04/03/2023
Licensing
Is your contractor fully licensed?
Do you know what the one in the middle is?
A Prepaid Contractor License is for construction, maintenance, repairing, altering, adding to or improving private dwellings, or real property used in conjunction with a private dwelling such as landscaping services.
If your contractor is accepting money (such as deposits or progress payments) before the work has been completed, or is even negotiating a prepaid contract at any other place than his/her place of business (your home), then your contractor is breaking the law.
This is a law put in place to protect consumers from being ripped off.
Most renovation contractors do not have one of these because there is a lot of red tape to get one. You must be bonded, complete a criminal record check, and fill out a variety of business information forms as part of the application.
It’s kind of a pain in the butt to get, so most don’t bother (if they even know they’re supposed to have one!)
If you’re worried about potentially ripped off by a renovation contractor, you can check for yourself if they have a Prepaid Contractor Licensed.
www.servicealberta.ca/find-if-business-is-licensed.cfm