What did the public record reveal about a handymanthat wouldn’t show up in a Google search? We’re collecting real homeowner case studies of handyman verification using Groundcheck — license checks that caught lapsed status, court judgments, OSHA citations, and phoenix-entity patterns before a contract was signed. The contractor is never notified.
Run your own verificationIf Groundcheck caught something that changed your decision — a lapsed license, an unresolved judgment, a phoenix pattern, an OSHA citation history — we’d like to publish your story (anonymized if you prefer).
What we’ll publish: the public records that mattered, the verdict, and what you decided. What we won’t publish: the contractor’s name (we don’t generate opinions about specific businesses on case-study pages), your personally identifying information, or anything not already in the public record.
Share your case studyPerforms minor repair, maintenance, and installation work across multiple trades, typically at sub-contractor-threshold project values.
1. License standing. State licensing board (or local jurisdiction where no state license exists). Active, lapsed, suspended, revoked, or expired status. For handymen, the licensing rules vary widely by state — see California, Texas, and Florida for the patterns.
2. Entity registration. Secretary of State filing status: active, dissolved, withdrawn, or administratively revoked. A dissolved entity reopening under a new name at the same address is a phoenix pattern — common in handymen who have run out of statutes of limitation on prior judgments.
3. Court judgments and liens. Civil court filings, mechanics’ liens, UCC liens, and judgment records. Handymen with multiple unsatisfied judgments in the last five years are a hard stop, regardless of license status.
4. OSHA inspection history. Federal OSHA inspections, citations, and penalty amounts. Repeated serious violations indicate operational risk on your project.
5. BBB complaints. Better Business Bureau complaint history and accreditation status. Pattern of unresolved complaints in the last 12 months is a yellow flag.
6. Phoenix detection. Cross-referencing dissolved entities against new active entities at the same address. This is where the strongest signal often lives.
One search. Six record classes. A clear verdict in under 90 seconds.
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