Permit Pirates – Exposing Unlicensed Contractors

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

The Office of Consumer Protection (OCP) has partnered with Montgomery County’s Department of Permitting Services (DPS) to identify and take enforcement action against individuals who are in the business of building or renovating homes and selling them without being properly licensed. When these homes are sold, consumers do not receive the warranty protections that a licensed contractor is required to provide. These merchants typically attempt to exploit a perceived “loophole” in the licensing and permitting process which allows an individual to build or renovate his or her own home without being licensed. OCP and DPS devised a program that would be capable of comprehensively reviewing large volumes of data in order to identify construction permits that were actually obtained by merchants providing incorrect information. These so called “Permit Pirates” seek to profit by circumventing certain requirements and unfairly selling homes to consumers. This activity is also unfair to merchants that comply with the law.