Before you sign. Vetting a contractor or business in Washington.
Twenty minutes of searching beats a year of litigation.
Washington publishes more about its businesses than most states, free, and almost nobody looks before the deposit clears. These are the four searches we run first, in the order that catches the most, and the one thing we can add that you cannot.
Is the contractor registered, bonded and insured?
Labor & Industries' Verify tool, searched by name or registration number. It shows whether the registration is active, the bond and its amount, the liability insurer, any infractions, and any lawsuits filed against the bond. An unregistered contractor in Washington cannot sue you to collect and cannot record a lien against your home (chapter 18.27 RCW), which is why the ones who skip registration prefer cash up front. The bond is small, $12,000 for a general contractor, and it is shared among every claimant that year. Treat it as a signal, not a safety net.
Is the company real, and who runs it?
Two searches. The Department of Revenue business lookup tells you whether the business is registered to collect tax, since when, and under what trade names; a company that has been "in business twenty years" with a registration from last spring has a story to tell. The Secretary of State's Corporations and Charities Filing System shows the entity, its governors and its registered agent, and whether it has been administratively dissolved. Use the DOL business lookup to verify endorsements. Then search the governors' names, not the company's. The owner who has run four LLCs into dissolution and opened a fifth under a fresh name is the pattern we see most.
Has anyone complained or sued?
The Attorney General's consumer protection complaints are public and can be requested under the Public Records Act; so can L&I's complaint and citation files. Thstatewide courts name search show suits by and against the business and its owner, including the small-claims cases a bad contractor collects; Odyssey Portal covers the counties that have moved to it. Read the complaints. Three customers alleging the same abandoned job in different words is a pattern; one angry review is not. The Better Business Bureau is a private company and its grade is not a record.
Who else already has a claim on them?
UCC filings at the Department of Licensing name every lender that has taken the company's equipment or receivables as collateral, and the browse setting also turns up IRS and state tax liens. The county recorder shows liens against the owner personally. A contractor whose truck, tools and receivables are all pledged, with a tax lien on top, is one bad month from leaving your job half done. None of this is private; it just lives in five places that do not talk to each other.
What can we add that the free searches can't?
Three things. First, the paid construction databases that track a contractor's permits, projects, inspections and lien history across every county and state they have worked in, which shows whether the "thirty years of experience" is thirty years or three, and whether jobs finish. Second, the licensed-only data platforms that connect the owner to prior companies, prior addresses and prior partners, which is how the fifth LLC gets tied to the first four. Third, people: the former client, the subcontractor who was not paid, the supplier who stopped extending credit. For a large contract we put the free record and the paid record together and tell you what they add up to. Public agencies vetting bidders have one more free resource, MRSC's bidding and award guidance, which walks through the responsibility criteria the statute lets you apply.
About to sign with someone you've never worked with?
Send us the company name, the owner's name and the size of the contract. For a defined search we quote a fixed fee, usually within a day, and you get one report that puts the registration, the entity, the lawsuits and the liens in one place, with a plain reading of what they add up to.
Contact Integra Intelligence