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A Step by Step Guide to Obtaining a Contractor's License in Virginia

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 Step One - Determine the Type of License Your Company will need

A. Choose Your License Class

In our last Blog, we discussed this topic in detail. Therefore, we are not going to repeat it here. Please go to 
https://www.freedombusinessschool.com/Contractors-License/What-kind-of-Contractors-License-Do-I-Need?

B. Choose Your Specialty

Now that you have determined how much work you are going to be allowed to perform with your license, you must determine what you are going to do. Contractor licenses have classifications and specialties that identify the type of work that may be performed with the license. You can find these classifications on our website at 
https://freedombusinessschool.com/contractors-license-virginia-arizona/license-requirements-for-virginia
The definition of each of the classifications and specialties can be found in the Board for Contractors Regulations. It is important to select the specialty that best describes the work your company will be performing as working outside the scope of your license is a violation of the regulations and could result in disciplinary action against the license holder. 

 

Step Two – Name your company and register that name

All businesses have a name. Sometimes that is just the name of the sole proprietorship but often it is a fictitious or “trading as” name. You may choose any fictitious name allowed by law, but you must register that name with the appropriate authorities. If your company is a corporation, LLC or limited partnership, you must register both your company and any names used by that company with the Virginia State Corporation Commission. If you have a partnership or sole proprietorship you must register any fictitious name with the court in the jurisdiction in which your company is located. You must provide documentation of any fictitious name as part of your application to the Board for Contractors. While you may be as creative as you would like in developing a fictitious name, it must not indicate that you do work that is not allowed by your license. For example, ABCXYZ, Inc., has applied for a license to perform roofing work, it would not be allowed to be called ABCXYZ Builders, Inc., as their license would not permit them to be builders. 

Step Three – Identify your Responsible Management   All licensed contractors are required, by law, to identify officers, members, partners, owners, etc., of their business entities. The individuals that must be identified depend on the types of business entity formed for your company. Sole proprietorships, for example, must only identify the one individual who owns the business. Partnerships must identify the partners, corporations the officers, LLCs the members/managers, etc. In order to complete the application you must provide the names of these individuals, their birthdates, Social Security Numbers OR Virginia DMV Control Number, and their address. 

Step Four – Identify your Qualified Individual(s)

You must have a Qualified Individual (QI) for each of the specialties wanted on the license. The QI must be either a bona fide full-time employee (minimum 30 hours per week and not a 1099 employee) OR one of the members of Responsible Management identified in step three. Most Qis are only required to have experience in the specialty they will be linked to and the amount of experience is determined by the class of license. The QI  for a Class A license must have five years of experience in the specialty, Class B must have three years of experience, and Class C two years of experience. The type of work that may be counted towards meeting the experience requirements can be found in the definition of each specialty listed in the Board for Contractors Regulations. Qualified Individuals must have an additional license or certification OR complete a technical examination that is based on the scope of work allowed by that particular specialty. 

Step Five – Identify your Designated Employee and complete the examination

Class A and Class B contractors must have a Designated Employee who has passed the required portions of the examination. As with the Qualified Individual, the Designated Employee must be a member of Responsible Management or a bona fide full-time employee. All Designated Employees for Class B licenses must successfully complete the General and Virginia portions of the examination. All Designated Employees for Class A licenses must successfully complete the General, Virginia, and Advanced portions of the examination. Please note that there is no Designated Employee for Class C licenses. 

Freedom Business School offers online and Home Study courses for all classes of contractor licenses We are approved by the VA Board for Contrators as provider of the pre-license education. 

All information on these courses is available at 
https://freedombusinessschool.com/courses/contractors-license-virginia-arizona
There are more steps in the licensing process. We will discuss the rest of them in the Part 2 of this Blog series.

 

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