How To Be A Handyman And Not Go To Jail Episode 2 | THE HANDYMAN |

got my notes and we were gonna tackle the legalities of being hangman I've had a lot of especially after the last video emails direct messages on Instagram private messages on YouTube saying hey hey hey hey mr. handyman what are you doing don't be giving away the secrets of how to get around red tape and I I had to think about it and I'm gonna just stick to the questions that are being asked and not get too deep into the realities and the corruption and the politics behind why certain laws are in one city and they're not in the very next city I mean like border to border you got tons and tons of regulation and you just cross a line and there's no regulation I did do have some experience in mixed commercial where that's multifamily more than like a four-plex or a triplex we're talking hundred units per building or man there was one straight out of college I was like right downtown building a mid-rise like skyscraper most of my experience is in residential construction new home construction and remodel and being a handyman I started at 15 16 years old in the state of New York and the company I worked for did roofs decks sidings additions kitchens and bathrooms no contractor license required no permits except what I during my college career I would go back to New York and still do some work and we were rebuilding decks on a huge apartment complex each building had probably 15 units and there were one or two storey decks and there was one building inspector and he required nothing we were proactive in calling him and asking hey doing what do you want to see for these he says all just take a couple photographs of how did you jump down of how deep the holes are for your caissons that are going to support the the posts again no permits and zero inspections my internship I did my internship with a building department pretty large city third largest city in the state and I was involved in more commercial no no residential at all and one of the jobs was a federally funded job and I remember I was like two weeks on the job handed me this clipboard with papers and they said go down and interview these people and make sure they are being paid their davis-bacon wages who is davis-bacon and what is all this it's a federal regulation that if it's if the project is federally funded or if the federal project the people who are doing the work have to be paid a certain wage limit I showed up with the clipboard you know I had my polo shirt on the said city of City and I mean none of the workers were documented and I swear it was like they thought it was immigration or something like that they were they were panicking I got a few people on the list to talk to me and the rest didn't exist after graduation got hired on as a superintendent and those years were spent building new homes people call them tract homes or production homes where there's a you've got to build as fast as you can cookie cutter houses and I did thousands of inspections you call up for every single phase to the local building department and call for your footer inspection your your form inspection your rebar inspection all the way up to insulation dry drywall nail inspection there's a certain drywall nail or screw on certain walls sheer walls there has to be a certain screw pad for that wall isn't you know to properly function as it was engineered now the most common question asked is does a handyman need a license and does the handyman need insurance and that answer is it really depends on what city or county you live in and there are so many out there that there really is no definitive answer of like yes you need a handyman license and yes you need insurance I'm gonna go out on a limb and say coast to coast and gets bored of the border the average handyman is not insured and probably isn't even doesn't even have a registered business there's a registered business with the secretary your state secretary of state I think that's how it is where you register your LLC or your S corporation or your sole proprietorship whichever one benefits you tax wise a business licenses is different from a contractor's license you've all read the headlines where lemonade stands shut down because they didn't have a business license it's completely different than a contractor's license do you need to be insured most handyman are not insured why most handyman are kind of flying by the seat of their pants and just making ends meet trying to you know and they do a lot of cash jobs and they don't have insurance now why would you want insurance well you want to protect yourself from being sued one way to do that is to form a limited liability corporation and also an S corporation different states I know the state of New York doesn't even recognize or have an S corporation option sucks to be you sorry about that my business attorney told me that in order to be sued the plaintiff your customer what you doing down there you get your feet coal has to show that there is gross negligence meaning it can't be just a an accident it has to show that you weren't so you were very very careless in what you were doing back to the LLC that is a limited liability it separates a person's liability from the business's liability insurance is to protect you and to protect the homeowner oftentimes you've never use it and it is an advertising it's used for advertising weren't sure don't worry we're insured rarely rarely do people use this an in handyman industry there's not like a how do I say this if a handyman didn't have insurance what happens the handyman gets injured on the job he can technically sue the homeowners insurance homeowner would then default to their homeowners insurance to pay off my broken ankle my ladder and it's leaning up against the house and there's a bay window and the wind blows over and crashed through the bay window you would want to pay for it out of pocket but if you were absolutely desperate you would default to your insurance if you didn't have liability insurance the homeowner could then default to their homeowners insurance and this has been my experience and I've worked in a few different states this may not be the case in every city county state across the United States what if you live in California man I feel bad for you guys you can't do more than $500 worth of work in one day including materials what the heck do you do I honestly don't know the answer to that but apparently they have sting operations undercover sting operations I also know I worked quite a bit of time in South Florida I know that every you can't even be a light bulb changer without being licensed with the state South Florida I don't know if this is statewide but my experiences in South Florida you have to go purchase a contractor license to be a painter to be a cabinet installer you can't do anything in South Florida without purchasing a specific license and you can't advertise on your truck or your van or your trailer that the handyman specializing and replacing light bulbs you got to go buy a license for that but you have to have a specific number on your truck if you're going to advertise so how do you get licensed it's not that hard to get a contractor's license and a contractor's license is broken up into a lot of sub categories from a camera special their specialty contractors license a fence builder a roofer HVAC installation company a deck builder and even a a remodel company then it goes up into like building full structures there we'll call them a through C so a would be your skyscraper mini would be a mid-rise multifamily mid rise in a C would be your single family to like triplex where you live how do you find all this information out say you live in Buffalo New York you're gonna type in to Google Buffalo New York Building Department and then you're gonna go through the menu options on what their licensing requirements are I haven't looked at Buffalo but I can imagine that it's a fairly large city they're gonna have their contractors licenses to build a structure then there's going to have some remodel licenses from a kitchen remodel to building a fence and a lot of people think that it's hard to get a license which it really isn't in areas that I've done work it's not hard to get a contractor's license whether it be to build a structure of course building the high-rises are is a little different than building a detached garage or building a single-family home so you go down to your building department I suggest you review all the requirements online you can print off all the application my experience is you have to list that specific municipality on your insurance for a certain dollar figure common dollar figure is 1 million dollars for liability insurance so you show proof that you listed Buffalo New York on your insurance for single family home building you can get the insurance before you even have the license so you got your application you got your insurance and sometimes that's all you need some other times you have to print off an affidavit of your experience and that is you just you just write down or type in I've been remodeling houses for XYZ company I've done foundation work blah blah blah blah it's an affidavit you and you know what most people just make it make it up so whether you make it up or if you actually did it all you fill out your affidavit you hand it in the next level is an ICC exam so you got your application your insurance your affidavit and your ICC exam what the heck is an Icee the exam it's a test on how well you can look up code requirements we're building residential houses do you think Polly you got sawdust all over yourself now the next level which would be the hardest easy girl hey don't be hey you got your application you got your insurance they skip the affidavit and they want notarized letters from past employers or past customers your ICC exam and a whole bunch of money there you go now what does this pertain to a handyman most places don't have a dollar figure that you can make a day there isn't usually a handyman license you can go out and get specialty license I was building covered patios in a specific town which is a border to the town I live in and brand-new construction tons of inspection and inspectors on on the active site all the time not worth the risk to build this build these covered patios without doing it through the permitting process I went down to the building department filled out an application they printed me off a contractor's license that contractors license allowed me to build a brand-new house along with covered patios but hi you are covered in dust hopefully that helps a summary is go to your local Building Department's website if you live in a really tiny town it's gonna be your County website building department if you live in a huge city like Los Angeles or something you're screwed they're gonna want to nickel and dime you for everything I went pretty quick probably should have slowed it down a little bit maybe broken this up into a few parts but if there is a specific number of comments that keep repeating a certain question I'll do a video specifically on that in other news I went out on an estimate for a basement finish and I'm going to be testing out some software estimating software a lot of people have been asking how do you estimate how do you estimate how do you price jobs up until this point I haven't really used estimating software as a handyman I used it in college but that's pretty much obsolete I've been doing it by hand doing quantity takeoffs and I have a spreadsheet that I enter things into but there's a lot of software on the market and I've got one and I'm going to it's the perfect application to test it out and I'm gonna I'll let you know how it goes in a future video you like shaking like a chihuahua it's not that cold in here

Channel: The Handyman

Views: 138,131

Rating: 4.8764162 out of 5

Keywords: licence, contractor licence, how to get a contractor licence, handyman licnece, handyman business, liability insurance, handyman insurance, contractor insurance, how to build a house, how to pull a permit, how to start a handyman business, home improvement, home repair, workshop, woodshop, wood working, woodworking tools, tool review, plumbing, electrical, plumber, electrician

Id: hukaV3Mh0C8

Length: 16min 7sec (967 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 01 2018