Vetting a contractor in the US comes down to four verifications you run yourself against primary sources: the license, checked with the board that issued it rather than the PDF in your inbox; the insurance, confirmed with the broker named on the certificate rather than the certificate itself; the business entity, checked with the secretary of state; and the track record, through references you actually call plus any disciplinary history attached to the license. The complication is that almost none of this is federal. A general contractor in Arizona holds a state license from the Registrar of Contractors. The same person doing the same scope in Texas may hold no contractor license at all and be entirely legal. So the first question is never is this contractor licensed. It is who licenses this trade, in this jurisdiction, for this scope of work.
Start by finding out who issues the license
Licensing authority in the US sits in three different places depending on where your property is, and you have to know which one applies before a license number means anything.
States that license at the state level
California (Contractors State License Board), Arizona (Registrar of Contractors), Nevada (State Contractors Board), Oregon (Construction Contractors Board), Washington (contractor registration through Labor and Industries), Florida (Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which splits certified from registered contractors), Virginia (DPOR, with Class A, B and C tiers tied to job size), North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah all run statewide lookups. In these states you can verify a license in under a minute on the board's own site, and you should, every time.
States that push it down to the city or the trade
Texas has no statewide general contractor license, but electricians are licensed through the Department of Licensing and Regulation and plumbers through the State Board of Plumbing Examiners. Pennsylvania registers home improvement contractors through the Attorney General's office and leaves trade licensing to cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. New York has no statewide GC license, so you are checking New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection or the county in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester or Rockland. Ohio licenses the specialty trades (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, hydronics, refrigeration) at state level while general contracting stays local. Illinois licenses plumbers and roofers statewide, and Chicago runs its own general contractor license on top.
The practical rule: if a state has no GC license, the electrical and plumbing work almost certainly still requires one somewhere. Those are the two trades where an unlicensed hire creates the most exposure.
What to read on the lookup page, beyond active
- Classification and scope. A license that covers general building does not automatically cover roofing, HVAC or electrical in states that separate them.
- Expiration date. Write it down. It is the single most common thing that quietly lapses mid-project.
- Bond status. Most licensing states require a surety license bond; the lookup will show whether it is current.
- Workers' comp status and exemptions. Several boards, California's among them, display whether the licensee carries comp or has filed an exemption.
- Disciplinary and complaint history. Public on most state boards.
- The qualifier. Some licenses are held by an individual who qualifies for the company. If the qualifier has no real involvement in the business, you are looking at a rented license.
- Name match. The legal name on the license, the W-9, the certificate of insurance and the invoice should all be the same entity. Mismatches are where fraud and coverage gaps both live.
Read the certificate of insurance like an adjuster
The ACORD 25 certificate says on its own face that it is issued as a matter of information only and confers no rights. It is evidence that a policy existed on the date it was printed. That is all.
Certificate holder is not additional insured
Being listed as certificate holder means you were sent the document. Being an additional insured means the contractor's policy may defend and cover you for claims arising from their work, and that status comes from an endorsement, not from a line on a certificate. Ask for the endorsement pages: CG 20 10 covers ongoing operations, CG 20 37 covers completed operations, and you usually want both, because construction defect claims surface after the crew has left. If the contractor carries a blanket additional insured endorsement, ask for that form so you can confirm it is triggered by written contract, then make sure your agreement actually contains the requirement.
While you are in there, check for primary and non-contributory wording, a waiver of subrogation, whether the general aggregate is per project or per policy (a shared aggregate can be exhausted by someone else's claim before you file yours), and whether the liability policy is occurrence or claims-made. Also read the exclusions if you can get them. Habitational and residential exclusions are common on general liability policies sold to commercial contractors, and a policy that excludes residential work is worthless on a turnover.
Then verify. Call the agency named on the certificate at a phone number you look up independently, not the one printed on the document, and confirm the policy is in force. Forged and stale certificates are easy to produce.
One more gap worth closing in the contract: since the 2010 revision, the ACORD form no longer promises 30 days' notice of cancellation and instead defers to policy provisions. If you want notice, make it a contractual obligation of the contractor.
Workers' comp has three exceptions that catch people
- Monopolistic states. In North Dakota, Ohio, Washington and Wyoming, workers' comp is bought from the state fund, so it will not appear on a standard ACORD 25. Ask for the state certificate of coverage or the L&I account status instead.
- Texas nonsubscribers. Texas is the state where private employers may legally decline workers' comp. If you require it anyway, put it in the contract, because state law will not do it for you.
- Sole proprietors and officer exemptions. An exemption certificate is not coverage. A one-person contractor who shows up with a helper has created an uninsured worker on your property, and depending on the state, your own policy or the owner's can end up responding. Uninsured subs also show up as a charge at your general liability or comp audit.
Coverage that property work specifically needs
For pre-1978 housing, any work disturbing painted surfaces beyond a minor amount falls under the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, which requires a certified firm and a certified renovator on site; several states run their own EPA-authorized programs, so check the state version where one exists. Standard general liability excludes pollution, so mold, asbestos and remediation work needs contractors pollution liability. HVAC techs handling refrigerant need EPA Section 608 certification. Add hired and non-owned auto liability for anyone driving to your sites, and confirm roofing is not excluded or height-capped before you send someone up a ladder.
Turn vetting into a file with expiration dates
The failure mode is almost never the initial check. It is month fourteen, when the COI expired in month nine and nobody noticed. Build one record per contractor holding:
- W-9 collected before the first payment.
- A signed agreement with your insurance requirements, indemnity language, additional insured endorsement requirement and notice-of-cancellation duty.
- A current COI naming both your management entity and the ownership entity as additional insureds.
- License numbers with the issuing body, the expiration date, and the date you verified them.
- Your lien waiver process: conditional waivers on progress payments, unconditional on final. Statutory forms and preliminary notice deadlines vary by state, so use your state's version.
- Renewal reminders set 30 days before each COI and license expiration.
Illustrative example (fictional): a manager approves a $9,000 bathroom rebuild from a plumber whose license lapsed six weeks earlier. The work is fine. The permit is not, and the license lookup that would have caught it takes 45 seconds.
Where Plan@Job fits
The reason vetting decays is that it lives in a spreadsheet nobody owns. Plan@Job keeps each subcontractor as a record inside the job instead: the license and insurance details, their expiration dates and the date a person last verified them sit against the contractor, and the job itself splits into internal stages with scope, dates, status and costs. Your client sees the overall agreed scope, the price and the evidence you choose to share; internal stage costs and subcontractor identity stay on your side.
The AI staff handle the chasing, not the deciding. Sophie Bennett checks an existing job brief for missing information and asks for clarification, handing off to you after two attempts. Daniel Reed shares eligible work with your existing vetted network and follows up on quotes and proposed dates. Nothing is awarded and no price is set without a person. Quoting and approval are deliberately separate stages, so a contractor can price a job while your checks are still running, and you sign off before anyone starts work.
Plan@Job is live in the UK for this launch. US property managers can see current availability and reserve access on the US property managers page. For the business side of working with trade firms, our sister site Construction Arbitrage covers contractor operations strategy.
FAQ
Is a state contractor license enough to hire someone for turnover work?
Usually not on its own. The license tells you the person met an entry requirement and has no open discipline. It says nothing about whether their general liability policy excludes residential work, whether their comp covers the helper they brought, or whether they carry EPA RRP certification for a pre-1978 unit. Check the license, then check the coverage separately.
What is the difference between a certificate holder and an additional insured?
Certificate holder means you received a copy of the certificate. Additional insured means the contractor's policy extends coverage to you for liability arising from their work, and it only exists if an endorsement grants it. Ask for the endorsement form, not just the certificate box.
How often should I re-verify a contractor I use every week?
Re-verify insurance at every COI expiration and licenses at every renewal date, which for most trades means annually or biennially. Verify again immediately if the contractor changes entity name, adds a trade, or wins a scope larger than anything they have done for you before, since license classification limits and policy limits are both scope-sensitive.