HomePlan

Phase 4 · Bid and contract · Step 4.2

Verify GC license, bond, insurance, and remodel history

Pull L&I status (active, bonded, insured), check recent Seattle remodel permits, confirm RRP certification if your house is pre-1978, and walk one finished project. About 30 minutes plus a site visit.

Who
Homeowner
How long
1-2 days
Cost
Free
You end up with
Verification record on the chosen GC

What the GC actually does day-to-day

The GC isn't a salesperson who hands the project to subs and disappears. Day-to-day they:

  • Read the construction documents and plan the build sequence so trades arrive in the right order (you can't drywall before MEP rough-in, you can't rough-in before framing).
  • Hire and schedule the subcontractors (framer, electrician, plumber, HVAC, drywall, painter, flooring). The GC negotiates with subs at scale; you don't.
  • Order materials with the right lead time so framing doesn't stop because the windows haven't arrived.
  • Manage permits and inspections at the building-permit level — schedule the framing inspection, foundation inspection, final inspection. (Trade permits — electrical, plumbing — sit with the licensed trade contractor under their license, not the GC's.)
  • Sign off on quality before each inspection, and on final pass-off. If the inspector finds correction work, the GC owns getting it fixed.

That bundle of work is what's inside the GC's markup — typically 15–20% on top of subcontractor costs in a fixed-price contract, 20–30% all-in including overhead and profit. It's not hidden profit; it's project management, scheduling, warranty coverage, liability insurance, and the GC's own time on-site. Building Advisor's primer on pricing is a useful reference if you want the contractor-side view.

The verification cheat sheet

Before you sign anything, verify:

Check Where
Construction Contractor Registration active L&I Verify
Bond (general contractor minimum $30,000; specialty contractor $15,000, both effective 2024-07-01) L&I Verify
General liability insurance (minimum $50,000 property damage + $200,000 public liability, or $250,000 combined single limit) L&I Verify
Workers' comp current L&I Verify
EPA RRP certification (required for any work disturbing lead paint in pre-1978 housing) EPA RRP locator
Prior Seattle remodel permits SDCI Permit and Site History Research Tool
No active L&I complaints or discipline L&I Verify

A 30-minute exercise that handles most due-diligence questions before the contract conversation starts.

Bond minimum bumped in 2024. Washington raised the GC bond from $12,000 to $30,000 effective 2024-07-01 — the first increase in 22 years. A contractor still showing the old $12,000 bond is out of compliance. (Detailed in the expansion below.)

RRP matters for older Seattle houses

Most older Seattle bungalows are pre-1978, which means EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule applies to any work that disturbs lead paint. A non-RRP-certified GC can't legally do the work; if they did anyway, you're exposed too. Verify the GC's RRP status before signing.

The site visit

Beyond the paperwork, visit one finished remodel the GC built. Walk through it. Ask the owner:

  • Did the project come in at the bid price? If not, what changed?
  • Did it finish on schedule? If not, what slipped?
  • How were change orders handled?
  • How was the family's experience during the build?
  • Would you hire them again?

Owners are remarkably honest in person. A 30-minute walkthrough tells you more than five reference calls.

Why local remodel history matters

GCs with several recent Seattle whole-house remodels already have working relationships with local structural engineers, abatement contractors, kitchen suppliers, and SDCI inspectors. They know the current submittal expectations and the inspection sequence specific to Addition/Alteration projects.

Go deeper

Optional reading. Skip if you only need the headline.

›WA L&I contractor bond change effective July 2024 — what to verifyThe first WA contractor bond increase in 22 years. What it changed, what it didn't, and how to spot a contractor whose record never caught up.

What changed

Effective July 1, 2024, Washington raised the surety bond minimums for registered contractors for the first time since 2002:

Registration type Old bond New bond
General contractor $12,000 $30,000
Specialty contractor $6,000 $15,000

Liability insurance minimums ($50,000 property damage + $200,000 public liability, or $250,000 combined single limit) and the workers' comp requirement didn't change.

Why the bond matters

The bond isn't insurance for you. It's a small fund the state can pay out of if a court orders the contractor to compensate a homeowner or sub. It's intentionally small relative to the typical claim. On a Seattle whole-house remodel averaging $400K–$700K, a $30K bond covers a small fraction of a worst-case claim.

What the bond really does is gate access to L&I registration. A contractor who can't qualify for a $30K surety bond can't be a registered general contractor in WA. The bond's existence is the screening signal; the dollar amount is largely symbolic.

What to verify on the L&I lookup

When you pull the contractor's record on the L&I Verify tool, check three fields:

  1. Bond status — should show "Active." "Inactive," "Cancelled," or "Suspended" means the registration isn't currently in good standing.
  2. Bond amount — should show $30,000 for a general contractor or $15,000 for a specialty. A general contractor still showing $12,000 is on the pre-2024 minimum.
  3. Bond effective date — should be on or after 2024-07-01. An older effective date paired with a $12,000 amount means the contractor's record hasn't caught up to the current minimum.

When the bond doesn't match — administrative lag vs. real gap

Two things it usually means:

  • Administrative lag. The contractor renewed the bond and the surety company hasn't sent the update to L&I yet. Ask the contractor for a copy of the current bond rider showing $30,000 effective on or after 2024-07-01. If they send it within a day, the lookup will catch up.
  • Pre-2024 registration not yet updated. The contractor hasn't increased the bond. The fix is straightforward (the surety files a rider) but until it's filed, the registration is technically out of compliance — either wait for the update or pick a GC whose record is current.

Other L&I fields that matter as much as the bond

  • UBI number matches the entity name on the contract. Sole proprietors sometimes operate under a DBA that doesn't match their L&I registration. The contract counterparty has to be the registered entity, not the DBA.
  • Workers' comp account in good standing. A lapsed L&I account means the contractor's crew may not be covered, and homeowner liability gets messier.
  • No active complaints or infractions. Recent infractions show up on the verify page — click through to read what the dispute was about.
  • License history length. A registration first issued in the last 12 months is a yellow flag for a Seattle whole-house remodel at $400K+. Not a dealbreaker, but pair it with a stronger reference list.

Sources for this section

Where this information came from

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