A bid is already contracting
Under O.C.G.A. 43-41-2(3), "contracting" includes offering contracting services and negotiating, bidding or proposing for a contract that requires those services. The bid or proposal itself is contracting.
The trap: thinking a licence is needed only at signing or once work begins. Permit issuance is not the trigger either.
O.C.G.A. 43-41-17 bars unlicensed contracting, so an unlicensed builder who submits a written proposal has already violated it, even with no contract signed and no work done. Getting a licence later, before the permit is pulled, does not cure an unlicensed bid already made.
The residential licence threshold
O.C.G.A. 43-41-2(9) requires a residential contractor licence for residential-basic work when the total value of the work or the contractor's compensation, whichever is higher, exceeds 2,500 dollars.
- Compare the two figures and take the higher one. Do not use compensation alone, do not use materials cost alone, and do not take the lower figure.
- Do not add value and compensation together against a 5,000-dollar total. That is not the statutory test.
- Owner-supplied materials are not excluded from the value of the work.
Worked example: total value 3,200 dollars, contractor's fee 1,900 dollars. The higher figure is 3,200, and 3,200 > 2,500, so a licence is required to bid. Looking only at the 1,900-dollar fee is the classic error.
"Exceeds" means more than 2,500
The word is exceeds. A job whose higher figure is exactly 2,500 dollars does not exceed 2,500 dollars, so no licence is triggered. The trap is treating a job that merely reaches 2,500 dollars as covered. Past the threshold, residential-basic work is covered.
The bid envelope
O.C.G.A. 43-41-17(l): a contractor licensed under Chapter 43-41 does not have to list on the face of a bid or proposal envelope the licence number of any Chapter 14 contractor (electrical, plumbing, conditioned air, low-voltage, utility) who may or will do part of the work. No subcontractor licence numbers, with or without names, and no bond amount are required on the envelope.