Your general liability policy has a blind spot — and it's shaped exactly like an unlicensed contractor.
Most commercial GL policies exclude coverage for work performed by contractors who aren't properly licensed. A 2019 Insurance Research Council study found that claims tied to contractor fraud or unlicensed work were denied at nearly 3x the rate of standard property claims. And if a subcontractor you hired turns out to be unlicensed and uninsured, courts can treat their workers as your employees — putting their injury claims, medical costs, and lost wages on your business instead of theirs.
That's before vicarious liability enters the picture: a general contractor or business can get pulled into a lawsuit over a subcontractor's negligence simply because they hired, coordinated, or supervised the work — regardless of who was actually at fault.
Licensed, insured contractors carry real coverage (avg. ~$981/year in GL premiums) precisely so that risk doesn't land on you. Unlicensed ones don't. By the time you find out, you're the one holding the claim.
That's the gap CredentialClear closes.
Our core contractor search pulls live results across state licensing boards, city-level registries, and enforcement records in a single query — no more checking five different government sites by hand. Every result is layered with the signals that matter before you sign:
- Real-time license status — live from the issuing authority, not a cached directory
- Known Violators cross-reference — unlicensed activity complaints, revoked and suspended licenses, disciplinary actions
- Google reviews — aggregated reputation data alongside the compliance record
Once you're tracking a contractor, our hourly re-verification job keeps watching — alerting you the moment a license status changes, on the schedule you choose.
Live now in 11 states: AZ, CA, FL, IL, LA, ND, NV, NY, TX, VA, and WA.
Less exposure. Less manual checking. More certainty before you sign.