Quick facts
- Where
- Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I), "Verify a Contractor" tool
- Cost
- Free
- What you can search
- Business name, contractor registration (UBI) number, or owner name
- Not the same as
- The Secretary of State business search or a city business-license search — L&I is the one that governs contractor registration
Washington does not have a "Contractors State License Board" or a "CCB" (that is Oregon). In Washington, contractors register with L&I, and L&I is where you look them up. Verify each detail against the official record before you rely on it.
Whether you are a homeowner about to hire someone or a contractor checking your own standing, verifying a Washington contractor license takes about two minutes and it is completely free. The state runs a public lookup, and knowing how to read what it shows you is the difference between hiring someone protected and hiring a problem. Here is exactly how to do it and what to look for.
Starting your own contracting business instead of checking one? Build your free Contractor Lane roadmap and get registered the right way, in order.
Use L&I's "Verify a Contractor" tool
Every registered construction contractor in Washington is in one place: the Department of Labor & Industries. Their free Verify a Contractor tool is the official record, and it is the same database whether you call the business a "contractor license," a "contractor registration," or a "CCB license" — in Washington it is L&I registration, and this is where it lives.
Open the L&I Verify a Contractor tool
Go straight to L&I's Verify a Contractor tool. It is public and free — no account needed.
Search by name or registration number
Enter the business name, the contractor's registration (UBI) number, or the owner's name. If you only have a truck logo or a phone number, search the business name as it appears on their invoice or ad.
Open the matching record
Click the contractor that matches. A common trap is near-identical names — confirm the city and owner match the person you are actually dealing with.
Read the five things that matter
Status, bond, insurance, expiration date, and any infractions or lawsuits. The next section breaks down exactly what each should show.
What a clean record shows, line by line
Pulling up the record is easy. Reading it is where people miss things. Here is what "good" looks like:
Registration status: Active. This is the headline. "Active" means they are legally allowed to advertise, bid, and perform contracting work in Washington right now. Anything else — expired, suspended, revoked, or no record at all — means they are not currently registered, and in Washington it is illegal to even advertise contracting work without an active registration.
Bond: on file and active. Registered contractors must carry a continuous surety bond — $30,000 for a general contractor and $15,000 for a specialty contractor. The record shows the bond company and amount. A bond that has been canceled or is below the required amount is a red flag, because that bond is part of what protects a customer who is wronged.
Liability insurance: on file. Contractors must carry general liability insurance to stay registered. The record shows the policy is active. No active insurance means the registration itself is out of compliance.
Expiration date: in the future. Registration renews on a cycle. A date that has already passed means the registration has lapsed, even if the status has not updated yet.
Infractions, lawsuits, and unsatisfied judgments: ideally none. The record flags infractions L&I has issued and lawsuits filed against the bond. One old, resolved item is not necessarily disqualifying, but a pattern of unsatisfied judgments is exactly the history a bond exists to warn you about.
Registered contractors, verified. Contractor Lane exists so more Washington contractors are the ones who show "Active," bonded, and insured on this exact screen.
Red flags to catch before you hire
If you are a homeowner, these are the ones that should stop you: no record found at all, a status that is anything other than Active, a canceled or missing bond, a name on the record that does not match who you are talking to, or a registration that expired months ago. Any single one of these means you are not protected the way Washington law intends, and it is worth pausing before money changes hands. A legitimate contractor will not mind you checking.
Looking up your own registration as a contractor
If you are the contractor, the same tool is how you confirm your own record is clean before a customer or a general contractor checks it for you, because they will. Make sure your status reads Active, your bond and insurance show current, and your expiration date is not sneaking up on you. If your registration lapses, you cannot legally advertise or bid until it is renewed, and the deadline-reminders side of this problem is exactly why filing dates are so easy to miss.
Looking up a UBI number
The registration number L&I shows is tied to your Unified Business Identifier (UBI), the nine-digit number Washington issues every business. If you are searching for or trying to confirm a UBI specifically, the same L&I record shows it, and the Department of Revenue's business lookup will show it from the tax side. If you do not yet have one, that is step one of getting registered — see what a UBI number is and how to get one.
Where Contractor Lane comes in
Contractor Lane is the front door for starting a contracting business in Washington. Looking someone up is the easy part; being the contractor who shows Active, bonded, and insured on that screen is the part that takes doing in the right order. The free roadmap builder lays out that order — UBI, business license, bond, insurance, and L&I registration — so your own record comes back clean the day someone checks it.
Ready to be the verified one?
Build your free Contractor Lane roadmap and get registered in the order that makes your L&I record read Active from day one.
General educational information for people hiring or becoming contractors in Washington. Requirements and records change. Contractor Lane is not a law firm or a government agency.