How to Verify a Washington Contractor Before Hiring
Washington keeps a contractor’s registration, bond, liability insurance, workers’ compensation account, infractions and lawsuits against the bond in one public record, and L&I’s Verify tool reads it back in a few minutes. What no record can tell you is whether the work is any good — Washington does not test a contractor’s skill to register one — so verifying a contractor is two jobs. Check what the state keeps, then check what it cannot.
What the state already requires
Washington requires construction contractors to register with the Department of Labor & Industries, and RCW 18.27.020 is blunt about the alternative: every contractor must register, and it is a gross misdemeanor to advertise, bid or perform work without a registration, to work while a registration is suspended or revoked, or to subcontract to an unregistered contractor. The registration is not a formality. To hold one, a contractor must maintain a surety bond, carry liability insurance and hold a Washington business license. Since July 2024 the bond is $30,000 for a general contractor and $15,000 for a specialty contractor, and the required general liability insurance is $50,000 for damage to your property and $200,000 for public liability, or $250,000 combined single limit.
L&I separates two kinds of registration. A general contractor can do most kinds of construction work and can hire subcontractors in several specialties; a specialty contractor may work only in the specialty the registration names and may not hire subcontractors. The state registers 63 specialties, from roofing and painting to tree removal and mobile home set-up.
Not every job needs a registered contractor. L&I names gutter cleaning, pruning or lawn care, and window washing as services that do not require registration — worth knowing, because “registered” is not the only thing a price reflects.
Where the record lives
The record is L&I’s Verify tool, on the department’s website at Lni.wa.gov/Verify. It takes four keys: a name; a contractor or tradesperson license number; a workers’ compensation account; or a Washington UBI (business license) number. The contractor’s registration number must appear in all of its advertising — business cards and internet advertisements included — and on your written bid, so a bidder who cannot give you a number to search has failed the first test before the work is even discussed.
What the tool reports, and what it does not
| The field | What it establishes | What it does not |
|---|---|---|
| An active registration | The business is registered with L&I, and is bonded, insured and licensed | That the work will be good — that is the other half of this page |
| The bond and its amount | That there is a bond against which a valid claim may be made | That the bond is reserved for you: the state’s own notice warns it might not cover a single claim and that it covers all of the contractor’s work |
| Liability insurance and its coverage | Where a claim goes if the contractor damages your property by negligence | That the coverage suits your project. You can read the policy and its limit, and for a large project L&I suggests reviewing it with your insurance agent |
| The workers’ comp account | Whether the account covering any employees on your job is active | That one exists: an owner-operator or sole proprietor with no employees is not required to carry one |
| Citations and infractions | Any safety or construction citations, and past infractions, on the license history | That a clean record means a careful crew on your job |
| Lawsuits against the bond | Whether the bond has been the subject of past or pending legal action | That a suit is proof of a bad contractor — but a pattern is worth asking about |
| The owners’ names | Who you are actually dealing with | Nothing about the work |
The tool also issues a Certificate of Workers’ Compensation Coverage, and it will search a subcontractor or an individual tradesperson, not only the prime contractor.
Registration is not a competency test
This is the distinction to hold on to. Washington does not require a contractor to pass a competency or skills test to become registered. Registration tells you a business is registered, bonded, insured and licensed; it does not tell you the work is any good. What closes that gap is what the state cannot test for you: three references you can actually reach, a look at comparable work, and a written scope. L&I’s first listed warning sign is a contractor who “provides a credential or reference that can’t be verified” — the check is the test.
Credentials: the trades that carry their own license
Registration belongs to the business; some trades carry a separate individual credential, and the same tool checks that too. L&I requires a person to be certified to work in the plumbing trade in Washington — journey level (PL01), residential (PL02), residential service (PL04) and several other categories — and its own advice for a water heater is to hire a licensed plumbing contractor that employs certified plumbers. Electrical work requires a valid electrical certificate or license, and an electrical contractor license needs a valid UBI, a $4,000 bond or assignment of savings, and a designated master electrician or administrator. The Verify tool will also confirm that the tradesperson in electrical, plumbing, elevator installation or manufactured home installation is certified in Washington.
The practical consequence: check the business’s registration and the individuals’ certification separately, because one record does not stand in for the other.
One document ties the number to the record
For a repair, alteration or construction project on four or fewer residential units where the bid or contract price is $1,000 or more, a contractor must give you a disclosure statement — the “Notice to Customer” — before starting work. It carries the registration number, the bond amount and the registration’s expiration date, and it warns that the bond might not cover a claim and that your property may be liened. The contractor keeps a signed copy for three years; you should keep your own. It is the place to check that the number on the paper matches the number in the record.
If something goes wrong
L&I’s Homeowner Recovery Fund can pay an eligible owner-occupant up to $25,000, depending on available funds, when a registered contractor leaves a job unfinished or does inferior work — but only after you have taken the contractor to superior court and hold a final judgment ordered after July 1, 2026, and only if you apply within 90 days of the case ending. When the fund is short, applicants go on a waitlist. It is a backstop, not a substitute for the check done first. L&I’s contractor information line is 1-800-647-0982, and its report-a-fraud line is 1-888-811-5974.
Next step
Before you sign anything, run every bidder through the Verify tool and keep the result — a print or a screenshot — with the bid. Confirm that the registration is active, the bond and insurance are in place, the workers’ comp account covers whoever will be on your property, and the trade credentials belong to the people doing the work. Then do the half of the job the record cannot: call the three references, ask whether they would hire the contractor again, and read the written bids against one scope. This is the hiring step of planning a renovation; registration is where verification starts, not where it ends.