Does your contractor need a licence in BC?

Search for how to hire a contractor in BC and you’ll be told to check their licence. It’s good advice for one kind of job and beside the point for most of them, and the difference is worth ten minutes of your time before you sign anything.

What BC actually licenses

BC Housing licenses residential builders. The Homeowner Protection Act defines one as a person who builds, arranges or manages all or substantially all of the construction of a new home. That covers developers and general contractors putting up something new.

It doesn’t cover renovations. Your kitchen, your bathroom, your basement, your deck — none of those need a licensed residential builder, and a contractor who doesn’t hold that licence isn’t cutting a corner by quoting your kitchen.

There’s one exception worth knowing, because it’s the expensive kind of work: building envelope renovations. If the job is fixing water getting into the building, or repairing the damage it caused, and it’s large enough to meet the regulation, the contractor must be licensed as a building envelope renovator and have warranty insurance in place before they start. That’s rot in the walls, failed windows, a leaking flat roof — and if it started above, what a new roof costs is the other half of the conversation.

If somebody tells you a licence is required for your kitchen, they’re either confused or they’re selling you something.

When it does apply, it’s the whole ballgame

For a new house, a laneway home or a major addition, the licence carries BC’s mandatory new home warranty, usually called 2-5-10:

• two years on labour and materials
• five years on the building envelope
• ten years on the structure

That warranty can’t be waived, and an unlicensed builder can’t provide it. A contractor building a new home without one is operating illegally. The registry of licensed residential builders is public and free to search on the BC Housing site, and it shows current status and any past cancellations.

So what do you check for a renovation?

The licence question has an answer for renovations, it’s just a different set of questions. Ask for all four, and ask before you’re emotionally committed to a start date.

• WorkSafeBC coverage, in good standing. If somebody is injured on your property and the contractor has no account, that can land on you.
• Liability insurance, with the policy number, not a verbal yes.
• A municipal business licence for the city the work is in.
• Permits — who pulls them, and whose name they’re in. Anything electrical goes through Technical Safety BC, and is worth reading about separately in what needs an electrical permit in BC.

The contract matters more than any of it

Get the scope in writing, with a start date, a finish date, a payment schedule tied to stages rather than dates, and what happens to anything found once the walls are open. A renovation contract that fits on one page is not a thorough contractor being casual, it’s a gap you’ll be arguing inside of in March.

Before you call anyone

Ask three general contractors the same four questions and one of them will answer faster and more precisely than the other two. That’s usually your answer. Their Google reviews will tell you the rest.