Using a contractor that is qualified by another contractor

[Erin Bryant]

i am working on my first rehab in Fl and we have been working with a contractor that has great reviews but we just learned before we signed the contract with him that he is qualified by another contractors license. I now have many questions and hoping someone here can help.

1. how do we verify he is qualified by the licensed contractor?
2. Does being qualified mean hes covered by their insurance?
3. Should our contract be with the qualifying contractor instead of his business?
4. What other legal issues could this cause?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. We are supposed to get started next week and im just not sure if i should go forward.

[Wayne Brooks]

@Mike Darcey You are mistaken.  In Fl, a GC license is issued to an Individual, not a company.  A general contracting "company" is Qualified by a licensed Individual.  A GC company qualified by a licensed individual who is not the owner of that company, does not make them any less "legitimate".  The qualifying license holder does have some risk and liability for actions of the company he is qualifying.  As long as the company is licensed, has insurances, they are the same as any other GC.  It's not uncommon in medium sized co.s ($2-5M/year) for the qualifying license holder to not be the owner, but an employee/officer, such as an estimator, etc.