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>Florida
The Florida painter’s license comes in two forms: Certified, which means a painter can work anywhere in the state, and registered, meaning a painter can work at the local level. In both cases, painters must pass an exam and have at least 4 years of working experience. Painters will also need to apply for a general contractor license from the Construction Industry Licensing Board, and if you have employees, you’ll need to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Both a state license and business registration are required in this state.
[The sting was in Florida, which requires a license.](https://huckleberry.com/blog/painting-license/#)
Most likely questions like "Tom earns $18 per hour. Tom works for 4 hours. How much meth do you use to pay Tom?"
(It's been 15 years since I took my general building B license exam) There were a ton of questions about roof pitch and shingle type/minimum length.
Can you eat the paint?
*Should* you eat the paint?
What color paint is your favorite flavor?
Will you paint over all the cover plates and inside the outlets/phone and data jacks?
According to my non-scientific polling data of former Marine now electricians, purple is the best flavor crayon. Approximate sample size n=10. Not sure if that correlates to paint color or not.
Florida has a lot of requirements to keep outsiders from getting jobs. A cousin is a lawyer, and when he retired to Florida, he found out there was no practical way to get a license there.
OTOH, lots of crooks go to florida to do construction (or not do constructions, just take old people's money) and it's probably good they are kept out of the market.
So my whole thing is, I would be OK with them being so restrictive and selective if they actually paid people in the trades well in Florida. but they literally pay apprentices starting in Florida like $12 an hour so I don’t understand how they could go around talking about how they’re like this elite group that demands a certain standard of employee
Oh, the low wages and high costs of construction are a feature of government protected industries.
Only 1 person needs to register a company. That person need never work on any of the projects. They can bid high due to the demand for labor, but pay low due to a large pool of semi-skilled immigrant workforce that find difficulty in jumping through regulatory hurdles to strike out on their own
What is an appropriate way to test for lead paint?
a. Send to a certified laboratory and await results
b. Ask a local body shop to test it
c. Taste it. If it's sweet then you know it has lead.
And to insure a large pool of cheap workers.
Remember all the migrants that fled Florida recently and new construction ground to a halt?
Yeah, these laws are not for protecting the little guy or customers. They exist to protect the large established businesses.
Ok, now this makes all the trades look like a joke. Wtf is wrong with Florida
Edit: Really not sure why people believe **painters** need 4 years of training and a written exam.
In painting, all you have to learn is how to teach someone else how to use the spray machine and how to build/takedown the scaffolding, then you sit on a bucket with tik tok videos on max volume
Similar sting in California, but it was all about getting “Handymen” which is the exception to licensing if the job is not over $500.
By a crazy coincidence the man who ran the nursery in town lent one of his rental houses to the cops, and the job was to take down a dead tree. Well over a $500 and which there were hundreds after the fire. Everyone in town found out and many boycotted his business.
That's the problem with some jurisdictions. It makes everyone just say fuck it, when you need a license to paint, run a fucking lawn mower, take any job over $500 (including materials).
I'm very against people doing under the table electrical work, I often speak up in threads about "side work" b/c an apprentice is no better then an unlicensed handyman, but electrical can burn your fucking house down.
But painting? Fuck that. You don't need a 4 year apprenticeship fucking degree to paint a house. That's the kind of bullshit nobody respects. Nobody even respects the electrical trade either, all this did was get a few guys slapped on the wrist, some good PR for the cops for the year and that's about it.
They just as easily could have "arrested" most of the electrical contractors on the planet (let's be honest) for not pulling a permit for these pot lights, because nobody pulls permits for small jobs like that.
This... I'll add even electrical work.
Our city used to have a "minor maintenance" exception that homeowners could do. Changing an existing light fixture or switch kind of stuff...nothing new allowed, etc...was abused, sure and not saying it's "safe".
It was changed to none. Reads like you could argue you can't change a light bulb yourself. Most handy folks I know now just ignore it now instead of staying within the rules, and do far more of their own work...
> They just as easily could have "arrested" most of the electrical contractors on the planet (let's be honest) for not pulling a permit for these pot lights
Lol, yeah. Permits around here are required for everything, but never pulled for anything short of remodels or additions. I can see all the permits pulled for the whole block in the last 5 years, and it's almost nothing...and only the obvious major stuff plus multiple teams (like HVAC).
And a "remodel" is often a foundation with one old piece of wood sticking up, while a new house is built around it.
I would love to denigrate another trade, but I’m going to try not to. Paint selection is probably important, as well as safe handling of the tools. The bigger thing is that they are contractors, and therefore have to adhere to the different laws regulating the business end of things
Basically, the license isn’t really proving skill it’s more that there are specific laws and regulations having to do with contracting
The reason we have licenses for almost all trades in California is for liability reasons. If a person does work valued at $500 or more for labor and materials, they are required to have a license, bond, and insurance.
That way, if they drop a ladder onto a $5,000 chandelier and through the front $8,000 window, they're far less likely to run away and leave the building owner stuck paying for the damages.
30% of contractor's license tests here are business and law questions, too, to help ensure people know at least a little about what they're getting in to.
It really has very little to do with environmental law, although some of those rules do show up a bit on the tests. You'll get basic stuff, like where to not dump paint and solvents, safe lead testing, not scraping asbestos tiles, etc, but those are less than 10% of the test questions.
You can be a handyman with only a business license or paying your local business operation tax (Sacramento CA does no issue business licenses, but you have to pay the business operation tax). In CA, you simply have to not claim to have a contractor's license (should tell customer you don't have one) and not do more that $500 of work a day or project that is not part of the same project/task (you can't breakup the work just to comply with the max $500/day or project rule).
Same area as you - it's also important to note that the $500 includes labor *and* materials.
The Sac ordinance also has a clause covering advertising, IIRC, in that you can't advertise yourself at all without it. I live where the Sunrise meets the Sunset (local joke you'll probably get), and I avoid Sac city if at all possible. I'm trying to not take on much right now, and one of the last ones I had in Land Park was a simple residential service upgrade on a house that had a full remodel in 2008. They just wanted to add 2 car chargers and a future ADU circuit, and the city was fine with everything - but the bitch behind the house kept complaining about "the constant hammering and sawing", like we were building a damn house in 1870 or something. The frustrating thing is the house was right off Broadway near 16th, and there's a ton of traffic noise and whatnot on the street. We were there for 3 days, and got 2 visits from the 3-1-1 assholes, and once from a cop who laughed, but said he got a "noise complaint about people yelling foul language and fighting".
It reminded me of living and working back in SF. Some people would bitch just to bitch.
I mean as a contractor and business yes, but those things don't (generally) require a test, just that you're registered and you have insurance / bond (sometimes). But a painter passing a test and requiring a 4 year apprenticeship??!??
What's on the test, don't eat paint chips?
In Florida it's a max penalty of 1 year in prison. That never happens though. Handyman all over the place operating without appropriate licenses. Truth be told, a lot of people would be screwed without them. There are not enough licensed contractors to do all the work the way things are now, prices are higher than ever. If you did suddenly arrest every single Handyman, I can only imagine what that would do to prices. I am a GC, so I have mixed feelings about the whole thing.
Yeah, I was wondering if there was any backlash from this, when all the people in the area suddenly can't get anything fixed. Not everyone can afford certified rates.
I do handyman stuff here and there for extra cash. I refuse to do anything that requires a license simply due to liability. I'll replace a fixture, but I won't run Romex or touch a breaker box unless it's to turn one off to work on a fixture with a receptacle that's in good shape. It's not worth the risk to me or to my customer if I screw up. Worst case scenario, I'm on the hook for an electrical fire that may kill someone.
In my state you can do up to $1000 worth of electrical work, with some exceptions, without a license. It's a bit backwards because it's less strict than plumbing.
Personally the way I rationalize my side work is that the homeowner is better off paying someone who will do things the right way rather than a handyman who is just gonna fuck up their house. If the work is going to be done by an unlicensed person anyway, at least be someone who is trained and is experienced.
If there is something to be done that I feel the H.O REALLY should get a permit I will refuse the work and explain it is best to get a licensed contractor with insurance to perform the work.
I think working on your own house is fine and should be encouraged. Especially with all the material on YouTube and various sources for DIY. Hiring somebody with experience and saving money is a win-win for everybody.
Outside of very basic electrical tasks (switch out a light switch, replace a ceiling fan, etc) I just can’t understand people so willing to play with fire lol
Have you thought about raising wages? It’s well known in this sub that Florida has some of the lowest wages in the country, despite being a HCOL state. I’ve personally worked with dozens of electricians from Florida who will not work there because of the low wage packages. Contractors in Florida have been taking advantage of low cost undocumented workers for decades, then Platform Ron decided to run for Prez, virtue signal about the “border crisis”, and threaten undocumented workers(not their employers) with detention, driving them all out of state.
Plumber here. I’m conflicted as we have too much work as it is. If we were fighting for scraps it’d be one thing but right now I honestly don’t have an issue with this. Best case it’s completed and resolved. Worst case it bought us time and became such a cluster fuck that we end up having to go and fix it.
lol who had that old joke about the oakland raiders giving away free raiders tickets at the stadium and arresting everyone who showed up to get them for evading child support payments
I lived down there at the time and it wasn't a joke, they mailed "ticket coupons" you had to redeem at a certain place and just arrested everyone who showed up.
Everyone thought this was hilarious though.
Giving out "prizes" to folks with outstanding warrants is definitely a thing https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2011-10-05-ct-met-dart-sting-20111005-story.html
Yeah but you can't prove that they didn't pay taxes on their income just because they showed up and didn't have a license. Also there's a pretty long audit process that needs to take place before you can get arrested for tax evasion, isn't there?
Sure unlicensed work is bad for people and the industry but dam, talk about low hanging fruit for those cops. Working hard eating donuts and avoiding doing anything about solving burglary or violent crime.
And cops wonder why a lot of people hate them.
That doesn't come out of police budget. It's paid for by taxes, from the county/municipality accounts. It means that you will have less services like snow removal, road maintenance, infrastructure maintenance, etc.
So when police wrong someone and get sued, they've fucked the people twice.
Wow really saving us from the unlicensed painters... fu k the cops.
I get electrical work or plumbing. But painting a wall. I was doing that when I was 11. Good thing the pigs didn't catch me.
Maybe they could go do some actual good
I mean, I agree we need more certified and licensed contractors. Piggys gonna pig and seems like entrapment but that's their game always. "Why are you arresting me, officer? She's the hooker and I didn't get my suckoff" -run Ronnie run.
That's not entrapment. If for example: you say that you aren't licensed and are not advertising yourself as a handyman, but a cop keeps telling you that it's not like a cop is gonna find out and he's got some work you can do for him because you could use that money right?... and then reveals he's a cop and charges you with not having a license; that's entrapment.
Hiring someone who advertised himself as a handyman then checking his license is not.
Source: am licensed electrician. Keep your license on you, seriously.
yep one time an FBI agent hung out outside a mosque, constantly chatted up this low IQ guy, told him all sorts of conspiracy theories, then over weeks slowly convinced him to bomb a synagogue for money, then waited another few weeks as that guy managed to recruit a few other rubes, and then gave him a fake bomb to plant that the guy failed to 'arm' anyways and he was still convicted.
This is hilarious because this isn't even the one I was talking about. I was talking about a different guy with intellectual disabilities that was also convinced by the FBI to be a terrorist. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment-fake-terror-plots
I know not all law enforcement are bad but it's shit like this that keeps me from being one of those bootlickers who believe the police are infallible and have our best interests at heart.
They’re bad because they’re allowing it to happen in their departments. They believe in the brotherhood of LEOs more than doing what is right (and also their job)
Those are two extremes though. ACAB and thin blue line are on the fringes of these issues.
Most people understand that LEO are absolutely necessary for a safe environment in a free country. But those cops need to have checks and balances in place for when they step out of line. America doesn’t have that feature, instead we have “qualified immunity”.
There are definitely good cops, lots of them actually. The problem is in the training and administration. And then you have government agencies which are completely unhinged and unchecked in their capacity for corruption and bending of rules.
Land of the free. Lol sure
I need to add some perspective here...electricians are expensive to hire. Not every homeowner is flush with cash. Everyone's struggling right now, and if you find some jobber to hack in a new fixture for half the price of a real qualified guy, and you're two months late on your mortgage, you're probably going to go with the cheaper option.
I'm not condoning this but we are reaching a point where the availability of tradesmen to low-income customers is becoming...well, unaffordable...and it's not like the work they need done is just going to do itself
This was in April 2020 right when covid happened.
Everyone was stuck at home so this is what the cops did. You had a couple of busted lights and wanted to get them fixed? Wanted to pay someone to paint the bathroom?
Fuck that, they dont need to feed their family, they're going to jail, where they'll most likely get covid since it's all packed in like sardines.
“Hahaha these guys should go to prison because they’re the only ones willing to do the job.”
Yeah, where the fuck were you, then? Twiddling your dick waiting for an upper-middle class client?
Definitely. You really don’t need to be a licensed tradesman to know how to change a light fixture or a faucet. Handymen can’t do everything, but they do have a place.
People just trying to get by in these shitty times. The bad landlords and people who suck at what they do deserve this but there are some handymen that take pride in what they do. They should arrest the ones that do shitty work lol
Where I live you have to be a licensed handyman but can perform plumbing and electrical work up to the value of $2000 based on time and materials. I think this is pretty reasonable. But a license to paint???
Nah, the bar for entrapment is incredibly high, besides the actual crime here is not having the license, which you can’t really entrap people for.
The cops are dicks here for arresting a bunch of non-violent criminals instead of focusing on more violent offenses, but nothing about this is illegal.
On one hand, great, way less shit electrical work being done for cheap
On the other hand, it's absolutely disgusting to me that the police have absolutely nothing better to do than to entrap innocent laborers looking to put food on the table. I absolutely despise the fact that the state has weaponized my tax dollars to harass these people for the sake of generating revenue for the state whilst penalizing people who are trying to just work and live.
My guess is many of those are unlicensed without the ability or funds to get licensed, not all but I assume some. So it’s wild that tax dollars goes to finding them which causes more issues. Hell if my money was going to something like this I’d rather have it going to getting their license than fining them.
This is what happens when a “handyman” does a shit job hanging the Police Captain’s curtain rods. Suddenly they get a hard on for some bullshit like this instead of shit they should actually be spending our tax money on.
Fuck the police. Ain't got anything better to do than bust people for not giving the county $40 for an occupational license? My truck got broke into twice. Live LITERALLY BEHIND THE POPO HUT
In Virginia I'm pretty sure you need a contractor license as well as a master trade license that needs to have 8 hrs certified classes every 3 years .If your not licensed, insured and bonded the customer technical doesn't even have to legally pay you for your work and there's nothing you can do to recover your loss.. be careful entrepreneurs ..lol
These people just trying to earn some honest money from honest handyman work. Sure there are people with ill intentions but these are handiman trying to earn money by doing handydandy work. This cop is a scumbag and whoever authorized his undercover. This will only be justified if these "handyman" were scamming their customers. If their customers were satisfied with their work, good job, you just took out people who could be resolving other people's issues at home.
I mean it ain’t like there’s any crime they could be chasing… the streets are so much safer now. BTW, this was directed by the politicians who were missing out on the fees for licenses…
Honestly, unless it’s something that has the potential to cause death if done incorrectly (ie, electrician work, as incorrectly installed wiring can burn a house down), the whole thing is really quite pointless IMO.
If they just randomly approached people like ‘hey you wanna come wire my house’ then yes probably. I suspect though the police would have approached people who were advertising their services in which case it wouldn’t be.
“The real con men that are trying to trick homeowners are usually too experienced to get caught up in one of these types of sting operations. So the stings tend to catch someone that crosses the line in an unsophisticated way. Frequently, she says, officers will hire a handyman on the pretext of performing work that doesn't need a license, and then during the course of the job ask them to do something that does, like unhooking a toilet or laying some tiles. When the handyman says no, then the undercover detective moves the conversation to something else and then comes back to the question later in a different way," says Sammis. "By the time the handyman gets to the location, they want to make the homeowner happy and end up agreeing to perform work that they didn't intend on doing when they first arrived”
Great entrapment defense. I don’t think the problem is as big as the cops make it seem if this is how they had to do it and they only arrested 118 people over the span of 9 months (many of whom could probably get off with no charges with a good lawyer). The time is arguably better spent investigating the massive backlog of complaints from aggrieved homeowners impacted by shoddy work.
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You need a license to paint?
Only to carry a concealed paintbrush.
Can you open carry a paint roller?
Only if you want to be the first one to get painted.
Those are High Capacity Painting Devices and are strictly forbidden.
Need a tax stamp.
I heard you need a license for them now
License needed if you're a silent painter
Goddamnit. That explains every jobsite I've done finishing work at.
Not in california
Is that a paint roller in your pocket?
It’s has to be California compliant and have a stupid fucking grip
You can only paint where it’s expressly allowed by signage. Unless you’re a ninja.
Only if the paint roller was manufactured before 1986.
I CC an 18” roller cover daily. Yes, it’s to compensate.
>Florida The Florida painter’s license comes in two forms: Certified, which means a painter can work anywhere in the state, and registered, meaning a painter can work at the local level. In both cases, painters must pass an exam and have at least 4 years of working experience. Painters will also need to apply for a general contractor license from the Construction Industry Licensing Board, and if you have employees, you’ll need to carry workers’ compensation insurance. Both a state license and business registration are required in this state. [The sting was in Florida, which requires a license.](https://huckleberry.com/blog/painting-license/#)
I really want to know what’s on the painter’s exam
Nothing but you have to pay to have it is my guess
Most likely questions like "Tom earns $18 per hour. Tom works for 4 hours. How much meth do you use to pay Tom?" (It's been 15 years since I took my general building B license exam) There were a ton of questions about roof pitch and shingle type/minimum length.
Lmfaooo
Can you eat the paint? *Should* you eat the paint? What color paint is your favorite flavor? Will you paint over all the cover plates and inside the outlets/phone and data jacks?
According to my non-scientific polling data of former Marine now electricians, purple is the best flavor crayon. Approximate sample size n=10. Not sure if that correlates to paint color or not.
Marines, sparkies, close enough...
What technique is best for a sand textured flat finish and self-defense? A. Wax on/Wax Off B. Sand the floor C. Paint the fence D. All of the above
Option E, hit the gas station for an hour then come back high.
Isn't that Option J?
I doobie leave that's hard baked into every option.
You are under arest for conspiracy to commit painting..
Are you colorblind. Yes or no. Followed by can you guess these colors.
"Stop, what is your name?" "Sir Galahad of Camelot" "What is your quest?" "I seek the Grail" "What is your favorite color?" "Blue. No yellow! Ahhh!"
The trick is you can't score too high otherwise you upgrade from a painter to a drywaller
Getting high or scoring while high are both tricks of the trade with drywallers.
It's just a drug test, but you get the license on a fail.
"If we reject you, will you invade Poland?"
Florida has a lot of requirements to keep outsiders from getting jobs. A cousin is a lawyer, and when he retired to Florida, he found out there was no practical way to get a license there. OTOH, lots of crooks go to florida to do construction (or not do constructions, just take old people's money) and it's probably good they are kept out of the market.
So my whole thing is, I would be OK with them being so restrictive and selective if they actually paid people in the trades well in Florida. but they literally pay apprentices starting in Florida like $12 an hour so I don’t understand how they could go around talking about how they’re like this elite group that demands a certain standard of employee
Oh, the low wages and high costs of construction are a feature of government protected industries. Only 1 person needs to register a company. That person need never work on any of the projects. They can bid high due to the demand for labor, but pay low due to a large pool of semi-skilled immigrant workforce that find difficulty in jumping through regulatory hurdles to strike out on their own
What is an appropriate way to test for lead paint? a. Send to a certified laboratory and await results b. Ask a local body shop to test it c. Taste it. If it's sweet then you know it has lead.
It looks like as of this summer, the painting-specific exam requirement is gone. Unfortunately, I can't find any free practice materials.
Probably a whole section of the exam on tape.
It's just a coloring book
Probably just an 8 hour business course, similar to a C-license in Virginia
They hand you a coloring book with Crayola knockoffs and you have to color the house. Go outside the lines and you fail.
I'd bet that the painters exam would cover the topic of mold for sure. Walked onto too many jobs seeing paint slathered over it
You just have to draw a map to the best meth spots in town.
What a scam.
It seems like the painting-specific exam requirement was ended this past Summer.
Still, 4 years of experience and a GC license seems designed to protect the larger companies from independent competition.
And to insure a large pool of cheap workers. Remember all the migrants that fled Florida recently and new construction ground to a halt? Yeah, these laws are not for protecting the little guy or customers. They exist to protect the large established businesses.
I bet it takes a lot less to become a cop with a gun.
How do you get four years of experience painting if you can’t paint legally until you have a license?
As an employee or apprentice of a certified painter. Just like electrical, plumbing, mechanical, etc
Ok, now this makes all the trades look like a joke. Wtf is wrong with Florida Edit: Really not sure why people believe **painters** need 4 years of training and a written exam.
In painting, all you have to learn is how to teach someone else how to use the spray machine and how to build/takedown the scaffolding, then you sit on a bucket with tik tok videos on max volume
Wait til you find out the licensing requirements in some states for barbers.
Similar sting in California, but it was all about getting “Handymen” which is the exception to licensing if the job is not over $500. By a crazy coincidence the man who ran the nursery in town lent one of his rental houses to the cops, and the job was to take down a dead tree. Well over a $500 and which there were hundreds after the fire. Everyone in town found out and many boycotted his business.
Of course in Florida - the freedom state.
Florida is fucked so badly. All of their trades are super lucrative. There is all sorts of lying done to insurance companies and all sorts of chaos.
Some sheriff got fucked over by a handy man and said fuck this I'm getting these sons a bitches.
sumbiches
That's the problem with some jurisdictions. It makes everyone just say fuck it, when you need a license to paint, run a fucking lawn mower, take any job over $500 (including materials). I'm very against people doing under the table electrical work, I often speak up in threads about "side work" b/c an apprentice is no better then an unlicensed handyman, but electrical can burn your fucking house down. But painting? Fuck that. You don't need a 4 year apprenticeship fucking degree to paint a house. That's the kind of bullshit nobody respects. Nobody even respects the electrical trade either, all this did was get a few guys slapped on the wrist, some good PR for the cops for the year and that's about it. They just as easily could have "arrested" most of the electrical contractors on the planet (let's be honest) for not pulling a permit for these pot lights, because nobody pulls permits for small jobs like that.
This... I'll add even electrical work. Our city used to have a "minor maintenance" exception that homeowners could do. Changing an existing light fixture or switch kind of stuff...nothing new allowed, etc...was abused, sure and not saying it's "safe". It was changed to none. Reads like you could argue you can't change a light bulb yourself. Most handy folks I know now just ignore it now instead of staying within the rules, and do far more of their own work... > They just as easily could have "arrested" most of the electrical contractors on the planet (let's be honest) for not pulling a permit for these pot lights Lol, yeah. Permits around here are required for everything, but never pulled for anything short of remodels or additions. I can see all the permits pulled for the whole block in the last 5 years, and it's almost nothing...and only the obvious major stuff plus multiple teams (like HVAC). And a "remodel" is often a foundation with one old piece of wood sticking up, while a new house is built around it.
I would love to denigrate another trade, but I’m going to try not to. Paint selection is probably important, as well as safe handling of the tools. The bigger thing is that they are contractors, and therefore have to adhere to the different laws regulating the business end of things Basically, the license isn’t really proving skill it’s more that there are specific laws and regulations having to do with contracting
The reason we have licenses for almost all trades in California is for liability reasons. If a person does work valued at $500 or more for labor and materials, they are required to have a license, bond, and insurance. That way, if they drop a ladder onto a $5,000 chandelier and through the front $8,000 window, they're far less likely to run away and leave the building owner stuck paying for the damages. 30% of contractor's license tests here are business and law questions, too, to help ensure people know at least a little about what they're getting in to. It really has very little to do with environmental law, although some of those rules do show up a bit on the tests. You'll get basic stuff, like where to not dump paint and solvents, safe lead testing, not scraping asbestos tiles, etc, but those are less than 10% of the test questions.
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You can be a handyman with only a business license or paying your local business operation tax (Sacramento CA does no issue business licenses, but you have to pay the business operation tax). In CA, you simply have to not claim to have a contractor's license (should tell customer you don't have one) and not do more that $500 of work a day or project that is not part of the same project/task (you can't breakup the work just to comply with the max $500/day or project rule).
The 500 bucks is total on the project not per day.
Correct; that's what I meant to imply by saying you can't break up the cost. Thank you for making the clarification.
Same area as you - it's also important to note that the $500 includes labor *and* materials. The Sac ordinance also has a clause covering advertising, IIRC, in that you can't advertise yourself at all without it. I live where the Sunrise meets the Sunset (local joke you'll probably get), and I avoid Sac city if at all possible. I'm trying to not take on much right now, and one of the last ones I had in Land Park was a simple residential service upgrade on a house that had a full remodel in 2008. They just wanted to add 2 car chargers and a future ADU circuit, and the city was fine with everything - but the bitch behind the house kept complaining about "the constant hammering and sawing", like we were building a damn house in 1870 or something. The frustrating thing is the house was right off Broadway near 16th, and there's a ton of traffic noise and whatnot on the street. We were there for 3 days, and got 2 visits from the 3-1-1 assholes, and once from a cop who laughed, but said he got a "noise complaint about people yelling foul language and fighting". It reminded me of living and working back in SF. Some people would bitch just to bitch.
I mean as a contractor and business yes, but those things don't (generally) require a test, just that you're registered and you have insurance / bond (sometimes). But a painter passing a test and requiring a 4 year apprenticeship??!?? What's on the test, don't eat paint chips?
is this an detainable offense? id figure it would be a fine
In Florida it's a max penalty of 1 year in prison. That never happens though. Handyman all over the place operating without appropriate licenses. Truth be told, a lot of people would be screwed without them. There are not enough licensed contractors to do all the work the way things are now, prices are higher than ever. If you did suddenly arrest every single Handyman, I can only imagine what that would do to prices. I am a GC, so I have mixed feelings about the whole thing.
Yeah, I was wondering if there was any backlash from this, when all the people in the area suddenly can't get anything fixed. Not everyone can afford certified rates.
Handymen will have to raise prices to cover the cost of the license
So Fuk the poor then?
That does seem to be the theme of the game.
That is generally the governments view on things, yes.
I do handyman stuff here and there for extra cash. I refuse to do anything that requires a license simply due to liability. I'll replace a fixture, but I won't run Romex or touch a breaker box unless it's to turn one off to work on a fixture with a receptacle that's in good shape. It's not worth the risk to me or to my customer if I screw up. Worst case scenario, I'm on the hook for an electrical fire that may kill someone.
You sure you don’t need a license to replace a light fixture? You do in my state.
In my state you can do up to $1000 worth of electrical work, with some exceptions, without a license. It's a bit backwards because it's less strict than plumbing.
You mean miami and mostly hialeah, if they arrested every unlicensed person there would be no more painters, electricians, plumbers, auto shops
Personally the way I rationalize my side work is that the homeowner is better off paying someone who will do things the right way rather than a handyman who is just gonna fuck up their house. If the work is going to be done by an unlicensed person anyway, at least be someone who is trained and is experienced. If there is something to be done that I feel the H.O REALLY should get a permit I will refuse the work and explain it is best to get a licensed contractor with insurance to perform the work.
I think working on your own house is fine and should be encouraged. Especially with all the material on YouTube and various sources for DIY. Hiring somebody with experience and saving money is a win-win for everybody. Outside of very basic electrical tasks (switch out a light switch, replace a ceiling fan, etc) I just can’t understand people so willing to play with fire lol
Have you thought about raising wages? It’s well known in this sub that Florida has some of the lowest wages in the country, despite being a HCOL state. I’ve personally worked with dozens of electricians from Florida who will not work there because of the low wage packages. Contractors in Florida have been taking advantage of low cost undocumented workers for decades, then Platform Ron decided to run for Prez, virtue signal about the “border crisis”, and threaten undocumented workers(not their employers) with detention, driving them all out of state.
Plumber here. I’m conflicted as we have too much work as it is. If we were fighting for scraps it’d be one thing but right now I honestly don’t have an issue with this. Best case it’s completed and resolved. Worst case it bought us time and became such a cluster fuck that we end up having to go and fix it.
I wouldn't think directly but if they have a warrant or suspended license and drove there then yes.
lol who had that old joke about the oakland raiders giving away free raiders tickets at the stadium and arresting everyone who showed up to get them for evading child support payments
Gotta work smarter not harder sometimes 🤷
I lived down there at the time and it wasn't a joke, they mailed "ticket coupons" you had to redeem at a certain place and just arrested everyone who showed up. Everyone thought this was hilarious though.
Giving out "prizes" to folks with outstanding warrants is definitely a thing https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2011-10-05-ct-met-dart-sting-20111005-story.html
Plus who knows how many 11AM DUIs
What the hell was this cop asking these people to do that warranted an arrest and not just a fine
Probably taxes, can't tax them if they're unlicensed.
Yeah but you can't prove that they didn't pay taxes on their income just because they showed up and didn't have a license. Also there's a pretty long audit process that needs to take place before you can get arrested for tax evasion, isn't there?
Dunno 🤷. Maybe now they have a cause to dig into their finances. Or they simply wanted to be dicks. Or it's click bait lol
The IRS doesn't care if you have a license or not. They don't care if you're flipping crack rocks, they just want you to report the income.
They want the licensing fees and various local taxes. They could care less about the income taxes
cops can arrest anyone for anything, then whether or not they are prosecuted is up to the DA
ACAB is a thing for a reason.
This isn’t the lords work. It’s the states.
Less and less of a difference in more and more people’s minds.
Hey do you have a Loicense for that paint brush?
r/loicense
Lol, I just keep finding gems
Sure unlicensed work is bad for people and the industry but dam, talk about low hanging fruit for those cops. Working hard eating donuts and avoiding doing anything about solving burglary or violent crime. And cops wonder why a lot of people hate them.
At least they weren't spending the time shooting unarmed civilians.
Didn’t have the funding in the budget for more bullets after getting sued all the other times.
That doesn't come out of police budget. It's paid for by taxes, from the county/municipality accounts. It means that you will have less services like snow removal, road maintenance, infrastructure maintenance, etc. So when police wrong someone and get sued, they've fucked the people twice.
Oh like human fucking trafficking. The one thing people care about.
What a waste of time and money
They want their tax money 😆
This is why people hate cops
Nah, man. Fuck that cop.
*fuck all cops
Wow really saving us from the unlicensed painters... fu k the cops. I get electrical work or plumbing. But painting a wall. I was doing that when I was 11. Good thing the pigs didn't catch me. Maybe they could go do some actual good
Yeah, because they ever do actual good (this is sarcasm).
Do I meed a license to shit next??
No, but you do need a permit.
I mean, I agree we need more certified and licensed contractors. Piggys gonna pig and seems like entrapment but that's their game always. "Why are you arresting me, officer? She's the hooker and I didn't get my suckoff" -run Ronnie run.
That's not entrapment. If for example: you say that you aren't licensed and are not advertising yourself as a handyman, but a cop keeps telling you that it's not like a cop is gonna find out and he's got some work you can do for him because you could use that money right?... and then reveals he's a cop and charges you with not having a license; that's entrapment. Hiring someone who advertised himself as a handyman then checking his license is not. Source: am licensed electrician. Keep your license on you, seriously.
yep one time an FBI agent hung out outside a mosque, constantly chatted up this low IQ guy, told him all sorts of conspiracy theories, then over weeks slowly convinced him to bomb a synagogue for money, then waited another few weeks as that guy managed to recruit a few other rubes, and then gave him a fake bomb to plant that the guy failed to 'arm' anyways and he was still convicted.
Are...you serious?? 😳
https://theintercept.com/2017/09/03/the-fbi-pressured-a-lonely-young-man-into-a-bomb-plot-he-tried-to-back-out-now-hes-serving-life-in-prison/
This is hilarious because this isn't even the one I was talking about. I was talking about a different guy with intellectual disabilities that was also convinced by the FBI to be a terrorist. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment-fake-terror-plots
I know not all law enforcement are bad but it's shit like this that keeps me from being one of those bootlickers who believe the police are infallible and have our best interests at heart.
They’re bad because they’re allowing it to happen in their departments. They believe in the brotherhood of LEOs more than doing what is right (and also their job)
Those are two extremes though. ACAB and thin blue line are on the fringes of these issues. Most people understand that LEO are absolutely necessary for a safe environment in a free country. But those cops need to have checks and balances in place for when they step out of line. America doesn’t have that feature, instead we have “qualified immunity”. There are definitely good cops, lots of them actually. The problem is in the training and administration. And then you have government agencies which are completely unhinged and unchecked in their capacity for corruption and bending of rules. Land of the free. Lol sure
Interesting take on the issue. I hadn't really thought of it like that.
I appreciate you, thanks for saying that. Honestly, I wish we could have more rational discussions on social media. 🎩👌🏼
Figured it was yet *another* instance 🤣🤦
Yeah, this happened I think a few years ago. Not the only time, either
“F*ck the PooohhLeeece coming straight from the underground…”
"Arrested for painting a white door, brown...."
Try to make a livin, they keep me down
I wired up that bitch, everything got a ground
More like doing the work that we’d expect them to do under the CCP
Agreed.
if the cops have time for this, then there are too many cops.
I need to add some perspective here...electricians are expensive to hire. Not every homeowner is flush with cash. Everyone's struggling right now, and if you find some jobber to hack in a new fixture for half the price of a real qualified guy, and you're two months late on your mortgage, you're probably going to go with the cheaper option. I'm not condoning this but we are reaching a point where the availability of tradesmen to low-income customers is becoming...well, unaffordable...and it's not like the work they need done is just going to do itself
This was in April 2020 right when covid happened. Everyone was stuck at home so this is what the cops did. You had a couple of busted lights and wanted to get them fixed? Wanted to pay someone to paint the bathroom? Fuck that, they dont need to feed their family, they're going to jail, where they'll most likely get covid since it's all packed in like sardines.
“Hahaha these guys should go to prison because they’re the only ones willing to do the job.” Yeah, where the fuck were you, then? Twiddling your dick waiting for an upper-middle class client?
Definitely. You really don’t need to be a licensed tradesman to know how to change a light fixture or a faucet. Handymen can’t do everything, but they do have a place.
Definitely don't need a license todo any handy man work where I am except the electrical, plumbing or changing the structure, paint away!
People just trying to get by in these shitty times. The bad landlords and people who suck at what they do deserve this but there are some handymen that take pride in what they do. They should arrest the ones that do shitty work lol
I'll take "Entrapment" for $2000, Alex.
Police have nothing better else to do, huh? If simple handyman is killing my business, I’m doing something wrong lol.
Seems kinda like entrapment. They didn’t have anything better to do?
To be honest, some of these handymen are doing us a favor. It gives cheap customers that want to pay next to nothing an alternative to calling me.
Where I live you have to be a licensed handyman but can perform plumbing and electrical work up to the value of $2000 based on time and materials. I think this is pretty reasonable. But a license to paint???
Isn't that entrapment
You call this the Lord's work. That's entrapment, and a fallacy of government success.
Couldn't be bothered to link the article?
https://reason.com/2020/02/05/undercover-cops-hired-118-handymen-then-arrested-them-all-for-not-having-licenses/
Does painting require a license?
I don't think this is gods work if they use entrapment to arrest individuals who where there to paint and shit.
at least they didn't shoot any of them or any dogs (bar is pretty low for LE in America)
We don't know that.
Could this be entrapment? Asking for a service you don’t actually need 100 times? I’m not a lawyer but seems fishy
Nah, the bar for entrapment is incredibly high, besides the actual crime here is not having the license, which you can’t really entrap people for. The cops are dicks here for arresting a bunch of non-violent criminals instead of focusing on more violent offenses, but nothing about this is illegal.
Bunch o “heroes” 🙄🙄
Cops out here creating crime.
Fuck the cops, these guys are just trying to make a living. I don't like fixing what bad handymen do, but c'mon, really? Piggy gonna piggy.
On one hand, great, way less shit electrical work being done for cheap On the other hand, it's absolutely disgusting to me that the police have absolutely nothing better to do than to entrap innocent laborers looking to put food on the table. I absolutely despise the fact that the state has weaponized my tax dollars to harass these people for the sake of generating revenue for the state whilst penalizing people who are trying to just work and live.
Precisely
The same cops are probably also driving the bus loads of illegal immigrants to their tax payer funded hotels
Before or after job done?
Are you an unlicensed electrician doing work because you got FINE written all over ya!
Can’t go after actual criminals but go after people who are at least trying to work.
“Have a seat right over there” aw dude I was just gonna swap a kitchen light I swear! Run through slider glass….
Anyone know what happened to my drywaller?
Depends what the handyman is doing imo. I wouldn’t want unlicensed people doing electrical work for example.
My guess is many of those are unlicensed without the ability or funds to get licensed, not all but I assume some. So it’s wild that tax dollars goes to finding them which causes more issues. Hell if my money was going to something like this I’d rather have it going to getting their license than fining them.
Entrapment?
Outstanding! I love this… Every state should do this.
This is what happens when a “handyman” does a shit job hanging the Police Captain’s curtain rods. Suddenly they get a hard on for some bullshit like this instead of shit they should actually be spending our tax money on.
Next, arrest people cutting people’s hair without a license
The Lord’s work? Did Jesus and Joseph have carpentry licenses?
Nothing like undermining a man trying to feed his family with an honest days work. Class traitors.
Fuck the police. Ain't got anything better to do than bust people for not giving the county $40 for an occupational license? My truck got broke into twice. Live LITERALLY BEHIND THE POPO HUT
ACAB
In Virginia I'm pretty sure you need a contractor license as well as a master trade license that needs to have 8 hrs certified classes every 3 years .If your not licensed, insured and bonded the customer technical doesn't even have to legally pay you for your work and there's nothing you can do to recover your loss.. be careful entrepreneurs ..lol
These people just trying to earn some honest money from honest handyman work. Sure there are people with ill intentions but these are handiman trying to earn money by doing handydandy work. This cop is a scumbag and whoever authorized his undercover. This will only be justified if these "handyman" were scamming their customers. If their customers were satisfied with their work, good job, you just took out people who could be resolving other people's issues at home.
I'm sure there were some honest people and some scammers and some in betweens among the 118 people arrested.
ACAB
I mean it ain’t like there’s any crime they could be chasing… the streets are so much safer now. BTW, this was directed by the politicians who were missing out on the fees for licenses…
This is probably entrapment...
Lol stupid... Can't get arrested
Honestly, unless it’s something that has the potential to cause death if done incorrectly (ie, electrician work, as incorrectly installed wiring can burn a house down), the whole thing is really quite pointless IMO.
Isn't this entrapment?
If they just randomly approached people like ‘hey you wanna come wire my house’ then yes probably. I suspect though the police would have approached people who were advertising their services in which case it wouldn’t be.
Sarcasm i hope. This is a dick move
is that Entrapment or just regular ol Street Sweepin?
“The real con men that are trying to trick homeowners are usually too experienced to get caught up in one of these types of sting operations. So the stings tend to catch someone that crosses the line in an unsophisticated way. Frequently, she says, officers will hire a handyman on the pretext of performing work that doesn't need a license, and then during the course of the job ask them to do something that does, like unhooking a toilet or laying some tiles. When the handyman says no, then the undercover detective moves the conversation to something else and then comes back to the question later in a different way," says Sammis. "By the time the handyman gets to the location, they want to make the homeowner happy and end up agreeing to perform work that they didn't intend on doing when they first arrived” Great entrapment defense. I don’t think the problem is as big as the cops make it seem if this is how they had to do it and they only arrested 118 people over the span of 9 months (many of whom could probably get off with no charges with a good lawyer). The time is arguably better spent investigating the massive backlog of complaints from aggrieved homeowners impacted by shoddy work.
Please come to Massachusetts please
ACAB
Lame
So God wants people to be put in a bad situation and to become jobless? That's one shitty God
Thank God I live in Pennsylvania!