How do I verify a contractor before hiring them?

Before signing any contract or handing over a deposit, run a contractor through five categories of public records. First, confirm the license is active and in the correct trade with the state licensing board — California uses CSLB, Arizona uses ROC, Oregon uses CCB, North Carolina uses NCLBGC, and so on. License status of "Inactive," "Suspended," "Revoked," or "Expired" is a hard stop.

Second, check the Secretary of State for the business entity. The legal name on the license must match an active LLC, corporation, or sole proprietorship registration. A contractor operating under a name that does not exist as a registered entity is a phoenix-company red flag — the same operator may have closed a prior LLC under a different name after lawsuits or judgments.

Third, search county court records for civil judgments, mechanics' liens, and breach-of-contract cases. A pattern of liens filed against the contractor (not by them) means subcontractors or suppliers were not paid on prior jobs. Fourth, search OSHA's enforcement database for any serious or willful citations — safety failures predict job-site injuries on your property. Fifth, check the BBB for complaint patterns and unresolved disputes.

Groundcheck (earthmove.io/trust) consolidates all five checks into a single search across state licensing boards, Secretary of State registries, court records, OSHA, and BBB. The free tier returns a verdict (Clear, Conditional, Caution, Critical, or Unverifiable) plus a sourced summary, usually in under 90 seconds. Groundcheck does NOT verify insurance, references, or pricing — confirm those directly with the contractor and call the insurer to confirm the certificate of insurance is current.

The verification only matters if you do it before you sign and before you pay. Any deposit over 10% of the contract value, or paid before materials arrive on site, is unrecoverable if the contractor disappears.