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smileysteve

Reasons why licensing is good

- liability coverage

- not a con artist

- work meets code

Reasons it's bad

- protectionism

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I've seen a ton of "licensed" contractor work that didn't meet code. Licensing doesn't guarantee your bullet list.

But at least it provides an avenue for recourse against bad actors. Licensing should be simple and easy to obtain.

"Per the article, "It takes four years to get licensed for a variety of residential and commercial construction work in Florida, according to data collected by the Institute for Justice."

This should be a simple knowledge test, and perhaps an inspection of their work product.

> Licensing should be simple and easy to obtain.

In a developed country like Austria this means taking at least three years of education and passing an exam in front of representatives of the chamber of commerce. It's nowhere simple in order to keep the scammers out.

I think pretty much any licensing with educational component is either regulatory capture or safety theater.

There should always be an option to test out of it if you can demonstrate acceptable knowledge and work product.

I care about their Baseline knowledge and the quality of their work. The time and ability to pay for classes demonstrates neither

Most of the licenses that the article is referring to that take four years don't have any educational requirement. They take four years because they require that you have four years (or equivalent) or work experience.

Here are the license requirements:

1. Four years work experience or equivalent in the particular field you are trying to get licensed in. Some of the work experience can be replaced with college classes from an accredited program.

2. Passing an exam (or 2 exams for a few specialities). To give an idea of what such exams are like, here are descriptions of the exams you have to pass fir a gypsum drywall contractor license.

2A. Gypsum drywall trade knowledge exam. 5 hours, 80 questions, open book covering topics such as gypsum and gypsum wallboard installations, taping and texturing, metal stud walls and ceiling grid systems, and special applications. More details on what is covered here [1].

2B. Business and finance exam. 6.5 hours, 120 questions, open book covering topics such as establishing a contracting business, managing administrative duties, managing trade operations, accounting stuff, managing human resources, and complying with regulations. Here's more detail [2].

[1] http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/servop/testing/document...

[2] http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/servop/testing/document...

The point is to raise the bar.

Many professions require audits, reviews, professional development and examples or tests etc etc in order to keep registration.

Every single contractor I've ever contracted had legalese in the contract that permits were the owners responsibility, and typically if they knew you weren't pulling permits, corners were cut on the work.

I now always get permits on the work for this reason even though it easily doubles the amount of time for the work to get done (because e.g. you need to wait, sometimes many days, for an inspector to show up before drywalling over electrical or plumbing work).

What should be prosecuted:

- missing liability insurance

- scamming people

- work that doesn't meet code

What gets prosecuted:

- work that's done without necessary license

Two additional plainly stated reasons in the article suggest licensing "is bad" that you left out of this bulleted list are: competitive pricing, supply responding to demand surge (indeed the entire reason the article was written).

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