Licensed General Contractor in Scottsdale, AZ

The Arizona Registrar of Contractors licenses contractors by trade. A license is not decoration: it means the holder passed a trade and business exam, carries a bond, and is subject to a complaints process that can order corrective work or pay out against that bond.

That last part is the part homeowners rarely hear about. If a licensed contractor abandons your job or performs it badly, you have a state body to complain to and a bond to claim against. If an unlicensed one does, your only route is civil court at your own expense.

It also sets a hard ceiling on who can legally do the work. In Arizona, most residential work over $1,000 including materials requires a license. A contractor working outside that is not saving you money; they are moving the risk onto you.

Most general contractors hold a single general license and subcontract the trades. That is normal and legal. It also means that when the electrical fails inspection, the general contractor's answer is that they will speak to the electrician.

We hold the general contracting license and the electrical, plumbing and HVAC licenses separately, in our own name. When a rough-in fails, there is no one else to speak to. The correction is ours, on our schedule, at our cost.

For architects and designers this matters for a different reason: the person answering your RFI is the person who will pour the slab. Design intent does not get diluted through a chain of subcontractors who never saw the drawings.

Ask for the ROC number, then look it up yourself at azroc.gov. The record shows the license class, whether it is active, when it was issued, and any complaints filed against it. It takes about a minute.

Check that the name on the license matches the name on your contract and the name on the truck. A license held by a different entity than the one you are contracting with is a real exposure, and it is more common than it should be.

Ask which trades are subcontracted and get the answer in writing. There is nothing wrong with subcontracting, but you are entitled to know who will actually be in your house and who carries the license for that work.