Contractor Background Checks

SHOULD YOU DO A BACKGROUND AND REFERENCE CHECKS ON CONTRACTORS?

Having to properly vet a prospective contractor before they take your money to start a project is one of the most important things that you can do.  Every day here in Florida you can open up a newspaper or a neighborhood social media app and see an article or complaint about a contractor who has taken a deposit for a project and either has not started it or never completed it.  People are always complaining of poor communication, sub standard work product or even criminality from contractors.

All this is avoidable because in most cases a contractor who isn’t qualified has a poor reputation and a well-documented history of negative complaints from neighbors, civil actions, or criminal history.

Just as it is important to get quotes from several contractors and compare prices, it is equally as important to conduct background checks on these contractors.  Most people who have been taken advantage of by contractors could have prevented this by having a qualified private investigator conduct a background check.  The process is affordable, doesn’t take much time, and will result in only positive results.  Save money and the stress that comes from picking a poor contractor, and get a background check on your prospective contractor done.

WHY IS IT BEST TO HIRE A PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR TO CONDUCT A BACKGROUND CHECK ON A CONTRACTOR?

Unfortunately, most times we get phone calls about contractors that have allready been paid a large sum of money and not completed the work.  Other times its when a contractor takes a deposit and does not show up, and of course a major problem that we hear from our clients is about contractors who provided sub-standard quality of work.

These calls are almost always avoidable if the person who was looking to hire a contractor had not only compared prices of prospective contractors but had hired an experienced private investigator to conduct background checks on the final candidates of contractors that they were about to hire to conduct some home repairs or remodeliing.

WHAT DOES A CONTRACTOR BACKGROUND CHECK ACTUALLY LOOK FOR?

A comprehensive background check on a contractor will provide you with several very important pieces of information that will help you in making the final decision of which contractor to hire.

• All civil actions that have been brought up on the contractors as an individual and also the business entitiy.  This means that a proper background check  will uncover all past and current lawsuits that the individual or business has or is involved in.

This not only covers the current county of where the individual lives in or does business in, but all counties statewide that this contractor has resided in or has done business in.

• A complete criminal history on the contractor, which includes a nationwide criminal history search.  If any criminal records are located, we will then provide as much details as possible to get a clear picture of the event.
• An in-depth social media search on the contractor and his business.  We search all social media profiles, including all neighborhood community social networks for any postings of complaints or warnings.

Most times a poor contractor has a history of issues with other homeowners.  Neighborhood social media groups have always been a great tool for homeowners to recommend contractors and also post warning on contractors that should be avoided at all costs.  We search these platforms diligently for any positive or negative postings about the contractor on who we are conducting the background check.

• Upon your request, we would contact any referrals provided by the contractor and inquire about the contractors workmanship and if there had been any problems during the process.

WILL THE CONTRACTOR KNOW THAT WE ARE CONDUCTING A BACKGROUND CHECK?

Absolutely not.  All background checks are conducted completely discreet and with full confidence.  The contractor that we are conducting the background check on will not know that a background check is being conducted.  We work behind the scenes to check records and query our resources to provide accurate results.

HOW LONG DOES A BACKGROUND CHECK ON A CONTRACTOR TAKE?

In most cases, we complete our background checks within 5 business days.  There are times that the process takes longer, but may take longer based on several variables.  These delays can be due to the individual residing multiple states that need to be queried for records, or certain records that need to be retrieved and are dependant on the agency involved.