KVA
Senior Member
- Location
- United States
I know nothing about bonding how much would this cost me? I only do residential and light commercial.
Are you bonded?
- Thread starter KVA
- Start date
- Status
Sierrasparky
Senior Member
- Location
- USA
- Occupation
- Electrician ,contractor
I suppose that depends on your State requirements. Most require it! There are different types of bonds however,
Bid, completion, performance,
Bid, completion, performance,
tufts46argled
Member
- Location
- Jackson, Ms.
Most AWJ here require a bond. Most are just $5,000 performance bonds. Really just a way to make sure your a legitimate company.
tufts46argled
Member
- Location
- Jackson, Ms.
Bid and completion bonds are completely different and are required as parts of job contracts.
KVA
Senior Member
- Location
- United States
That is the reason why i want to get bonded. It's basically for me another marketing tool to stand out and give people another reason to think I'm reputable.
Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
GUNNING
Senior Member
- Location
- Gainesville, Florida
Big Mistake
Big Mistake
People don't know what bonded means. Sell value not credibility. Bonding is to make whole on a failed project or perhaps a guarantee to be trusted with someone else's money.
Get your license numbers and insurance, post them prominently, give a written guarantee or a warranty. Here in FL by statute we have to warranty our work for 1 year. If you are giving assurances by telling everyone they will have to sue you to become whole because you are bonded, its a mistake. Sell your customer something they already have, a warranty.
It creates a bond.
Big Mistake
People don't know what bonded means. Sell value not credibility. Bonding is to make whole on a failed project or perhaps a guarantee to be trusted with someone else's money.
Get your license numbers and insurance, post them prominently, give a written guarantee or a warranty. Here in FL by statute we have to warranty our work for 1 year. If you are giving assurances by telling everyone they will have to sue you to become whole because you are bonded, its a mistake. Sell your customer something they already have, a warranty.
It creates a bond.
If you want to run afoul of the CSLB, just advertise your $12.500 bond. $150 a year is rather high, mine is only $195 for 2 years, but am going to put the C10 lic. on inactive status, so it expires at the end of the year.
Sierrasparky
Senior Member
- Location
- USA
- Occupation
- Electrician ,contractor
You will be surprised to find out that you may not be able to get a renewal bond for cheap anymore. You will need very high credit scores and such. I have a great credit rating I had a company Which I had a three year at 269.00 total (3 years). They wanted more than triple so I went elsewhere. I had that company for 9 years. So much for loyalty.
Fulthrotl
~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
- Occupation
- E
yeah, i just pulled that out of memory.. the last time i renewed, it was $110 a year....
i went and looked....
i don't understand the running afoul thing.....
you can't have an active license in calif without a bond,
so why is it a problem to say you have one?
Sierrasparky
Senior Member
- Location
- USA
- Occupation
- Electrician ,contractor
Yes you can get into trouble for advertising you are " Bonded" This is one of those reduculous Ca laws. The reasoning is that All contractors are required to be bonded and if you advertise as such then you are acting like you are better than those that do not. Same goes for Advertising that you are insured, you must specify what type of insurance in the ad. So you cannot say" Insured and bonded" but you can say " Gen Liability insured and performance bonded or key keeper bonded". I would not advertise either.
Cow
Senior Member
- Location
- Eastern Oregon
- Occupation
- Electrician
Sierrasparky
Senior Member
- Location
- USA
- Occupation
- Electrician ,contractor
stew
Senior Member
- Location
- federal way,washington
Unfortunatley not many customers know that you have to be bonded to be licensed. Hence I see no reall reason not to inform customers that you are bonded and insured . Just gives your company more credibility than the trunk slammers taht are out there that operate without anything but thier tools and a bit of electrical knowledge.
stew
Senior Member
- Location
- federal way,washington
Well those of us that do comply with the law and are bonded and insured(if required) are better than the ones that are not!!! Glad I dont do work in California !
MarkyMarkNC
Senior Member
- Location
- Raleigh NC
Contractors bond, bid bond, performance bond, fidelity bond. There are many types of ways to be "bonded" and yet you will probably never even run across a customer who knows what any one of them mean.
Contractor bond is the bond many States make you get to prove you're a legitimate contractor, at least on paper.
Bid bond is the type of bond large projects will make you get to insure that if you submit a bid, you won't realize after the fact you missed something, and pull your bid.
Performance bond makes sure you complete the project. Also usually for larger projects.
Fidelity bond covers your customer if your employee's steal something.
For the average run of the mill residential customer, the only ones that matter are a contractor bond and a fidelity bond.
If your State doesn't require a contractor bond, obviously that one is going to mean little to a customer. If you are a one man band, a fidelity bond isn't going to matter much either, as it doesn't cover the owner, only employee's.
After about the hundredth time explaining all this to customers, I went ahead and ponied up the whopping $122.00 a year for a Fidelity bond, and was able to then answer "are you licensed, bonded, and insured" with a simple "yes."
Contractor bond is the bond many States make you get to prove you're a legitimate contractor, at least on paper.
Bid bond is the type of bond large projects will make you get to insure that if you submit a bid, you won't realize after the fact you missed something, and pull your bid.
Performance bond makes sure you complete the project. Also usually for larger projects.
Fidelity bond covers your customer if your employee's steal something.
For the average run of the mill residential customer, the only ones that matter are a contractor bond and a fidelity bond.
If your State doesn't require a contractor bond, obviously that one is going to mean little to a customer. If you are a one man band, a fidelity bond isn't going to matter much either, as it doesn't cover the owner, only employee's.
After about the hundredth time explaining all this to customers, I went ahead and ponied up the whopping $122.00 a year for a Fidelity bond, and was able to then answer "are you licensed, bonded, and insured" with a simple "yes."
- Status