smith Builders LLC,” Mike needs to be an officer of Smith Builders. If Mike is operating under a license he does not hold, at a company he does not officer, you are in an unlicensed-contracting scenario regardless of the license number on the business card.

Qualified business information. Click through to the business tab. This shows the contracting entity the license is attached to. This must match the name on the proposal and contract. If the license is attached to “Smith Construction LLC” and the proposal is from “Smith Builders & Remodeling LLC,” those are two different legal entities. Ask which one will sign the contract. The signing entity must hold (or have a qualifier attached to) the license.

Step 3: Check for disciplinary history

On the license record, there is a “Case Reporting” tab or similar link to discipline. Open it. A clean record here is what you want. If there are disciplinary cases, read them carefully — the nature of the discipline matters. A single resolved administrative complaint from six years ago for a clerical violation is not disqualifying. A pattern of consumer complaints, unpaid fines, or suspensions over the last 24 months is disqualifying.

Also look at the MyFloridaLicense news and enforcement pages periodically for Central Florida — DBPR publishes stings and enforcement actions, and occasionally a local builder you are considering will appear by name. This is a backup check and does not replace the license-record review, but it is quick to run.

Step 4: Verify workers’ compensation coverage

Go to the Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation Proof of Coverage search. This is a separate portal from MyFloridaLicense. Enter the contracting entity’s FEIN (federal tax ID) if you have it, or search by business name. The result will show you one of three things:

Active workers’ compensation policy. The insurer name and effective dates. This is the best case. Get a certificate of insurance (COI) from the contractor’s agent naming you as a certificate holder, so that if the policy lapses mid-project you receive notice.

Valid exemption certificate. Florida allows corporate officers of construction companies to exempt themselves from workers’ comp coverage via a state-issued exemption certificate. This is legitimate but narrow — the exemption covers only the named individual, and only if they are a corporate officer with at least 10% ownership (as of the 2013 statutory changes). The exemption does not cover employees or non-officer subcontractors. If your builder is a sole proprietor with an exemption, and they bring any employee or helper onto your job, that worker is not covered and you are exposed. Ask the builder how they handle workers’ comp for subs and helpers specifically.

No coverage, no exemption. Walk away. It is illegal for an uncovered, unexempted contractor to do construction work in Florida, and your exposure as the property owner under § 440.10, Fla. Stat., can reach six figures if someone gets hurt.

Step 5: Confirm general liability insurance

Ask the contractor for a current general liability certificate of insurance. Minimums for residential work are typically $300,000/$300,000; many Central Florida builders carry $1M/$2M. Verify three things on the COI:

The named insured matches the contracting entity.
The policy is current — not expired.
The coverage includes “products/completed operations” (this matters for latent defects after the job is done).

Ask to be added as an “additional insured” on the policy for the duration of the project. Legitimate builders do this without comment; their agent will issue a COI naming you. The cost to them is zero.

Step 6: Check the local business tax receipt

Every county and most municipalities in Central Florida require a local business tax receipt (formerly called an occupational license) before any contractor can pull a permit in that jurisdiction. These are issued by the county tax collector and are searchable on each county’s website. This check is sometimes skipped, but it catches out-of-area contractors who are operating in a county where they have not registered. If your builder is based in Tampa and quoting a job in Seminole, confirm they hold a Seminole County business tax receipt. If they do not, the county will not issue the permit, and you will discover this after you have signed and paid a deposit.

Step 7: Independent verification of past projects

The license and insurance checks prove the contractor is legal. They do not prove the contractor is good. Ask for three references from ADU projects completed in the last eighteen months in counties near yours. Call them. Ask four specific questions: (1) did the job come in at or near the contracted price, (2) did it complete on or near the scheduled date, (3) how were change orders handled, (4) would they use this builder again. You are listening for hedges more than for content. A “yeah, I guess so, mostly” on the fourth question is a different answer than “absolutely, and my neighbor just hired them too.”

If possible, drive by one completed project. A builder’s work speaks to what their work is. An owner who consents to a drive-by is almost always a satisfied one.

The specific scams to know about

License borrowing. An unlicensed contractor pays a licensed qualifier a monthly fee to put their license on the unlicensed contractor’s business. The qualifier is not actually running jobs. When you look up the qualifier on MyFloridaLicense, the business listed may be a legitimate contracting entity — but the person quoting your job is not the qualifier, not an officer of that entity, and has no legal authority to contract on the license. Detection: verify that the individual you are dealing with is named on the license record or is an officer of the qualified business. Ask for the company’s Sunbiz filing to confirm officers.

Expired-license roulette. A contractor lets their license lapse and continues operating for months or years before renewing (or never renews). Detection: the MyFloridaLicense record shows status as “Null and Void” or “Delinquent.” Do not rely on a photograph of a wallet-size license card the contractor shows you — always verify on the portal.

Name shuffle. A contractor with a bad review history dissolves one LLC and operates under a new one, carrying forward the same license. Detection: search the qualifying agent’s name on MyFloridaLicense, look at the “Related Licenses” or history section, and check whether the individual has been attached to multiple entities with short lifespans. Also check Sunbiz.org for company age.

Cash-only scope. The contractor proposes an off-books portion of the job “to save on taxes.” This always turns into no lien protections, no warranty, no recourse, and — if the IRS ever audits the builder — your records being subpoenaed. Pay by check or financing into a business account, and report every dollar. If a builder suggests otherwise, walk.

What to do if the check fails

If the license does not verify, you have three options: ask the contractor for clarification (sometimes the issue is a data-entry error or a license change the portal has not updated); report the contractor to DBPR’s Unlicensed Activity program at MyFloridaLicense.com/DBPR/regulation/unlicensed-activity/; or simply move on to the next bidder. The first option occasionally surfaces a legitimate mismatch. The other two are the appropriate next steps when the contractor cannot explain.

What this check does not prove

A verified license, active insurance, and clean discipline history prove a contractor is legally able to do the work and currently insured. They do not prove the contractor is capable, timely, honest about allowances and change orders, or financially solvent enough to finish the job before running out of cash. The independent-reference check in Step 7 addresses the first two. The next guide in this series — how to request three competitive ADU bids — addresses the last two.

For the broader context on why this matters and what else to look for in a Central Florida ADU builder, see our builders overview.

Last reviewed: April 17, 2026. This guide is informational. It is not legal advice.