HVAC & Mechanical in Florida
In Florida the relief when your qualifier leaves finishes the backlog and signs nothing new.
Florida issues no HVAC license to a company: s. 489.113(5) says the certificate of competency is not transferable, and the company can contract only because a named individual filed to qualify it. When that person leaves at closing the business gets 60 days, and the Board may grant a temporary certificate that permits only the completion of contracts already awarded. A non-compete wage test then runs the opposite way from the one buyers expect, and the financial review of the incoming qualifier reads the target company's own unsatisfied liens. Wraith runs Florida engagements alongside an affiliated firm.
Miami-Fort Lauderdale / Tampa Bay / Orlando / Jacksonville
Sixty days, and a certificate that covers only incomplete contracts
A Florida HVAC company carries its own qualified business number, but that number exists only because a named individual applied under s. 489.119(2) to qualify the entity, and Rule 61G4-15.0021(4), F.A.C. draws the boundary tightly: qualification is only effective as to that business organization, and subsidiaries or parents of qualified business organizations must be separately qualified. Inserting a holding company above the target does not disturb the target's own qualification; it means only that the new parent holds no qualification of its own. Merging the target into a Florida affiliate that already holds a qualification is the structure that breaks it, because the surviving entity is a different business organization and must be separately qualified for the category.
When the selling owner is also the qualifying agent, s. 489.119(3)(a) governs the morning after closing. The business must notify the department of the termination and has 60 days in which to employ another qualifying agent, and until it does the statute says the business may not engage in contracting. The executive director or the chair of the board may grant a temporary nonrenewable certificate to the financially responsible officer, the president, a partner or, for a limited partnership, the general partner, and that certificate allows the business organization to proceed with incomplete contracts and nothing else. It is not permission to keep selling. Incomplete contracts are those already awarded to or entered into by the business, or on which it was the low bidder and the award follows, regardless of whether any actual work has commenced. A residential service and replacement company writes its revenue on tickets signed daily, and a ticket signed after the qualifier leaves is not an incomplete contract.
An asset structure gets none of that relief, because s. 489.119(3)(a) operates only on a business organization whose qualifying agent has ceased to be affiliated with it. A newly formed acquisition entity has never been qualified, holds no incomplete contracts of its own, and has no president, partner or financially responsible officer of a qualified business organization to receive a temporary certificate. It cannot contract until a licensed individual files to qualify it, which puts the identity of the replacement qualifier and the state of that filing on the signing checklist rather than the closing one.
The deadline both sides miss sits in the administrative code rather than in chapter 489. Rule 61G4-15.007(2), F.A.C. requires a certificateholder or registrant to inform the Board, by mail, within forty-five calendar days of changes in any information required to be stated on the application for qualification of a business organization, and s. 489.119(2)(a) makes that application state the partners, the officers and directors, each stockholder who is also an officer or director, the trustees, or the members. Subsection (1) of the same rule runs a separate 30 days for a change of name style or address and for the qualifying person ceasing to be affiliated with the qualified business. Subsection (3) provides that failure to report results in disciplinary action, which runs against the qualifier's own certificate rather than producing a late fee against the company.
Florida splits air conditioning into three graded classes and puts the tonnage limit in the statute. Section 489.105(3) defines Class A air-conditioning contractor without a scope limit, Class B air-conditioning contractor limited to 25 tons of cooling and 500,000 Btu of heating in any one system, Class C air-conditioning contractor for servicing only and closed to new entrants since October 1, 1988, and mechanical contractor, which alone among the air-conditioning and mechanical categories also carries lift station equipment and piping, fuel transmission lines, and liquefied petroleum and natural gas fuel lines within buildings. Sheet metal contractor at s. 489.105(3)(d) is a separate category covering fabrication and installation of ductwork, and many Florida HVAC companies hold it alongside an air-conditioning certificate. The Class B ceiling is measured in any one system rather than per building, which puts most light commercial packaged rooftop work inside it and large single-system work outside it, so the thing to test is the target's job mix rather than the label on the certificate.
Each of those categories exists in two forms, and they are different footprints rather than different grades. Section 489.105(8) lets a certified contractor contract in any jurisdiction in the state without being required to fulfill the competency requirements of that jurisdiction. Section 489.105(10) defines a registered contractor by the local competency requirements the holder satisfied and provides that registered contractors may contract only in such jurisdictions. A buyer paying a platform multiple to push a Florida HVAC and mechanical book into adjacent counties gets no permanent footprint outside the ones on the qualifier's registration. Section 489.117(5) lets a registered contractor work inside an area for which a state of emergency is declared under s. 252.36 for a natural emergency, and that authorization terminates 24 months after the declaration expires, so it is not territory a buyer can pay for. Registration is not an alternative route for a buyer. Under s. 489.117(2)(a) the Board may not issue a new registration based on a local license from a jurisdiction that does not exercise disciplinary control and oversight over its locally licensed contractors, and s. 489.117(2)(b) confines the only relief to applicants who held a registration or local license during 2021, 2022 or 2023 in a jurisdiction that no longer offers that license type.
Your technicians sit below the CHOICE Act line, and s. 542.335 is what holds them
Section 542.43(3) makes a covered employee one whose salary exceeds twice the annual mean wage of the county where the employer's principal place of business sits. The line sorts who falls inside part II of chapter 542, not who escapes a covenant. Section 542.43(1), the definition that test runs on, is statewide: annual mean wage means the most recent annual mean wage calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for all occupations in this state. The defined term and the operative test do not agree, and no Florida court has resolved which controls, so no single dollar threshold is safe to assert.
For the technicians the county question does not matter, because the test is twice a mean wage for all occupations and a service technician sits below that mean rather than above it. On the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimates, released May 15, 2026, the mean hourly wage across all occupations in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area was $32.30, while the installation, maintenance and repair group averaged $28.83. Doubling either figure puts the line far above what a truck earns, on any reading of which mean and which geography controls.
Section 542.43(10) narrows the covered group again, this time by how pay is composed rather than by how much of it there is. It counts annualized base compensation, meaning a base wage, a salary, a professional fee or other compensation for personal services, plus the fair market value of any benefit other than cash. It excludes health care benefits, severance, retirement benefits, expense reimbursement, distributions of earnings and profits, discretionary incentives or awards, and anticipated but indeterminable compensation including tips, bonuses or commissions. A comfort advisor paid largely on commission can therefore fail the test on strong W-2 earnings, which is the opposite of what a buyer modeling retention would guess.
Below the line there is no Florida carve-out to fall through. The closing paragraph of s. 542.45(5) sends any restrictive covenant that is not a covered garden leave agreement or a covered noncompete agreement to s. 542.335, and s. 542.335 contains no wage floor and no low-wage exemption of any kind. A technician roster can still be bound in Florida whatever it is paid, so a buyer's retention plan does not collapse beneath the threshold. Deal structure is what can collapse it. Section 542.335(1)(f)2 bars a court from refusing enforcement on the ground that the party seeking it is an assignee or successor only where the covenant expressly authorized enforcement by an assignee or successor. In a stock purchase or a statutory merger the employing entity does not change or succeeds by operation of law, so the question does not arise. In an asset sale the covenants are assigned, and without that language the buyer litigates its standing to enforce rather than relying on the statute.
An unsatisfied judgment against your company can stop the buyer's qualifier
Moving a Florida license at closing is a change of status, and s. 489.115(7) attaches a financial examination to it: a certificateholder or registrant requesting a change of status must submit to the board a credit report from a nationally recognized credit agency reflecting the applicant's financial responsibility. Rule 61G4-15.006(1), F.A.C. sets the tests behind it. The Board will not qualify an applicant unless a current consumer credit report discloses no unsatisfied judgments or liens against the applicant, and, as a separate condition, unless there are no unsatisfied judgments or liens against the business entity the applicant previously qualified as primary qualifier or has applied to qualify.
That second limb reaches the target company. An incoming qualifier with a clean personal file can be refused because of a judgment sitting against the business being bought, which makes lien clearance a condition precedent rather than a post-closing cleanup item, and makes it the seller's item rather than the buyer's. The same limb reaches backwards into the qualifier's own history, so the judgments left behind by every entity that person previously qualified travel into the application and appear in no document the target produces.
The credit score itself is softer than it first reads. Rule 61G4-15.006(2)(b) sets financial stability at a FICO-derived score of 660 or higher, and an applicant who cannot provide one meets the requirement instead by completing a Board-approved 14-hour financial responsibility course, which s. 489.115(7) describes as satisfying fifty percent of the financial requirements. A candidate below 660 is not disqualified. The 14-hour course is a scheduling item, not a reason to change the qualifier.
Two further filings attach to the same event. Rule 61G4-15.003(1) makes the public liability and property damage insurance affidavit a prerequisite to a change in the status of an active certificate or registration and not only to a first issuance, and the rule's table sets air conditioning, mechanical and sheet metal contractors at $100,000 public liability and $25,000 property damage, against $300,000 and $50,000 for general and building contractors. A buyer carrying corporate limits clears those without noticing. The one that costs money is the financially responsible officer. Where a buyer wants an FRO so that the qualifying agent is not personally carrying the entity's financial exposure, Rule 61G4-15.0021(2) requires that officer to provide DBPR a bond or an irrevocable letter of credit in the amount of $100,000 payable to the Board for fines and costs, which is an underwriting question for a named individual and usually surfaces after the buyer has already told the seller who that individual is.
A buyer running more than one Florida entity behind a single retained license holder is on the Board's meeting calendar rather than a clerk's desk. Rule 61G4-15.0021(1) makes any request to qualify another business organization subject to approval by the Board, and s. 489.119(6) leaves approval of each additional organization to the board's discretion. The second entity is usually manageable, because a qualifier employed by the acquired company is a W-2 employee and Rule 61G4-15.0021(3)(a) waives the personal appearance for a W-2 employee or for an applicant owning 20 percent or more of the proposed business organization. The wall is the third. Rule 61G4-15.0021(3)(b) requires an appearance for any application taking the person to three or more qualified organizations unless it is the third business and the applicant proves 20 percent or greater ownership of all three by submitting stock certificates or operating agreements for each. Twenty percent of each acquired company is a real economic concession, so a buyer building a Florida platform should price it before the second acquisition rather than after the third goes under contract.
Questions Florida sellers ask
- We hold a Class B air-conditioning license. Does that narrow the buyer pool?
- It narrows scope rather than buyers. The 25-ton ceiling is measured per system, so what falls outside is large single-system work rather than large buildings. If a buyer's thesis needs Class A scope, s. 489.111(2)(c)5 sets an upgrade ladder inside the trade: a certified Class B contractor becomes eligible for Class A on one year of proven experience in the certified classification and passing the Class A examination, while a certified Class C contractor needs three years for Class B or four for Class A. That ladder, rather than a new hire, is usually the shortest route off the ceiling.
- Can a buyer keep me on as the qualifying agent without giving me equity?
- Chapter 489 requires no ownership from a qualifying agent. Section 489.119(2)(b)1 asks for an affidavit that the qualifier has final approval authority over the business organization's construction work and business matters, and nothing in it calls for a share. Ownership enters only at the Board's appearance rule, and only when one person qualifies more than one company, so a single-entity buyer never reaches that question. The county layer can be stricter. Miami-Dade's Construction Trades Qualifying Board issues its own certificates of competency, and its business application requires the qualifying agent to hold a significant or financial interest as an officer, partner or principal stockholder under section 10-6(E)5 of the county code. That condition attaches to the county credential. The same application records that a business may instead be certified by the state Construction Industry Licensing Board, and s. 489.105(8) bars a jurisdiction from imposing its competency requirements on a state-certified contractor, so a salaried non-owner qualifier who is state-certified is unaffected. The target riding a Miami-Dade certificate of competency is the one that cannot be re-papered that way.
- Does an asset sale get the same 60 days?
- No. Section 489.119(3)(a) runs only to a business organization that was already qualified, so a newly formed acquisition entity gets neither the 60 days nor the temporary certificate. It cannot contract until a licensed individual files to qualify it, which puts the replacement qualifier and the state of that filing on the signing checklist rather than the closing one.
Where these facts come from
Everything above that is a rule rather than a judgment is listed here with its publisher and the date it was checked. Licensing, tax and non-compete rules change, sometimes without much notice. None of this is legal or tax advice, and it is not a substitute for your own counsel and CPA.
Section 489.105(3), F.S. defines the contractor categories, including Class A air-conditioning contractor (unlimited scope), Class B air-conditioning contractor, whose scope is limited to 25 tons of cooling and 500,000 Btu of heating in any one system, Class C air-conditioning contractor, limited to servicing, of whom only a person registered or certified as a Class C air-conditioning contractor as of October 1, 1988 may be so registered or certified after that date, sheet metal contractor at s. 489.105(3)(d), covering fabrication and installation of ductwork and sheet metal products, and mechanical contractor at s. 489.105(3)(i), which is unlimited in scope and, alone among the air-conditioning and mechanical categories, also covers lift station equipment and piping, fuel transmission lines, and liquefied petroleum and natural gas fuel lines within buildings. Section 489.105(8) defines a certified contractor as one holding a certificate of competency issued by the department who shall be allowed to contract in any jurisdiction in the state without being required to fulfill the competency requirements of that jurisdiction. Section 489.105(10) defines a registered contractor as one who has satisfied local competency requirements and provides that registered contractors may contract only in such jurisdictions.
The Florida Senate, 2026 Florida Statutes, s. 489.105. Checked 2026-09-07.
Section 489.105 was last amended by s. 18, ch. 2026-3, which added the definitions of Subcontractor and Supplier at subsections (20) and (21) and left the air-conditioning and mechanical categories unchanged. The definitions cited here are identical in the 2025 and 2026 editions.
Section 489.113(5), F.S. provides that the certificate is not transferable. Section 489.113(4)(a) requires a certificateholder working in a local jurisdiction only to exhibit to the local building official evidence of holding a current certificate.
The Florida Senate, 2026 Florida Statutes, s. 489.113. Checked 2026-09-07.
Section 489.119(2), F.S. sets out the application by which an individual qualifies a business organization, and s. 489.119(2)(a) requires the application to state the partners, the officers and directors and each stockholder who is also an officer or director, the trustees, or the members. Section 489.119(2)(b)1 requires an affidavit that the qualifying agent has final approval authority for all construction work performed by the business organization and for all field work and all business matters. Section 489.119(3)(a) provides that where a qualifying agent ceases to be affiliated with a business organization and was the only certified or registered contractor affiliated with it, the business shall notify the department of the termination and shall have 60 days from the termination of the qualifying agent's affiliation in which to employ another qualifying agent; that the business organization may not engage in contracting until a qualifying agent is employed, unless the executive director or chair of the board has granted a temporary nonrenewable certificate or registration to the financially responsible officer, the president, a partner, or, in the case of a limited partnership, the general partner; and that such temporary certificate shall only allow the business organization to proceed with incomplete contracts, meaning contracts awarded to or entered into by the business organization before the qualifying agent's departure, or on which it was the low bidder and the award follows, regardless of whether any actual work has commenced. Section 489.119(4) requires the local business tax receipt application to be made in the name of the business organization and the qualifying agent, with the state license numbers noted. Section 489.119(6) requires the qualifying agent to pay an amount equal to the original fee for registration or certification to qualify a new business organization and leaves approval of each additional business organization to the discretion of the board.
The Florida Senate, 2026 Florida Statutes, s. 489.119. Checked 2026-09-07.
The 60-day window and the temporary certificate both operate on an existing business organization that was already qualified. Nothing in the paragraph extends either to a newly formed acquisition entity, which has no prior qualification, no incomplete contracts and no officer of a qualified business organization. The temporary certificate is also discretionary and must be granted; it does not issue automatically on the qualifier's departure.
Section 489.117(1)(a), F.S. requires a registration applicant to file evidence of successful compliance with the local examination and licensing requirements, if any, in the area for which registration is desired, and provides that an examination is not required for registration. Section 489.117(1)(b) confines a registered contractor to the counties, municipalities or development districts whose local licensing requirements were met. Section 489.117(2)(a) provides that the board may not issue a new registration after July 1, 1993 based on a certificate of competency or license for a category defined in s. 489.105(3)(a)-(o) issued by a municipal or county government that does not exercise disciplinary control and oversight over such locally licensed contractors, and s. 489.117(2)(b) provides a narrow route confined to applicants who held a state registration or local license during 2021, 2022 or 2023 in a jurisdiction that has since ceased to offer that license type. Section 489.117(4)(a)1 bars a local government from requiring a license for job scopes that do not substantially correspond to a state category. Section 489.117(5) provides that, notwithstanding paragraph (1)(b), a registered contractor may engage in contracting for work covered by the registration within an area for which a state of emergency is declared pursuant to s. 252.36 for a natural emergency, and that this authorization terminates 24 months after the expiration of the declared state of emergency.
The Florida Senate, 2026 Florida Statutes, s. 489.117. Checked 2026-09-07.
Section 489.111(2), F.S. governs licensure by examination for certification and opens by providing that any person who desires to be certified shall apply to the department in writing. Section 489.111(2)(c)3 provides several combinations of foreman or skilled-worker experience with accredited college credits. Section 489.111(2)(c)5 sets category advancement within air conditioning: a certified Class C air-conditioning contractor qualifies for Class B with three years of proven experience or Class A with four, and a certified Class B air-conditioning contractor qualifies for Class A with one year of proven experience in the certified classification, in each case on passing the higher examination.
The Florida Senate, 2026 Florida Statutes, s. 489.111. Checked 2026-09-07.
Section 489.111 governs certification. Registration follows s. 489.117(1)(a) instead and requires no state examination, so the experience routes described here do not govern a registered qualifier.
Section 489.115(5)(a), F.S. requires a workers' compensation, public liability and property damage insurance affidavit as a prerequisite to issuance. Section 489.115(7) requires that a certificateholder or registrant shall, upon requesting a change of status, submit to the board a credit report from a nationally recognized credit agency that reflects the financial responsibility of the applicant, and provides that fifty percent of the financial requirements may be met by completing a 14-hour financial responsibility course.
The Florida Senate, 2026 Florida Statutes, s. 489.115. Checked 2026-09-07.
Rule 61G4-15.0021, F.A.C., effective December 23, 2025, provides at subsection (1) that after a licensee qualifies one business organization, any request to qualify another business organization is subject to approval by the Board. Subsection (2) requires a financially responsible officer to provide the Department a bond or irrevocable letter of credit in the amount of $100,000 payable to the Board for fines and costs. Subsection (3)(a) requires the applicant to appear before the Board unless the applicant qualifies for approval under s. 489.119, F.S. and either owns 20 percent or greater of the proposed business organization or demonstrates that the applicant has been hired as a W-2 employee of the proposed business. Subsection (3)(b) requires an appearance for any application that would take the person to three or more qualified organizations, unless it is the third business and the applicant proves 20 percent or greater ownership of all three by submitting stock certificates or operating agreements for each business. Subsection (4) provides that qualification of a business organization is only effective as to that business organization, and that subsidiaries or parents of qualified business organizations must be separately qualified.
Florida Department of State, Florida Administrative Code, Rule 61G4-15.0021. Checked 2026-09-07.
Subsection (4) does not de-qualify an existing opco when a new parent is inserted above it; the opco keeps its own qualification and the new parent simply holds none. The consequence bites on a merger, where the surviving entity is a different business organization. Rule 61G4-15.0024, F.A.C. accepts the same 20 percent, W-2 or express written control agreement as proof of ability to supervise.
Rule 61G4-15.007, F.A.C. requires at subsection (2) that a certificateholder or registrant must inform the Board, by mail, within forty-five calendar days, of changes in any information required to be stated on the application for qualification of a business organization. Subsection (1) requires notice to the Board within 30 days of a change in name style or address, and within 30 days after the qualifying person has ceased to be affiliated with the qualified business organization. Subsection (3) provides that failure to report the information required by the rule shall result in disciplinary action.
Florida Department of State, Florida Administrative Code, Rule 61G4-15.007. Checked 2026-09-07.
The statutory list at s. 489.119(2)(a), F.S. names the partners, the officers and directors, each stockholder who is also an officer or director, the trustees, or the members. Whether a change in ownership percentages among non-officer stockholders is itself reportable information turns on the Department's qualifying-business form rather than on the statute, which is why the safer course is to treat any change of control as reportable and confirm the point with Florida counsel. The adjacent Rule 61G4-15.009, Replacement of Qualifying Persons, was repealed effective May 5, 2024 and should not be relied on.
Rule 61G4-15.006, F.A.C., effective May 5, 2024, provides at subsection (1) that the Board shall refuse to qualify an applicant absent a current consumer credit report disclosing no unsatisfied judgments or liens against the applicant, and that there must not be any unsatisfied judgments or liens against the business entity which the applicant previously qualified as a primary qualifier or which the applicant has applied to qualify. Subsection (2)(b) provides that applicants who are unable to provide a credit score, FICO derived, of 660 or higher shall meet the financial stability requirement by completion of a 14-hour financial responsibility course approved by the Board.
Florida Department of State, Florida Administrative Code, Rule 61G4-15.006. Checked 2026-09-07.
A FICO score below 660 is not a disqualification; it substitutes a course requirement. The hard gate in the rule is the unsatisfied judgments and liens test in subsection (1), which reaches both the individual and the entity being qualified.
Rule 61G4-15.003, F.A.C., Public Liability Insurance, effective November 15, 2007, makes the public liability and property damage insurance affidavit a prerequisite to issuance and to a change in the status of an active certificate or registration. Its table sets air conditioning contractor, mechanical contractor, sheet metal contractor and residential contractor at $100,000 public liability and $25,000 property damage, and general contractor and building contractor at $300,000 public liability and $50,000 property damage.
Florida Department of State, Florida Administrative Code, Rule 61G4-15.003. Checked 2026-09-07.
The amounts are fixed by this rule rather than by any Department form. Residential contractors carry the same $100,000 and $25,000 figures as the HVAC categories, so only general and building contractors sit in the higher tier.
Section 542.43(1), F.S. defines annual mean wage of employees in Florida, or annual mean wage, as the most recent annual mean wage as calculated by the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, or its successor calculation, for all occupations in this state. Section 542.43(3) defines a covered employee as one who earns or is reasonably expected to earn a salary greater than twice the annual mean wage of the county in this state in which the covered employer has its principal place of business, or the Florida county of residence if the employer's principal place of business is outside the state. Section 542.43(10) defines salary as the base compensation, calculated on an annualized basis, which a covered employer pays a covered employee, including a base wage, a salary, a professional fee, or other compensation for personal services, and the fair market value of any benefit other than cash, and excludes health care benefits, severance, retirement benefits, expense reimbursement, distributions of earnings and profits, discretionary incentives or awards, and anticipated but indeterminable compensation, including tips, bonuses, or commissions.
The Florida Senate, 2026 Florida Statutes, s. 542.43. Checked 2026-09-07.
Subsection (1) defines the term statewide while subsection (3) applies it to the county. That mismatch is unresolved and no Florida court has decided which controls, so any single dollar threshold is contestable.
The closing paragraph of s. 542.45(5), F.S. provides that any action regarding a restrictive covenant that does not meet the definition of a covered garden leave agreement or a covered noncompete agreement as provided in this part is governed by s. 542.335.
The Florida Senate, 2026 Florida Statutes, s. 542.45. Checked 2026-09-07.
The reversion sentence is flush-left concluding text of subsection (5) rather than part of paragraph (5)(e), which is the gross-misconduct provision. Pin cites to s. 542.45(5)(e) for this language will not check out.
Section 542.335, F.S. governs restrictive covenants that fall outside part II of chapter 542. It contains no wage floor and no low-wage exemption. Section 542.335(1)(f)2 provides that a court shall not refuse enforcement on the ground that the person seeking enforcement is an assignee or successor provided that the restrictive covenant expressly authorized enforcement by a party's assignee or successor.
The Florida Senate, 2026 Florida Statutes, s. 542.335. Checked 2026-09-07.
Section 542.335(1)(f)2 removes one ground on which a court may refuse enforcement; its absence does not by itself void a covenant. In a stock purchase or a statutory merger the employing entity is unchanged or succeeds by operation of law, so no assignment occurs and the provision is not engaged. The durational presumptions elsewhere in s. 542.335 are deliberately not stated on this page.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics estimates on May 15, 2026, news release USDL-26-0725. On those estimates, the mean hourly wage for all occupations in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area was $32.30, and the mean hourly wage for the installation, maintenance and repair occupational group in that area was $28.83.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. Checked 2026-09-07.
OEWS publishes national, state and metropolitan or nonmetropolitan area estimates and no estimates for individual Florida counties, mapping each county instead to an area. County wage figures do exist, from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and from FloridaCommerce, but they measure average pay across covered employment rather than an occupational mean, and s. 542.43 does not say which series to use. The two area figures quoted here should be re-confirmed against the published Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach table before either is used in a covenant analysis. No doubled dollar threshold is stated on this page because the source question is unsettled.
Miami-Dade County's Construction Trades Qualifying Board issues certificates of competency, and its application for personal and business certification states that Chapter 10 of the Code of Miami-Dade County requires entities engaging in contracting in the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county to be approved and certified by the Miami-Dade County Construction Trades Qualifying Board, the State of Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board, or the State of Florida Electrical Contractors Licensing Board. The business application requires that the qualifying agent have a significant interest or financial interest in the entity being qualified, as evidenced by position as an officer, partner or principal stockholder, in accordance with section 10-6(E)5 of the Code of Miami-Dade County. It requires the business to notify the Construction Trades Qualifying Board immediately if the named qualifying agent severs the connection with the entity, requires the applicant to order a credit report and receive it before the meeting, and requires the complete application with supporting documents and fee at least 30 calendar days before the next scheduled meeting.
Miami-Dade County, Construction Trades Qualifying Board, application for personal and business certification. Checked 2026-09-07.
The Chapter 10 requirement is disjunctive, so the county ownership condition attaches to the county certificate of competency rather than to a business qualified through the state CILB, and s. 489.105(8), F.S. bars a jurisdiction from imposing its competency requirements on a state-certified contractor. The form carries a 12/10 revision, routes filings to a department that no longer exists under that name, and prices its fees by reference to an administrative order, so its fee amounts are deliberately not quoted here and its filing addresses and fees should be confirmed with Miami-Dade contractor licensing before any closing calendar relies on them.
Page last reviewed 2026-09-07.
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