By Austin B. Calhoun | Lesak, Hamilton, Calhoun & Pontieri | Jacksonville, Florida
Last checked September 23, 2026
When your company’s only qualifying contractor leaves, the immediate question is not how fast you can hire someone. It is whether the business has authority to keep contracting in the meantime. Florida provides a 60-day replacement period, but that deadline is not an automatic license to keep operating. Without a properly affiliated replacement, continued contracting requires a granted temporary authorization, limited to eligible incomplete contracts. [1]
Notify the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), establish the company’s actual qualification status, and pursue replacement and any necessary temporary authority at the same time. A submitted request is not approval. Do not promise customers uninterrupted performance before resolving that distinction.
This article addresses resignation, termination and retirement affecting construction businesses regulated by the Construction Industry Licensing Board (CILB) under Chapter 489, Part I. Electrical and alarm contractors follow a separate licensing regime. A qualifier’s death also has a distinct statutory procedure. [8]
First, establish what is ending and when
Pull the DBPR qualification record, the qualifier’s agreement, the departure notice, and any primary/secondary designation. Identify the legal entity, license category, actual cessation date, and other qualifiers still affiliated with the business. An employee’s last payroll date and the date qualifying responsibilities end should not be assumed to be identical.
Under section 489.119(3)(a), a departing qualifying agent must inform DBPR. If that person is the business’s only certified or registered contractor, the business must also notify DBPR and has 60 days from the termination of that affiliation to employ another qualifying agent. Rule 61G4-15.007(1) separately requires the certificate holder or registrant to notify the Board Office within 30 days after the qualifying person ceases affiliation. Give notice promptly; neither period is permission to operate without the necessary authority. [1][3]
More than one qualifier changes the analysis.
When a board-approved joint agreement designates a sole primary qualifier, section 489.1195 imposes a separate notice and succession process. That designated status ends when a new primary is designated or 60 days after satisfactory notice reaches the board, whichever occurs first. If no new primary is designated within 60 days, secondary qualifiers become primary unless the joint agreement specifies which of them will assume that role. Review that agreement, the required notices and remaining license coverage. Do not borrow that rule to extend the replacement period for a business losing its only qualifier. [2]
For a planned departure, work backward from effective replacement approval and arrange a genuine overlap in supervision where feasible. A promise to leave a license number on paperwork is not a substitute for the responsibilities the qualifier actually must perform. [2]
Obtain temporary authority; do not assume it exists
Section 489.119(3)(a) permits the board’s executive director or chair to grant a temporary, nonrenewable certificate or registration to the financially responsible officer, president, partner, or a limited partnership’s general partner. That person assumes all responsibilities of a primary qualifying agent. A financially responsible officer does not automatically replace the construction qualifier simply by holding that financial role. [1][2]
DBPR directs businesses to request temporary authority in writing from the CILB executive director. Its published guidance describes temporary authority after resignation or termination as lasting up to 60 days and not extendable. Confirm the eligible applicant, effective date, expiration date and authorized work in the actual grant. Do not assume that filing late buys another 60 days. [4]
Prepare the request around the jobs that need attention: the contracting entity, departure date, existing awards, remaining scope and proposed responsible person. Have counsel confirm what DBPR requires for the particular request. Meanwhile, identify a lawful plan for protecting sites and handling scheduled inspections rather than treating the application as permission to proceed.
Sort the backlog by contract status, not mobilization
The statute limits temporary authority to incomplete contracts. That includes contracts awarded to or entered into by the business before the qualifier’s affiliation ceased, even if no actual work had started. It also includes the statutory low-bid situation in which the business was the low bidder and the contract is subsequently awarded. Preserve the bid and award records rather than assuming every unsigned opportunity qualifies. [1]
Hypothetical: A warehouse contract awarded before departure may qualify even though mobilization is scheduled for next month. A fresh invitation to bid arriving after departure is different. Temporary authority is not a general authorization to replenish the backlog. Florida’s definition of contracting reaches attempted sales, negotiations and bids for services requiring licensure, not just labor performed on site. [5]
Even an eligible contract requires the temporary grant and compliance with applicable permitting requirements. Before directing a superintendent to proceed, organize a short job-by-job schedule:
- Authority: entity, license category, responsible qualifier or temporary authorization, and its expiration.
- Eligibility: signed contract, award or qualifying low-bid record, with the relevant dates.
- Field status: permit holder, open inspections, remaining work and immediate site-protection needs.
- Commitments: completion milestones, pending changes, payment exposure and notices to evaluate under the actual project documents.
Compare each job’s remaining duration with the temporary authorization’s expiration. Permission to perform completion work is not a promise that every job can be finished within that period. Establish the replacement or another lawful completion plan before authority expires.
Keep pending change work visible. Do not assume that calling an entirely new undertaking a change order brings it within the temporary grant. Present uncertain scope to counsel and DBPR before making a new commitment.
Replace the qualifier, not just the name on the form
Hiring a licensed person and obtaining effective qualification of your business are different events. Verify that the replacement’s license is active, covers the company’s work, and is properly affiliated with the contracting entity through the applicable DBPR process. A license used for another company is not, by itself, authority for yours. [1]
Choose the application for the actual transaction. For example, despite its broad title, DBPR’s CILB 24 form is for businesses with multiple qualifiers designating primary and secondary roles. It is not a universal substitute for the application needed to qualify a new or additional business. DBPR also identifies categories of applications requiring board review. Do not schedule around an assumed instant approval. [6][4]
The agreement with the replacement should match the legal role: actual supervisory authority, access to project information, responsibility allocation, and a workable exit process. Plan notice, cooperation, file turnover and continuity before the next departure. The statutory responsibilities are substantive, not merely permission to use someone’s number. [2]
Our guide to preparing a professional-license application addresses application preparation more generally. Here, the operational gap deserves attention while that application is being processed.
Manage the project consequences separately
A licensing transition does not answer what the owner, general contractor, surety or insurer may require. Review the actual contracts, bonds and policies for relevant licensing representations, notice provisions, default procedures and continuity requirements. Do not assume the administrative replacement period extends a contractual completion date or excuses delay.
Communicate facts, not hoped-for approvals. Distinguish a request submitted from an authorization granted, and identify the work actually covered. An owner may reasonably want evidence of lawful performance and a realistic completion plan. Providing that information can address uncertainty without volunteering unsupported admissions or promising a schedule the company cannot deliver.
Keep the departure dispute separate from the licensing response. A disagreement over compensation, ownership or turnover may require its own strategy. It should not prevent the company from establishing the dates, records and responsibility arrangements needed to address the projects.
Do not assume every unpaid contract is lost
Unlicensed contracting creates serious payment risk. Section 489.128 can make a contract unenforceable by the unlicensed contractor and, when it does, bar that contractor’s lien or bond claim. But the statute uses a specific timing test: the original contract’s stated effective date; otherwise its stated last-execution date; otherwise the first date labor, services or materials were provided. It does not simply ask whether the company is qualified today. [7]
Preserve the original contracts, dated execution records, qualification history and evidence of first performance. A later departure is not, by itself, a sound basis for declaring every existing receivable forfeited. Conversely, preserving a payment argument does not authorize continued contracting. Whether a particular claim survives requires its own factual and legal review. [7]
Resolve the authority question before making the next promise
The useful first result is a job-by-job operating decision, a replacement timetable and an accurate communication plan. Those decisions require matching licensing records to the work already promised, not merely finding a new license holder.
If your qualifier is leaving, contact Lesak, Hamilton, Calhoun & Pontieri to discuss the departure date, current qualification status and affected projects. The review should establish what may proceed now, what approval is still missing, and which project commitments require action while the replacement is being qualified. Our construction-law practice addresses the contract and business consequences alongside the licensing issue.
Sources for the legal summaries
[1] Fla. Stat. section 489.119(2), (3)(a)-(b): business qualification, departure and temporary authority.
[2] Fla. Stat. section 489.1195(1)-(3): responsibilities, primary/secondary designation and succession.
[3] Fla. Admin. Code r. 61G4-15.007(1): departure reporting; rule text reproduced by Cornell LII.
[4] DBPR Construction Industry FAQs: Loss of a Qualifying Agent and License Application Assistance.
[5] Fla. Stat. section 489.105(4)-(6): qualifying-agent duties and the definition of contracting.
[6] DBPR CILB 24 application description: multiple-qualifier primary/secondary designation.
[7] Fla. Stat. section 489.128(1)-(3): enforceability, licensure timing and lien/bond consequences.
[8] Fla. Stat. section 489.121: separate emergency-registration procedure following death.
About the author
Austin B. Calhoun is a partner at Lesak, Hamilton, Calhoun & Pontieri in Jacksonville, Florida. His practice includes construction disputes and contract negotiation. Before practicing law, he managed commercial construction projects.
This article provides general information, not advice for a particular matter. Applicable law, contracts and facts may change the analysis. Contact alone does not create an attorney-client relationship. Do not send confidential information until an attorney-client relationship has been established. See the firm’s website disclaimer.