Qualifying Agent

[mgookin]

I'm considering qualifying for a small company here in Florida, they currently do other work than electrical contracting. Since some of the work being preformed may skirt the edge of what a EC should be working on and what a technician should be working on I have concerns in getting involved as a QA.
If the parent Company were to open a dba and I was to qualify for the dba only would that insulate my license from any grey area work that a tech working for the parent Company may get involved in?

Now that there's been so much discussion on it I have a better understanding of your question. Let me set up a hypothetical example of what I (now) think you're asking.

Acme General Contractors needs (wants) a qualifying agent to pull electrical permits and have electricians on their payroll doing electrical work. They also will have a separate qualifying agent for plumbing, one for roofing, etc. Or it could be they are ACME HVAC Contractors and they want an EC as is common.

Back to the original question...

For 15 years I ran all the permitting, plan review & licensing for a very large building department in the 2nd fastest growing region of the USA (and in the crash we were #2 for foreclosures, etc.) We went from 2 inspectors in a department of a dozen people the day I started to 119 employees on the day I left.

If you qualify ACME Contractors to pull electrical permits, you are on the hook for the electric work. You are not on the hook for plumbing, roofing, etc. whether there is a subordinate DBA, LLC or otherwise. Now when I say "on the hook" that is with respect to the licensing boards and the local AHJ. Any time I ever have a problem on a job which can't be settled with whomever is representing that license holder, I call that license holder into the office to resolve the matter. If an event warranted elevating something to the state licensing board, it would be that license holder named in the complaint. And any citations to appear in county court would name that license holder.

An LLC limits the liability of a company to the assets of that company. It insulates the LLC members from personal liability except in exceptionally egregious circumstances.

I strongly suggest you establish a separate "single member LLC" called ACME Electric and that you are that sole member and you qualify ACME Electric to pull permits. Your signature must appear on all permit applications. Giving someone power of attorney to obtain permits is setting yourself up to get into a situation you don't want to get into. It's your license on the line. You open the bank accounts and make them an authorized signer on the accounts so they can do the banking and you can see the books. This is about as insulated as you can get. It all comes back to you with the licensing board.

You are required by state law to have constructive control over all jobs. Being the only authorized signer helps keep that in check.

If they are pulling permits that you know nothing about, that's what we call prostituting a license as me and my Deputy Director of DBPR buddy like to call it. There have been prosecutions for it with various trades.

That's about as much info as I can give you. I hope this helps.