How To Verify a Florida Contractor License (and What CGC, CBC and CRC Mean)

By Andreas Christofides — licensed Florida general contractor CGC1537881, 20+ years of experience. Published September 27, 2026

Before a contractor sets foot in your Naples home, spend two minutes on the state licensing site. It is free, it is public, and it answers the questions that matter most: is this person licensed at all, is the license active, does the license class allow the work you need, and has the state disciplined them. Here is how to do it and how to read what you find.

Step by step: the DBPR license search

Go to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation site, myfloridalicense.com, and choose Verify a License.
Search by license number if the contractor gave you one (it should be on their proposal, their truck and their website). Otherwise search by name and narrow to the Construction Industry board.
Open the record. Check four fields: License Type, Status (Current, Active), Expiration, and Discipline (any complaints with a final order).
Note the qualifying individual. A Florida license belongs to a person who qualifies a business. If the name on the license is not the person running your job, or not connected to the company on your contract, ask why.
Ask for the certificates of insurance directly. DBPR confirms that insurance was on file at renewal; it does not show you today’s certificate. A serious contractor will email you the liability and workers’ compensation certificates before you sign.

What the letters mean

Florida contractor licenses carry a prefix that tells you the scope and the reach of the license. For a remodel the ones you will see are:

CGC — Certified General Contractor. Passed the state exam; valid in every county in Florida; may build, remodel and pull permits on structures of any height. The only class that can be the contractor of record for a high-rise condo. Ours is CGC1537881.
CBC — Certified Building Contractor. Statewide, but limited to buildings of three stories or less and to remodeling of any building where the work does not affect the structural members above three stories.
CRC — Certified Residential Contractor. Statewide, limited to one- and two-family homes and townhouses of two stories or less.
RG, RB, RR — Registered contractors. The same three classes, but registered rather than certified: the contractor passed a local competency exam and may only work in the county or city that issued it. Legal, but check the jurisdiction matches your property.
CCC, CFC, EC, CAC. Roofing, plumbing, electrical and air-conditioning specialty licenses. A specialty contractor can do that trade alone; they cannot run a whole remodel that touches structure or other trades.

Why the class matters in Naples specifically

A large share of Naples and Marco Island homes are condominiums, and many are mid-rise or high-rise. A building contractor or residential contractor cannot legally pull the permit for a remodel on the ninth floor of a Gulf Shore Boulevard tower, and the association’s management company will check. If you own a condo, the license on your contract needs to be a General class, certified or registered in Collier County. What that involves in practice is on our condo renovation page.

Handyman work and the no-license line

Florida allows unlicensed handyman work only for jobs that do not require a permit and do not touch structural, electrical, plumbing, mechanical or gas systems. Anything that needs a permit needs a licensed contractor, and in Collier County that is nearly every real remodel. Hiring unlicensed for permitted work is a first-degree misdemeanor for the contractor, and for you it means no recourse through the state, no lien protection, and an insurance claim that can be denied because the work was not permitted.

Three more checks that take five minutes

The Collier County or City of Naples permit portal: search the contractor’s name to see permits they have pulled recently and whether inspections passed.
Google reviews: read the most recent ten, and look for reviews that describe a real project in a real Naples community rather than a generic five stars.
The Better Business Bureau profile, mainly for unresolved complaints.

GC Pro West, for the record

License CGC1537881, Certified General Contractor, qualified by owner Andreas Christofides, status active. We show every prospective client the DBPR record and current insurance certificates at the first meeting, and the license number is on every proposal and contract. If a contractor in Naples cannot do the same, that is your answer.

Planning a remodel in Naples, Marco Island or Bonita Springs? Request a free consultation or call 239-307-8020. GC Pro West is a Florida Certified General Contractor (CGC1537881); what that covers is on our general contractor in Naples page.