How to check a Michigan builder license before you sign

Before you look anything up

A license check takes a few minutes and answers one narrow question: may this person or company lawfully take this work in Michigan. Michigan has no foundation repair license, so you are looking for a residential builder license or a residential maintenance and alteration license whose crafts cover the job, a point our penalties guide explains. Contractors taking $600 or more in labor and materials must hold one, according to LARA’s homeowner guidance.

Get two things from the contractor first: the exact company name as it will appear on the contract, and the license number, in writing. A number given by phone and never repeated on paper is a number you cannot check later.

Step by step on the LARA lookup

LARA’s page for finding or verifying a licensed professional or business lists residential builders and links to the state license search at michigan.gov/statelicensesearch. Open it yourself instead of following a link the contractor sends you.

1. Search by the license number, or by the company name if you only have that.
2. Open the record and read the name. Is it the company on your contract, or the owner as an individual? A company license and an owner’s personal license are different records.
3. Read the license type: residential builder, or maintenance and alteration.
4. Read the craft or crafts on a maintenance and alteration license. LARA says the trades a contractor may practice are listed on the license. The possible ones are carpentry, concrete, excavation, insulation work, masonry, siding, roofing, screens and storm sash, gutters, tile and marble, house wrecking, swimming pools and basement waterproofing.
5. Read the status and the dates. A license is issued for three years. An expired or suspended status is a reason to stop.

Residential builder licenses cover building a complete residential structure and maintenance and alteration work. A maintenance and alteration license covers the specific trades named on it, and a licensee may do work in another craft only if it is incidental and supplemental to the licensed craft. If the crack injection company holds only a roofing craft, ask why that covers your wall.

Match the craft to your job, with caution

The statute names no craft for foundation work, so the match is a judgment. Concrete, masonry, excavation and waterproofing a basement are the crafts that plausibly fit crack repair, piers, drain tile and wall work, and a residential builder license fits anything. That is our reading and not LARA’s. A contractor with a sensible answer can say which of their crafts they are relying on. If an answer is vague, ask LARA’s Residential Builders section at 517-241-9309, or the Licensing Section at 517-241-9316.

Note two limits. Sump pumps, drains tied to a plumbing system and electrical work for a dehumidifier or a radon fan fall under other trades’ licenses, which you check separately. And there is nothing to look up for radon testers and mitigators, since EGLE says they are not licensed or regulated in Michigan. We make no claim either way about home inspectors; we found no primary source and left it out.

Company or owner

When a company holds the license, MCL 339.2405 requires it to designate a qualifying officer who passed the exam, holds an individual license and supervises the work. If that person leaves, the company license is suspended. So ask who the qualifying officer is, and check that the name on the contract, the license record and the person who walks your house line up. A salesperson is not the licensee.

LARA says the state license must be displayed at the place of business, and contractors and their salespersons must carry a pocket card that a homeowner may ask to see. A contractor who bristles at the request has told you something.

What the contract should contain

LARA lists what the contract should include: the company name, address, phone and license number; detailed specifications and any architect or engineer drawings required; start and completion dates; a statement that the contractor will obtain all required building permits; a warranty statement; and a right-to-cancel clause, which is three days if the sale was solicited and signed at your home. MCL 570.1114 adds a point that matters if a dispute ever reaches a court: a contractor has no construction lien right on a residential structure unless the work was under a written contract with changes in writing, and the contract must state that the contractor must be licensed and give the license number.

Ask for the warranty in writing and read who backs it, whether it transfers when you sell, and what voids it. Those three questions cost nothing and will tell you more than the brochure.

The three-day cancellation rule

Michigan’s home solicitation sales law, MCL 445.112, lets a buyer cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing. MCL 445.111 defines the sale as one over $25 that was solicited and agreed at the buyer’s residence, and excludes sales that follow negotiation at the seller’s place of business or a published ad. The rule does not appear to cover you when you called the contractor yourself, which is our reading of the definition, not a ruling. If a salesperson knocked on your door after a storm or phoned you and you signed in your kitchen, the right probably applies, and the contract should say so.

What a license does not prove

It does not prove the diagnosis is correct. The person who tells you that a wall must be pinned, a drain tile replaced or a crawl space encapsulated is often the person who sells it. A license says nothing about that conflict, and the lookup will not show it. Our engineer guide explains how to get a written read from someone with nothing to sell, and the cost guide explains how to compare quotes once you have it. Foundation companies pay us for referrals, and we pass your request to one company without checking its license for you. Do the check yourself before you sign, even if the company came from us.

If the check turns up a problem, or the work goes wrong later, LARA says to try the contractor first, then the local building inspector, and then a complaint to the Residential Builders section, within 18 months of completion. The foundation repair page and the basement waterproofing page say what the work involves.