I have an ideological problem with the entire concept of "government licensing." A person shouldn't need permission from politicians and bureaucrats and pay often large fees to get a license to earn a living.
A license doesn't prove much of anything concerning the abilities of the contractor.
A much better way to "control" contractors and handymen is through private certification and public feedback from verified customers through Home Adviser, Angie's List etc.
In my area unlicensed contractors are pretty much free to work as they please, so long as they don't misrepresent themselves as licensed.
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Public feedback is probably our very best regulatory mechanism.
I don't know how familiar you might be with E-bay, but their regulatory "licensing" certification, qualification of sellers is nothing more than a very well modeled immedaite and honest feedback system. AND IT WORKS GREAT.
I sorta don't technically agree with ZZZZZ as regards the internet feedback models of Home Advisor or Angies....as they are based on a business revenue model that perhaps conflicts with integrity and honest feedback. Home Advisor collects money from the contractor forreferrals....inherent conflict.
I can't believe Im saying this.....BUT maybe our public entities (government or consumer protection agencies), should spend some of our tax dollars on providing a national "registery" of consumer feedback. This is now feasable with the internet.
Yelp comes close, but I think it's revenue model is advertising and it is of limited extent.
What if there was one source on the internet, where you could see customer reviews of your attorney, your doctor, your car dealeer, your handyman.
I'm not sure there is a good private model that reasonably needs profit that can provide that. Yes, there would have be designed procedure to insure integrity/honesty of the reviews...but I don't think that would be insolvable.
Just a thought....