How to Check an Orlando ADU Builder's License Before You Pay a Deposit

That "licensed and bonded" line on the truck door — what it actually buys you

Most people read "licensed and bonded" as one solid promise that somebody's got your back if the job goes sideways. But in Florida, plenty of contractors aren't carrying a bond at all, and the ones who are usually only had to because the state got nervous about their finances. So "bonded" tells you less than you'd think. The license is the thing worth checking.

Pull up the state's license site, MyFloridaLicense, and type in the name or the license number. You're looking for three plain things. Is it active. Does the classification actually cover your project — a residential or general contractor license covers a backyard dwelling. And does the record show any discipline history. That last one is where the guy whose business name has more past lives than a stray cat in Conway finally shows up.

One more wrinkle. A "certified" contractor passed the state exam and can work anywhere in Florida. A "registered" one only passed a local test and can only build in the specific places that signed off on them. Neither is a bad sign by itself. But if a registered contractor from two counties over wants to put a cottage in your backyard, that's a question to ask out loud before money changes hands.

The county keeps its own list, and for your backyard it's the one that counts

The state record is step one. But your tiny home gets built under Orange County's rules, and the county's Division of Building Safety keeps its own online lookup of the contractors cleared to pull permits here. If someone's building in Azalea Park, Rio Pinar, or out in unincorporated Orange County, this is the list their name needs to be on.

While you're in there, check one boring thing that matters a lot: workers' compensation. A real construction outfit with a crew has to carry it, and the county wants that proof on file. If a worker gets hurt in your yard and there's no coverage, that problem has a way of landing on the homeowner. Some solo operators carry a valid exemption instead, which is fine — but you want to see which one you're dealing with, not guess.

And yes, this still applies if you're going through Ready Set Orange, the county program with the pre-drawn ADU and small-home plans. The plans speed up the paperwork. They don't vet the person you hand the deposit to. That part stays on you.

The 10 percent line that quietly puts the law on your side

There's one rule that does more for you than any sign on a truck or firm handshake. Under Florida law, the moment your deposit crosses 10 percent of the job price, a clock starts. The contractor has to pull the permits within about a month and get real work going within a few months after that. Miss it, and what they did with your money can be charged as theft — not just a licensing slap on the wrist.

So the size of your deposit isn't only a negotiation. It's the thing that decides whether the law is standing next to you. A builder who wants half up front, in cash, before a permit even exists is asking you to hand back that protection. A builder who asks you to pull the permit in your own name is doing something worse — moving the county's liability off of them and onto you.

One homeowner on a contractor forum put the real fear plainly: the bad ones just change the company name and vanish, and nobody chases them. The deposit rule is how you make sure there's a paper trail with teeth before you're the one left calling around.

Before you vet anybody, figure out what you're actually building

All of this matters more once you know the project is real — that your lot can take an ADU, where it would sit, and roughly what it runs. Chasing down licenses for a build your setbacks won't even allow is a lot of coffee for nothing.

That's what the ADU Fit Check on our site is for. You answer a few questions about your property — whether you're in Winter Garden, Conway, Meadow Woods, or a quiet street in Pine Hills — and you get a straight read on whether a backyard home fits, before you ever start interviewing the person who'd build it. Start there. Then go pull that license.

Common questions

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