How to Verify a Florida Contractor's License

Florida checks are split across two agencies, and the first thing to get right is which one to search. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) licenses the building trades. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) licenses pest control businesses. A pest control business license is not a DBPR license, so the DBPR search is the wrong place to look for one, and FDACS issues no roofing license.

Which credential to look for

Florida names its credentials by trade. For the trades this site publishes in Florida:

• Plumbing: a DBPR plumbing license, from the Construction Industry Licensing Board.
• HVAC: a DBPR air-conditioning or mechanical license. "HVAC license" is not a credential Florida issues by that name; air-conditioning and mechanical are DBPR's own board categories.
• Roofing: a DBPR roofing license.
• Electrical: a DBPR electrical license, from a separate board, the Electrical Contractors Licensing Board.
• Pools: a DBPR pool/spa license. The statute names every category a "pool/spa contractor", so "pool license" alone drops half the name.
• Solar: a DBPR solar license. Section 489.105 scopes it to solar panels for potable solar water heating systems, swimming pool solar heating systems, and photovoltaic systems, so it is not only a panels-for-electricity credential.
• Pest control: an FDACS pest control business license under chapter 482, not a DBPR license of any kind.

Step 1: run the DBPR licensee search

The lookup is DBPR's Verify a Licensee search at myfloridalicense.com. DBPR describes it as a service that provides information about applicants and licensed individuals for those professions and businesses that are regulated by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The form offers four ways in: Search by Name, Search by License Number, Search by City or County, and Search by License Type.

Use the license number when you have one. DBPR's search returns it in the lettered form, letters followed by digits, and that is the form every Florida listing on this site prints. DBPR's search cannot be linked to an individual record from outside, which is why this site shows you the number and links the search for you to enter it.

If you only have a company name, search by name, and be ready for a person's name to come back: DBPR files one record per qualifying individual, not per business. The statute defines a primary qualifying agent as a person who possesses the requisite skill, knowledge, and experience, the license belongs to that person, and the company name is recorded as the name the licensee does business as. A firm with three qualifiers appears three times.

Step 2: read the status the Florida way

Florida states currency in two columns rather than one: DBPR publishes a primary and a secondary status, and a license is allowed to work only when the primary reads Current and the secondary reads Active. A license that reads Current but Inactive is a real, renewable license whose holder may not work. Probation and Suspended values also exist. On this site a Florida company is listed only when its license is both Current and Active and unexpired; see how we verify.

Check the expiration date too. DBPR expires construction and electrical licenses on statewide two-year cohort dates rather than on each company's own schedule, so unrelated licenses sharing a date is normal.

Step 3: certified or registered

Florida draws a line other states do not. Section 489.105 defines a certified contractor as any contractor who possesses a certificate of competency issued by the department and a registered contractor as any contractor who has registered with the department pursuant to fulfilling the competency requirements. In practice a certified license is valid anywhere in the state, while a registered one is valid only in the local jurisdiction that certified the holder's competency. Every Florida DBPR listing on this site shows which it holds.

If the record says registered, ask which jurisdiction registered the contractor and whether your address falls inside it. Solar is the one exception: DBPR issues no registered solar code, so every Florida solar license is certified.

Two more Florida traps

• Pool and solar numbers look alike. Florida's solar license is a separate credential from the pool/spa license, and the numbers look confusingly similar. Read the license type on the record, not just the number.
• The date of the contract is the date that counts. Section 489.128 says a contractor shall be considered unlicensed only if the contractor was unlicensed on the effective date of the original contract for the work. Check the license before you sign, not after, and keep a dated copy of what you saw.

Pest control: check at FDACS, not DBPR

Florida licenses pest control businesses under chapter 482 through FDACS. Section 482.071 says it is unlawful for any person to operate a pest control business that is not licensed by the department, and the license is per location, renewed annually thereafter, on or before an anniversary date set by the department for each licensed business location.

The lookup is the Pest Control Business Licenses report on the FDACS AES licensing portal, listed on its Reports page. It is a report viewer rather than a search form, its record pages cannot be linked to directly, and each pest listing on this site shows the license number for you to look up there.

Read the categories on the record. One Florida pest license can carry general household pest and rodent control, termite and other wood-destroying organism control, fumigation, and also lawn and ornamental, which is not pest control of your house. On this site's pull of the register, around one in five active licenses covered only lawn and ornamental work; those are landscaping firms and are excluded from our pest pages. If lawn and ornamental is the only category on the record, you are not looking at a termite or household pest company.

A second check for unlicensed activity

DBPR also runs a Search Unlicensed Activity Complaints lookup, by name or by county, for public complaints against persons or businesses that, at the time of the complaint, were not licensed by the department. DBPR notes that a county search shows only complaints with an address of record in that county.

How this site uses the same records

Every Florida company listed here was checked against DBPR's nightly public licensee extracts or the FDACS register, and each listing shows the license number, the agency and the date it was checked; DBPR listings also show whether the license is certified or registered. Florida pages are county pages, one per county per trade. DBPR's extracts publish no phone number, no insurance and no bond for any licensee, so Florida DBPR listings show none of the three: a gap in the state's file, not a finding about any contractor. Start from the Florida hub, pick your county, and paste the number into DBPR's search before you sign.