Arizona law is short on this point. If the entire cost of the project, labor and materials, is $1,000 or more, or the job needs a local building permit, the person or business doing the work must hold an Arizona ROC license (A.R.S. 32-1121; AZ ROC, April 6, 2021, roc.az.gov (opens in a new tab)). A full door replacement often passes that number. Checking a license takes 3 steps, and all 3 are free.
Step 1: Find the license number
Every licensed contractor has a number, and it should be easy to see. It has to appear on a licensed contractor's bids, contracts and estimates. Ask for it in writing if it is not there. Then go to the contractor search on roc.az.gov and search by number or by company name. If the search returns nothing for the name on the quote, stop there. A company trading under a name that does not appear on the state record is the fact worth acting on.
Step 2: Check the status and the class
The record shows whether the license is active and what class it holds, and it can also show complaint history. Status first. Active is the only answer that counts. Suspended and revoked are answers too, just not the ones you want. Then the class. Garage door work sits under the ROC specialty classes, and the class description on the record says what work that class covers. A class that does not cover the work is not coverage for the job, even when the license is active.
Step 3: Call the number on the record
This step is easy to skip. Call the phone number shown on the state record, not only the number on the flyer, and ask 2 questions: is the person who quoted you authorized to represent the company, and does the license cover the class of work you were quoted? A company with an active license can answer both. That confirmation counts for more than a badge, a sticker or a logo on a website.
What a license does not tell you
A license is not a price, a schedule or a promise about the quality of the work. It shows the license is on the state record for that class. It says nothing about what the job will cost, how long it will take or who will be standing in your garage. That is what the written scope is for. Two companies can both hold an active license and still be very different to deal with. The contract for the work sits between you and the contractor, and it should carry the license number, the scope, the price and the date. Read it against the quote before the work starts.
If you would rather not do that
Then tell us the job instead. We check the license before a contractor joins our network of selected licensed contractors. Someone from our team calls you back. Running the 3 steps yourself is still your choice. The record is public, it is free, and roc.az.gov is the authority behind it. The same 3 steps work for any licensed trade in Arizona, not only this one.
