Contractor Licensing

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Opinion time (before i spend money on my lawyer). in your opinion can a corperate entity say Acme Building and Contracting, Inc that is duly licensed by the state of Florida. That owns a fictitious name for example Acme Building and Contracting dba Acme General Contracting claim that "Acme General Contracting a Florida Corporation" is legally licensed under that license?

For the record I will probably have to lawyer up for this anyways but just curious.
 

LEO2854

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Opinion time (before i spend money on my lawyer). in your opinion can a corperate entity say Acme Building and Contracting, Inc that is duly licensed by the state of Florida. That owns a fictitious name for example Acme Building and Contracting dba Acme General Contracting claim that "Acme General Contracting a Florida Corporation" is legally licensed under that license?

For the record I will probably have to lawyer up for this anyways but just curious.
Welcome to the forum John:thumbsup:

You should contact your sate electrical board with that question, the rules are different in each state.

what is is that they are doing to you, that does not seem clear in your posting.?
 

GoldDigger

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Not sure whether having a DBA which is not actually a corporation in the state allows them to claim that name as a state corporation.
That sounds like it is on shakier ground than claiming the license status.
Basically having a DBA should allow them to use that name in their transactions, and also use any applicable license numbers held under their legal name.
But IANAL.

Tapatalk!
 
Thanks for the info. I have contacted FL DBPR (FL contractor licensing board) and i am waiting on a reply. I talked to the Chief Electrical inspector of Orange County he wasn't impressed (I gave him the real names involved). He felt that claiming a dba was a corporation on a contract was fraud.
 
Jonathan, it makes sense that you mustn't claim that Acme General (the DBA) is a corporation. (But really, "fraud"? When your intent is so benign? Well IANAL, too, myself.)

But as GoldDigger noted, that leaves your other embedded question: can you assert that "Acme General" is legally licensed in Florida", while remaining silent regarding the legal structure & status of that entity?

I'm curious what you learn. But, really, how many of us say "I am licensed/registered/etc" when in fact it's a corporation (LLC, e.g.) that holds the license/registration/whatever?
 

Daja7

Senior Member
Opinion time (before i spend money on my lawyer). in your opinion can a corperate entity say Acme Building and Contracting, Inc that is duly licensed by the state of Florida. That owns a fictitious name for example Acme Building and Contracting dba Acme General Contracting claim that "Acme General Contracting a Florida Corporation" is legally licensed under that license?

For the record I will probably have to lawyer up for this anyways but just curious.

In VA as long as you are a licensed contractor you can do Business under any DBA but you must list it under the main license. Simply list any DBA. No cost no waiting etc. but it must be registered.
 

goldstar

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
As has been mentioned, you have to check with your state's licensing board and ask what their policies are. Here in NJ an electrical license (good for 3 years) is issued to an individual. That license assures the general public that this individual has been qualified by the state to do electrical work. Now, if you intend to do business with the general public you have to obtain a business permit (also good for 3 years) under a name registered with your state. That business permit allows you to contract business with the general public.

So, when you first start out you are licensed as Joe Smith license # EI 12345, business permit # EB 12345. Should you decide to change the name of your company or work for someone else using your license your license # stays the same but your business permit changes to : Joe Smith, DBA Acme Electric business permit # EB 12345-A. If you decide to change again in the future the permit gets a B attached to it and so forth.
 

jahilliard

Senior Member
yep, as one posted previously, in Florida you can do business as ANY available DBA. In the past most licenses were assigned to the indidual and then they would create a DBA or several DBA's. For example..ACME Low Voltage experts and ACME High Voltage Experts AND ACME 24hr Electrical Service..etc, etc. All under the same license, just different DBA's.
 

Transportation Guy

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg,VA
Don't try that in NC. Each place of business has to have a qualified individual. Each company, location, period. They love prosecuting and fining individuals for "offering to engage in electrical contracting without holding an electrical license". If your the qualified individual for ABC electric, you cannot be for DEF electric. You can only qualify 1 company because you have to be "readily accessible".
 

Sierrasparky

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Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
Don't try that in NC. Each place of business has to have a qualified individual. Each company, location, period. They love prosecuting and fining individuals for "offering to engage in electrical contracting without holding an electrical license". If your the qualified individual for ABC electric, you cannot be for DEF electric. You can only qualify 1 company because you have to be "readily accessible".


That makes just no sense, readily accessable. If you have 3 company names under one physical roof and perform a total of 4-6 jobs a week . how does that compare to the large company with fleet of 10 service vehicles. How is that QI going to be readily avalable any different
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Don't try that in NC. Each place of business has to have a qualified individual. Each company, location, period. They love prosecuting and fining individuals for "offering to engage in electrical contracting without holding an electrical license". If your the qualified individual for ABC electric, you cannot be for DEF electric. You can only qualify 1 company because you have to be "readily accessible".

Extending what goldstar posted, this is also the case in NJ. Oddly enough, if you are the qualifying individual for a company, you can't even do business under your own name at the same time.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
But presumably an unlimited number of DBAs for the same underlying company and location are still OK?

Tapatalk!

That is a very interesting question, and I have no idea. Logic and the Law are frequently strangers.
 

Transportation Guy

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg,VA
Every DBA would be required to have a qualified individual. I worked for a company in NC that had its corporate office in Florida. The qualified individual moved to Florida to work in the main office. When the board found out, guess where the QI moved back to?? Check out their web page and news letter for people and companies they fined this year. www.ncbeec.org
 

Transportation Guy

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg,VA
Extending what goldstar posted, this is also the case in NJ. Oddly enough, if you are the qualifying individual for a company, you can't even do business under your own name at the same time.

Exactly. You are not the license holder. The business is and you are the QI. You're only allowed to qualify 1 company. Also, if you work full time at say a hardware store, and own your own electrical contracting business, you cannot have someone working for you doing electrical work while you are at your full time job. You are not "readliy accessible"
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Every DBA would be required to have a qualified individual. I worked for a company in NC that had its corporate office in Florida. The qualified individual moved to Florida to work in the main office. When the board found out, guess where the QI moved back to?? Check out their web page and news letter for people and companies they fined this year. www.ncbeec.org

I wouldn't dispute your observations regarding North Carolina. New Jersey may or may not follow the same model.
 

GoldDigger

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Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
Every DBA would be required to have a qualified individual. I worked for a company in NC that had its corporate office in Florida. The qualified individual moved to Florida to work in the main office. When the board found out, guess where the QI moved back to?? Check out their web page and news letter for people and companies they fined this year. www.ncbeec.org
An interesting tidbit indeed. NC pretty much bans the use of more than one DBA for licensed work under one license:

(8) Name in Which Business Must Be Conducted. All electrical contracting business, including all business advertising and the submission of all documents and papers, conducted in the state of North Carolina by a licensee of the Board shall be conducted in the exact name in which the electrical contracting license is issued.
And one person cannot be the QI for more than one contractors license except under some very limited conditions (such as one individual holding several different specialty licenses)
 
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