Dangers of Hiring an Unlicensed Contractor

At times, it may seem like there is a revolving door of maintenance and repair needs regarding your home. For smaller projects, you may feel confident enough in your DIY skills or in the knowledge of YouTube, but when you encounter foundation issues or large-scale problems, you may not feel as confident fixing them yourself. When you do not have the desire or the skills to make needed repairs around your home, this is when it is time to call a contractor. Park Range Construction is a licensed, insured, and bondable general contractor, but not everyone is. That is why we want to highlight the dangers of hiring someone who is not properly licensed so that you can protect yourself and your property.

Why Hiring an Unlicensed Contractor is Appealing

Obtaining a contractor’s license is an expensive investment. And once a contractor has gone through the proper channels to get their license, they will need to pay annual fees to keep it. If a contractor was willing to cut corners and simply operate without a license, they could save a great deal of money and therefore they usually are able to offer you very tempting rates since they are not having to factor in licensing fees. If you do not have savings handy for a sudden repair that requires immediate attention, it’s understandable how tempting hiring an unlicensed contractor may be. But doing so could end up costing you much more in the long run.

Dangers of Hiring an Unlicensed Contractor

The biggest risk when hiring an unlicensed contractor is liability. Regardless of the fact that in many states it is illegal to work on large projects without a license, an unlicensed contractor is actually not a contractor at all on paper. They are your employee. As your employee, any injuries sustained on the job site or as a result of your job site is your responsibility. So, you would legally be responsible for their medical bills. Also included in your responsibility would be injuries sustained to any help your contractor hired to assist them and injuries or damage sustained to your neighbors themselves or their property as a result of your job site.

Unlicensed contractors are also not obligated to return if it turns out that they did not complete satisfactory work. Your homeowner’s insurance will not cover you under any of the aforementioned scenarios either. Thus, resulting in you potentially paying a lot of money out of pocket.

Another factor that may come back to bite you is when or if you decide to sell your home. Some building projects require obtaining the proper permits. Unlicensed contractors are not able to get these if your project needs them. When selling your home, you have to disclose if any projects were not built up to code to potential buyers. This will affect your property value and give potential buyers leverage on the asking price.

The real kicker is that this is the fact of the matter whether you were aware they were unlicensed or not. Do yourself a major favor next time you need to hire a contractor, and make sure they are a licensed contractor right up front. Or if you are in the Denver metro area, just call Park Range Construction. We specialize in structural repair but are licensed, insured and bondable general contractors that have the skills for whatever you need. Give us a call today!

Published on 2-17-2020