Expired, inactive or suspended
None of these three statuses is the same as never having been licensed, but none of them authorize the contractor to work right now either. Treat any status besides active as a reason to ask directly what happened before you sign anything.
Disciplinary history on the record
California's license lookup surfaces disciplinary history alongside the current status, which means a past complaint does not disappear just because the license is active today.[1]
A single old complaint is not automatically disqualifying, but a pattern is worth asking the contractor to explain directly.
Filing a bond claim in Washington
A homeowner's claim against a Washington contractor's bond, for breach of contract, has to be filed in superior court within two years of the work being substantially finished or abandoned.[2]
Reaching a recovery fund
Washington's Homeowner Recovery Fund can pay an owner-occupant of a home with four units or fewer up to 25,000 dollars, but only after a qualifying superior court judgment, and the application has to go in within 90 days of the case ending.[3]
Florida's Construction Industries Recovery Fund works on a similar clock: exhaust any bond, insurance or other security first, get a final judgment or arbitration award, show the contractor is uncollectible through a writ of execution or a documented search for assets, and file within one year of the case closing.[4]
What this means in practice
Both recovery processes assume you already have a court judgment in hand. That is a slower, more expensive road than checking a license before you ever sign a contract.
Florida's own eligibility conditions include showing the contractor is actually uncollectible, through a writ of execution or a documented search for assets, before the fund will even consider the claim.[4]
A bond claim moves faster than a recovery fund claim
A bond claim in Washington still requires filing in superior court, but it does not carry the same exhaust-every-other-option sequence Florida's recovery fund does, since the bond itself is the direct first stop.[2]
Keep your own paperwork the whole time
The contract, the payment record, and any correspondence about problems on the job are what a bond or recovery fund claim actually runs on later. None of that is optional if the relationship with a contractor goes wrong.
The cheaper alternative is upstream
Everything in this guide happens after a problem exists. The lookup, the bid comparison, the pocket-license check at the door, all cost a few minutes and happen before any money changes hands at all.