Florida Contractor Financial Requirements: No Bond, Two Grounds

Florida’s current rule requires no contractor license surety bond. The financial test for a certification applicant is set by Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G4-15.006, effective 5 May 2024, and it has two separate grounds: a consumer credit report clean of unsatisfied judgments and liens, and either a FICO-derived credit score of 660 or completion of a 14-hour Board-approved course. A bond appears in neither.

The rule, in full

61G4-15.006 separates financial responsibility from financial stability, and an applicant has to clear both:

“61G4-15.006 Financial Responsibility and Financial Stability, Grounds for Denial. (1) The financial responsibility ground on which the Board shall refuse to qualify an applicant is failure to provide a current consumer credit report, as defined in Rule 61G4-12.011, F.A.C., which consumer credit report does not disclose any unsatisfied judgments or liens against the applicant. In addition, 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. (2) The financial stability ground on which the Board shall refuse to qualify an applicant is as follows: (a) Failure to provide proof of a credit score, FICO derived, of 660 or higher. (b) 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. (3) An applicant may meet both the financial responsibility and financial stability requirements by providing proof of a current consumer credit report, as defined in Rule 61G4-12.011, F.A.C, with a credit score, FICO derived, of 660 or higher, which consumer credit report does not disclose any unsatisfied judgments or liens against the applicant. In addition, 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 (3) is the practical route: one current consumer credit report, showing a FICO-derived score of 660 or higher and no unsatisfied judgments or liens, satisfies both grounds at once.

The two grounds are not the same test

They fail in different ways, which is why the rule states them separately.

Financial responsibility is about the contents of the report — unsatisfied judgments or liens, whether against the applicant or against a business entity the applicant has qualified or applied to qualify. A high score does not cure a recorded judgment.

Financial stability is about the score. Below 660 the rule provides one alternative, and it is a course:

“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.”

The course is the whole of the fallback. The rule offers no second path around a sub-660 score, and none around a judgment or lien.

Where the “sub-660 bond” comes from

The current rule text makes no mention of a surety or financial-responsibility bond at all. Third-party bond vendors nonetheless market a Florida “sub-660 contractor bond”, and that product is a private offering rather than a requirement of this rule. An applicant below 660 who buys one has not thereby met the financial stability ground; the 14-hour course is what the rule names.

This matters for budgeting as much as for compliance. A bond premium is a real cost that satisfies nothing here, and it is a line that does not belong on a Florida application budget — what each step costs sets out the ones that do.

Businesses license through a qualifying agent, not on their own balance sheet

A business organization does not carry a parallel financial-responsibility duty of its own. The requirement runs through the individual who qualifies it — the qualifying agent a business licenses through — and the rule quoted above reaches the entity only through that person’s report, which must be clear of unsatisfied judgments and liens against the entity as well.

Fla. Stat. 489.119(7)(a) provides an exemption for an organization maintaining “a minimum net worth of $20 million.” That figure is the exemption’s threshold, not a target any ordinary applicant is measured against.

When the evidence has to exist

Both items are documents that precede filing rather than things resolved during review. A credit report can be pulled quickly; the 14-hour course cannot, and an applicant who discovers a sub-660 score late has added a course to the critical path rather than a form. The item-by-item list is on the CILB 5-A document checklist.

The rule is not class-specific. It refers to “an applicant” and governs Division I and Division II alike, so the building contractor class and the trade classes are held to the same two grounds.

Where to go next: Florida GC license requirements sets the financial test beside experience, the examination and insurance, and the Florida general contractor license guide covers the route as a whole.