LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — The Nevada Contractors Board launched a new restricted license this week aimed at helping people enter the contracting workforce while protecting homeowners from unlicensed workers.
The law creating the provisional licenses was signed by Gov. Joe Lombardo after the last legislative session. The Nevada State Contractors Board said the new license will help those looking for work and protect homeowners by ensuring the person coming onto their property is legitimate.
Homeowners left vulnerable by unlicensed contractors
Barbara Ojito paid $8,000 to an unlicensed contractor for work on her home.
“They tore the whole house apart. I mean everything was filthy, was nasty,” Ojito said.
The contractor was someone who attended the same church she used to attend.
“I gave him every penny that I had,” Ojito said.
When people hire contractors who are not licensed and they take off with the money or do shoddy or incomplete work, homeowners are left with little recourse.
“It’s very heartbreaking. We see it all the time and you wish there was more you could do,” said Bree Welch, licensing supervisor with the Nevada State Contractors Board.
Welch said the board can help if a job done by a licensed contractor goes wrong, often reimbursing homeowners tens of thousands of dollars.
New license lowers barriers to entry
To prevent unlicensed work, the board is encouraging anyone who wants to become a licensed contractor to apply for the new B-7 restricted license.
“The full contractor license requires four years of experience as well as a trade exam. This is only requiring two years of experience, and there is no trade exam alongside this license,” Welch said.
Henry Smith, a licensed contractor and pastor at Reflection Southern Baptist Church, said the new license will help people in his community.
“So we have people in the community that do several of the different trades, and some of them don’t know how to aspire to go to a high level. They need to be legal,” Smith said.
Smith and Frantz Morman Jr., pastor at Greater Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, are both licensed contractors from the Historic Westside. They said the new provisional licenses will help their parishioners.
“Because once they get licensed, they can advertise. And then when you can advertise, you can promote more business and generate the business,” Smith said.
“If there’s any kind of way that we can work with the State Contractors Board to get more information out to the community, to the younger people, it will be just such a great thing,” Smith added.
Morman said many young men in the community are qualified to do handyman work, plumbing, electricity and masonry, but lack licenses.
“But the deal of it is they qualify actually to do a lot of handyman work… but they don’t have a license to go over and do it because now they do it, someone complains, they go to jail. They don’t want to have to go to jail after they’ve done all the hard work for them,” Morman said.
The pastors said some of their parishioners have performed work and then had people refuse to pay and instead threaten to call authorities to report they are unlicensed.
The B-7 restricted license authorizes licensees to perform work for projects up to $7,000. The Nevada State Contractors Board is now accepting applications for the new B-7 restricted license. For more information or to obtain an application, visit the Nevada State Contractors Board website at B-7 Restricted License.
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