Anyone who pours concrete at a New Jersey home has to be registered with the state. Here is how to check a company in about two minutes.
New Jersey's Contractors' Registration Act makes home improvement contractors register with the Division of Consumer Affairs. Residential driveways, sidewalks, patios and pool decks all sit on the state's list of home improvement work.
That registration is public. You can look a company up before you let it break ground, and you can do it from your phone in the driveway.
This page covers where to search, how to read the result, where the registration number has to appear, and what to ask for after it checks out. Papaneri & Sons has been the concrete contractor in Cherry Hill families call since 1987, and our own listing is open for you to read.
The state runs one search tool for every profession it registers. Home improvement contractors are listed as businesses, not as people.
Open the New Jersey License Verification System and stay on Business Search. Person Search will not find a contracting company.
Choose Home Improvement Contractors from the profession list. Type two or more letters of the business name, or search by town to see every registered contractor near you.
The results give you the legal name, the registration number, the license type, the status and the town. Active is what you want. Expired means the company is not registered to do the work today.
Clicking the name opens the full record. It shows the owner's name, the business street address, the date the registration was issued and the date it runs out.
Businesses change names and owners. Search the exact legal name on your estimate. Ours reads Papaneri & Sons Concrete LLC in Cherry Hill, and the state record shows it active.
State rule N.J.A.C. 13:45A-17.11 sets out where a registered contractor has to show its number. A company that keeps it out of sight is telling you something.
The number belongs on business documents, on contracts, and on any letter or email sent to a customer in New Jersey.
Any advertisement handed out in the state carries the number. That takes in flyers, mailers, door hangers and online ads.
Commercial vehicles owned or leased by the contractor and used for home improvement work carry the number as well. The one exception is a vehicle the contractor rents out to a customer.
The original certificate hangs at the place of business. A contractor with a second office needs a duplicate certificate from the Division for that wall.
Every New Jersey home improvement registration number starts with 13VH. If the digits you were handed start with anything else, search the business name instead and compare.
Any invoice, contract or letter a registered contractor gives a customer has to carry the Division's toll-free number, 800-242-5846.
If the state suspends or revokes a registration, the contractor has to return the certificates and strip the number off vehicles, advertising and anything else it appears on.
Registration and insurance are two checks, not one. The state ties them together, but only the registration shows up in the search result. Papaneri & Sons sends both without being asked.
A registered home improvement contractor has to carry a commercial general liability policy, occurrence form, with a minimum of $500,000 of coverage per occurrence. Proof is filed with the state and has to stay in force for the whole registration term.
The proof is a certificate from the insurer. It carries the insured's name, the business street address, the policy number and the term of the policy.
The Division's consumer brief on hiring home improvement contractors tells homeowners to get a copy of the liability policy and the phone number of the insurance company. One call confirms the policy is live.
A policy cannot be cancelled or dropped until the state has at least 10 business days of written notice. A contractor changing policies files the new certificate before the old one ends.
Every driveway and patio we price in Cherry Hill comes with our registration number and our certificate of insurance, before a single truck rolls up.
A clean record is a floor, not a finish line. The state is careful about what the listing means.
The Division says it plainly: registering with the state is not an approval of the contractor or the work. It means the paperwork and the insurance are on file.
Call Consumer Affairs at 800-242-5846 to ask whether complaints have been filed against a company, or to have a complaint form mailed to you. The home improvement complaints line is (973) 424-8150, prompt 6.
A contractor who is not registered will not be issued municipal construction permits and may not do home improvement work in New Jersey. Our guide to Cherry Hill zoning permits for driveways and patios covers the approvals a concrete job needs, and work in the township right-of-way covers the apron out at the street.
The state tells homeowners to be wary of a contractor with no registration number, only a post office box for an address, a demand for cash, or a request for more than a third of the price before the work starts.
Once the registration checks out, the contract is the next read. Here is what a New Jersey concrete contract must include, and why the crew has to call 811 before a concrete project in Cherry Hill.
Search the business name on the state's license verification system under Home Improvement Contractors, on Business Search. An active status means the registration is current. The same number has to be on the contract and on the trucks.
Yes. The Division of Consumer Affairs lists residential driveways, sidewalks, patios and pool decks as home improvement work. The contractor pouring them has to be registered with the state.
Ask for the certificate of commercial general liability insurance and the phone number of the insurance company. Get the job in writing. Call us at (856) 354-9338 and we will send ours with the estimate.
Look us up under Papaneri & Sons Concrete LLC, Cherry Hill, then call and we will walk the job with you. We are a registered New Jersey home improvement contractor that has poured driveways, patios, sidewalks and steps across Cherry Hill, Marlton, Mount Laurel and the rest of South Jersey since 1987.