How to Hire a Contractor

4 Tips to Help You

I hate to admit it but, one of my guilty pleasures on television is The People’s Court. The participants are the actual people who have already either filed suit or been served a summons to appear in a California municipal court. One of the top cases seen on People’s Court is disputes with a contractor about work done in or around a home. Unfortunately, this issue occurs all too often in the real world. Before you hire a contractor to do anything to your home, there are four questions that you want to make sure you ask.

1.  Are they licensed in the state of Arizona for the work you want them to do? Before you do anything else, obtain the license number from the contractor or look them up by name. Then, log on to the Arizona Registrar of Contractors website (azroc.gov) and verify the license exists and is current. State law requires that any work done for over $750 must be done by a licensed contractor. You can also check the contractor’s history for any complaints on this website.
2. Do they carry liability and workers compensation insurance? Think of your state mandated auto insurance. You are required to have coverage that will pay for any damage or injuries to the other parties if you are in an accident. The same idea applies to the contractor; they should have liability to cover anything that might happen on the job, such as, an accident or an issue that causes damage to your property. Workers’ Compensation will cover the contractor’s employee if insured while working at your property. The contractor understands that injuries can happen on the job and provides a form of compensation if they do occur. This is extremely important, if a worker is injured on your property and doesn’t have any coverage, he or she may try and sue the homeowner.
3. Is the job going to done by employees of the contractor or by sub-contractors? Literally a contractor hired by the contractor. Sub-contractors may not have liability insurance or covered by workers’ compensation.
4. Do they require all or partial payment upfront? If the contractor requests more than 10% of the total of the job upfront, it is a red flag. Many of the more reputable companies will not request payment at all until the job is completed and inspected by the customer. (some exceptions may apply)

A final and very important note about using a licensed contractor to be aware of is the residential contractors’ recovery fund. All licensed contractors in the state of Arizona contribute to the residential contractors’ recovery fund. This fund can be used in certain instances to reimburse clients if they have issues with contractors. The specifics of this can be found on azroc.gov.