Doing it right / Miami-Dade
How to read a Florida contractor license
Florida issues contractor licenses in two forms that look alike on a business card and are not equivalent. A certified license is valid across the whole state. A registered one is valid only in the jurisdiction that issued the competency card behind it. If a company advertises three counties, that distinction decides whether it may legally work in two of them.
Three things you can verify yourself
The number belongs on the ad
Florida requires it in advertising
You can check it online
the state portal is public
Ask for the certificate
licensed and insured are two things
What to ask any contractor for
The license number
Verifiable on the state portal in a minute
The permit
Pulled under their license, not your name
Insurance certificate
Issued by the insurer, not typed by the contractor
A written scope
Model, approval number, what is included, what is not
The five-minute check before you sign
| Task | Who can do it | Risk | What we advise |
|---|---|---|---|
| A license number on the website | Florida requires it in advertising | Low | Its absence is the first red flag |
| Verifying it | The state portal shows status and category | Low | Check it is active and the right category |
| Insurance | Ask for a certificate from the insurer | Low | Verify the dates cover your job |
| Who pulls the permit | The contractor, under their license | Moderate | Never sign a permit as owner-builder for their work |
| A written scope | Model, approval, inclusions and exclusions | Low | Verbal scope is where disputes start |
| Cash-only, no paperwork, storm-chasing | No license, no permit, no recourse | High | Walk away |
2
license forms that look alike and are not
3
places the law requires the number to appear
1 min
time it takes to verify a number on the state register
More detail if you want it
Certified travels, registered does not
A certified contractor has passed a state examination and holds a license recognized in every county in Florida. A registered contractor has been approved by a specific local licensing authority and is entitled to work where that authority governs — nowhere else, no matter how far the company is willing to drive. Both are legitimate. Only one of them travels.
This matters more here than in most markets, because the metropolitan area runs across three counties and homeowners routinely hire companies whose vans they have seen in another one. The question to ask is short and it is never rude: which type is your license, and which jurisdictions does it cover?
What the number has to appear on
Florida statute requires a licensed contractor to display the license number on advertising, on contracts and on the vehicles used for the work. That requirement is a gift to the person hiring: a company that meets it can be checked in about a minute, and a company that does not has already told you something before you have asked a single question.
The number itself carries its own prefix, and the prefix is the tell: it says which category and which of the two forms the license takes before you look anything up. A quote that names a person but no number is not a quote from a licensed contractor until proven otherwise.
Insurance is a separate document, and it expires
A license and an insurance certificate are not the same paper and do not cover the same risk. General liability covers damage done to your property; workers compensation covers the person injured on it. A company can hold a valid license and let a policy lapse, and the certificate carries a date precisely so you can see that.
Ask for the certificate rather than the assurance. Any established company can produce one the same day, usually by asking its broker to send it directly, and the ones that hesitate are the whole reason the question is worth asking.
Florida license questions homeowners actually ask
How do you find out which counties a registered contractor license covers?
The state register shows a license and its status, while the scope comes from the local authority that issued the competency card behind it.
- Ask the contractor, then ask the building department
- They accept or reject the permit application anyway
- Certified is statewide, registered is local
What happens to a homeowner if unlicensed garage door work is discovered?
Enforcement falls on the contractor, and the consequences land on the property.
- Unpermitted work sits on the record at sale
- An inspector can require it opened up and redone
- An insurer may ask who performed it
You are not the target of the penalty and you carry most of the cost, which is the whole reason the number is worth checking beforehand.
Is a garage door company with employees better than a one-person outfit?
Employees change one specific thing, and it is the workers compensation question rather than the quality of the work.
- A sole operator may hold a lawful exemption
- An exemption means no policy behind an injury
- Neither arrangement is wrong on its own
Is a contractor's insurance certificate the same document as the license?
A license and an insurance certificate are separate papers covering separate risks, and only one of them expires quietly.
- General liability covers damage to your property
- Workers compensation covers the person injured
- Ask for the certificate dated, not described
Sources
- Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
- Miami-Dade County — Product Control and Permitting
Edited by Avidan Benichay · Updated
General information about garage doors in South Florida — not a diagnosis of your door, and not a quote. Code and prices vary by address and change over time. Terms of use
Worth knowing first
Can a handyman do it?For anything structural — springs, cables, panels, tracks, or installing a door — no.1dedicated Florida specialty license for garage doors- Permits for door workChanging the door itself requires a building permit, filed with the approval number of the exact product going in and closed out by an inspection; repairing what is already there — springs, cables, rollers, hinges, an opener — does not.Replacementthe trigger — repairs to existing hardware are not
- Changing a spring yourselfPhysically you can, and every year a number of people in this county find out what that costs.2winding bars the job requires, sized to the cone
- Service areasWe work across three counties — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach.47municipalities and neighborhoods inside Miami-Dade
- About usWe have proudly served South Florida homeowners since 2014 with dependable garage door repair, professional installation, and hurricane-ready solutions.25BS00124Miami-Dade Certificate of Competency, in the open
Commercial doorsA loading bay that will not open stops the business behind it, and the invoice for the door is almost never the largest number in that day.2door families, with different failure modes entirely- WarrantyWe do not publish a warranty length, and the reason is arithmetic rather than caution: a torsion spring is rated by the manufacturer in cycles, one cycle being a single opening and closing, so the same pair lasts three years on a door used eight times a day and fourteen on a door used twice.10,000cycles in the common household spring grade — one cycle is one open and close
Next step
Find out what your address actually requires.
Design pressure depends on your exact wind zone and the geometry of the opening. We check it before quoting anything — no guesswork, no round numbers.
You describe what the door is doing
The noise it makes, how far it travels, whether the opener runs.
We test it on site
Springs, cables, balance, tracks, opener force and the safety reverse.
You get the price before any work starts
Itemized in writing, including the permit when the job needs one.
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