Washington makes this easy, and it takes about two minutes. Every construction contractor working in the state — from a one-person handyman to a full remodeling outfit — is required by law to register with the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I), post a contractor bond, and carry liability insurance. That registration is public. You can pull up any contractor's record at secure.lni.wa.gov, read whether it is active, and confirm the bond and insurance are actually on file before you sign anything or hand over a deposit.
This matters more than most homeowners realize. In Washington, hiring an unregistered contractor is not just risky — the work itself is illegal, and it strips away the protections the state built for you. An unregistered contractor generally can't file a lien or sue to collect if there is a dispute, but you also lose the safety net that runs the other direction: no bond to claim against, no verified insurance if someone is hurt on your property, and no L&I record of infractions to warn you. That makes this the first check on any bid — ahead of the price, the timeline, and how good the reviews look.
The check is the same whether you found the contractor through a neighbor, a yard sign, or a search. It is free, it is public, and no reputable Spokane pro will be bothered that you ran it — the good ones expect it. What follows is exactly how to read that record, what each line means, and the red flags that should end the conversation.
Registration is the floor: legal to work in Washington, bonded, insured. Craftsmanship is the second question, and you answer that one with references from recent local jobs, photos of finished work, and a written, itemized bid.
How to verify a license, step by step
Have the contractor's business name or their contractor registration number handy — it should appear on their bid, their card, or their vehicle. Then walk the record top to bottom. Each step below maps to a field you'll actually see on the L&I page.
- 01Open the L&I verification tool
Go to secure.lni.wa.gov and open “Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business.” This is the state's own free lookup, pulling straight from L&I's registration database, so what you see is the current legal status of the business.
- 02Search by business name or registration number
Search by the exact business name, the contractor registration number, or the nine-digit UBI number. Names can be close but not identical — confirm the legal name and any “doing business as” match the person actually bidding your job, not a similarly named company across town.
- 03Confirm the registration status reads ACTIVE
The status line is the whole point. It should read ACTIVE. If it reads expired, suspended, revoked, or inactive, stop — that contractor is not currently legal to perform construction work in Washington, and the bond and insurance behind it may have lapsed too.
- 04Check the bond is on file
Confirm a contractor bond is listed, with a dollar amount, a surety company, and effective dates that cover today. A general contractor and a specialty contractor carry different bond amounts. A missing or lapsed bond means one of the two financial protections the state requires simply isn't there.
- 05Confirm liability insurance is current
The record shows whether a liability insurance policy is on file and in effect, with its own effective and expiration dates. This is what covers damage to your home if something goes wrong. If the policy has expired, ask for a current certificate of insurance before work starts.
- 06Scan for lawsuits, tax warrants, and infractions
Below the basics, L&I lists any lawsuits filed against the bond, Department of Revenue tax warrants, and L&I infractions or citations. One old, resolved item isn't necessarily damning, but a pattern of bond claims or unpaid tax warrants is a real signal about how this business treats its customers and its obligations.
- 07Note the expiration date
Registration has to be renewed, so check when this one lapses. If it expires in the middle of your project, that's worth a question — you want the registration, bond, and insurance all valid through the day the last nail goes in, not just the day you sign.
What each line on the record actually means
The L&I record uses a handful of terms that trip people up. “Registered” and “certified” mean different things, a bond and an insurance policy protect you in different ways, and the UBI number does more work than it looks like. Here is what each one covers.
The short version: registration proves the business is legal and financially backed to do construction work in Washington, and a few trades — electrical, plumbing, HVAC and gas — carry a personal certification on top of it. Confirm both before you sign.
General and specialty contractors register with L&I. Some trades need more: electricians and plumbers must also hold individual state certification, and electrical and HVAC/gas work carries its own licensing. If you're hiring an electrician or plumber, confirm both the contractor registration and the trade certification — L&I lets you look up the individual tradesperson too.
The bond is a small pool of money a homeowner can make a claim against if a contractor breaches the contract. A general contractor's bond is larger than a specialty contractor's. Know how it behaves before you lean on it: claimants share the pool, you generally need a court judgment to collect, and there's a filing deadline. Treat it as one layer of protection, sized for a dispute rather than a whole failed project.
Liability insurance covers damage the contractor causes to your property; the record shows whether it's current. The UBI — Unified Business Identifier — is a nine-digit number Washington uses to track a business across L&I, the Department of Revenue, and the Secretary of State. Matching the UBI confirms you're looking at the same legal entity that's signing your contract.
Registration isn't permanent — it's renewed on a cycle, and it can lapse if a contractor lets the bond or insurance drop. An expired registration doesn't always mean a bad actor, but it does mean they aren't currently legal to work. Never let a project run under a lapsed registration; the protections vanish with it.
Red flags that should end the conversation
Most of these you can catch in the same two minutes it takes to read the record. Any single one is a reason to slow down and ask hard questions; more than one is usually a reason to walk.
- The registration reads expired, suspended, or revoked — or you can't find the business on L&I at all.
- No bond or no liability insurance on file, or a policy whose dates don't cover your project.
- They won't give you a registration or license number, or get evasive when you say you'll look it up.
- They push for a large cash deposit up front, or won't put the job in a written, itemized contract.
- They pressure you to skip permits, or offer a discount for paying cash “to keep it off the books.”
- A pattern of bond claims, tax warrants, or L&I infractions on the record — not one old, resolved item, but a trend.
Every contractor we list has a registration we checked against the state record
Every listing on spokane.contractors carries the contractor's Washington registration number, the date that registration was verified against the state record, and a link straight to the record itself — along with the contractor bond and liability insurance where the state shows them in force. One click and you are on the same page you would have pulled up yourself.
Run the two-minute version on anyone who reached you another way: the yard sign, the neighbor's cousin, the crew knocking on doors the week after a hailstorm. That is where lapsed registrations turn up, and it is where this check earns its keep. Spokane's housing stock invites exactly the kind of work where it matters — older South Hill and Browne's Addition homes, freeze-thaw damage along the eaves, and remodels that touch wiring, plumbing, and permits.
When you are ready to start calling, begin with our Spokane directory: pick the trade, work down the licensed businesses near you, and take three written, itemized bids. Or hand us the project instead — a real person at the Spokane desk reads every one that comes in and comes back to you with next steps.
The questions homeowners ask us most
How do I check a contractor's license in Washington?
Go to the Washington Department of Labor & Industries site at secure.lni.wa.gov and open “Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business.” Search by the business name, the contractor registration number, or the nine-digit UBI number. Confirm the registration status reads ACTIVE, that a contractor bond and liability insurance are on file with current dates, and scan for any lawsuits, tax warrants, or infractions. It's free, public, and takes about two minutes.
What's the difference between a registered and a licensed contractor in Washington?
Washington uses the word “registered” for the baseline every construction contractor must have: they register with L&I as a general or specialty contractor, post a bond, and carry insurance. “Licensed” is how people loosely describe that same status, but some trades genuinely need more — electricians and plumbers must also hold individual state certification, and electrical and HVAC/gas work carries its own licensing. For those trades, confirm both the contractor registration and the trade certification.
How much is a contractor bond in Washington?
A general contractor carries a larger bond than a specialty contractor; the exact amounts are set by state law and shown right on the contractor's L&I record, so confirm the current figure there rather than relying on a number you read elsewhere. Know how the bond behaves before you count on it: claimants share one pool, you generally need a court judgment to collect, and there's a filing deadline. Treat it as one layer of protection, sized for a dispute rather than a whole failed project.
What happens if I hire a contractor who isn't registered?
You lose the protections Washington built for homeowners. There's no bond to claim against, no verified insurance if someone is injured on your property, and no L&I record to warn you of past problems. Unregistered contracting is illegal in the state; an unregistered contractor generally can't file a lien or sue you to collect, but that's cold comfort if your project goes sideways. Verify the registration before any money changes hands — and if it won't verify, you have your answer.
Does a Washington contractor license guarantee good work?
It settles the part you can check on paper: the business is legal to work in Washington, backed by a bond and liability insurance, and clear of unresolved infractions. How well they build is the second question, and you answer that one with references from recent local jobs, photos of finished work, and a written, itemized bid you can hold against two others. Do both and you've covered the two things that decide how a project actually goes.
What is a UBI number?
UBI stands for Unified Business Identifier — a nine-digit number Washington assigns to a business when it registers with the state. The same UBI follows the business across L&I, the Department of Revenue, and the Secretary of State, so it's a reliable way to confirm you're looking at the exact legal entity that will sign your contract, not a similarly named company. You can search the L&I verification tool by UBI just as you would by business name.
Can I check a contractor's license online for free?
Yes. The L&I verification tool at secure.lni.wa.gov is free, public, and requires no account or login. You can look up a contractor's registration, bond, insurance, expiration date, and any lawsuits, tax warrants, or infractions — and you can look up individual tradespeople like electricians and plumbers the same way. It's the same record that stands behind every listing in our Spokane directory: each one shows a verified registration number, the date it was checked, and a link to the state record, so on those the lookup is already done for you.