Legal Question in Construction Law in Florida

Re: Hired me to do remodle work no permits

As an unlicensed contractor You have no rights at all. The Legislature enacted Chapter 489 governing contractors and licensing, adopted a uniform Florida Building Code, created departments such as the Department of Business and Professional Regulations to watchdog contractors, authorized agencies such as the Construction Industry Licensing Board, and each county has building inspectors to enforce Building Codes. To that end, and in order to protect the public, as opposed to just individuals, �the Legislature deemed it necessary in the interest of the public health, safety, and welfare to regulate the construction industry.� See, Fla. Stat. �489.101.

Florida Statute �489.128 states that, �As a matter of public policy, contracts entered into on or after October 1, 1990, and performed in full or in part by any contractor who fails to obtain or maintain a license in accordance with this part shall be unenforceable in law or in equity by the contractor.�

Florida Statute �489.128 �makes clear that contracts with unlicensed contractors are unenforceable � period.� Riverwalk Apartments, L.P. v. RTM General Contractors, Inc., 779 So.2d 537, 539 (Fla. 2nd DCA 2000). �The statute was enacted to safeguard the public as a whole from the activities of incompetent contractors.� See, Castro v. Sangles, 637 So.2d 989, 990 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1994) (emphasis original).

Florida Statute �489.127(2) also makes unlicensed contracting by a contractor illegal, and criminally punishable as first degree misdemeanors and third degree felonies. See also, Fla. Stat. �489.13(3)(DBPR may impose $10,000 administrative fine plus reasonable investigative and legal costs for prosecution for on any person guilty of unlicensed contracting); Fla. Stat. �455.228 (DBPR may obtain cease and desist orders against unlicensed contractors, file proceeding in the name of the state, seek an injunction or a writ of mandamus, impose an administrative penalty up to $5,000, issue a citation, collect attorney fees and costs; impose civil penalty shall not less than $500 and no more than $5,000 for each offense.)

�The principle that courts will not enforce illegal contracts is well established. This principle is founded upon public policy; that is, the objection which avoids the illegal contract comes from the public at large who demand that there can be no legal remedy for that which is itself illegal. Indeed, there rests upon the courts the affirmative duty of refusing to sustain that which by the valid laws of the state, statutory or organic, has been declared repugnant to public policy. To do otherwise would be for the law to aid in its own undoing.� Gonzalez v. Trujillo, 179 So.2d 896, 897-898 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1965).

Good luck,

Randall Gilbert