How to check contractor references: ask for addresses, check the permits, and the 8 questions to ask

How many past jobs a firm can show you

Permits October 2023 to September 2026 (Cape Coral from January 2025). "Firms" counts every business with a permit in that city and trade. "Reached final" is the share of permits a year or more old that the city closed out.

Two things follow. First, many firms simply do not have three jobs like yours in your city; asking for them is still right, but expect addresses from nearby towns, and check those cities' portals too. Second, a firm with ten or more permits has a record you can sample. Its page here shows how many permits it pulled, in which trades and over which months; many city portals also let you search by contractor name, which gives you addresses the firm did not choose. Checking one of those is the best reference check there is.

Check a reference in five steps

1. Get the address and the job. "The Garcia kitchen, 412 Elm, finished last spring." A first name and a mobile number is not a reference you can check.
2. Search the address. Use the city portal (official search for each city). You want a permit of your job type, in the contractor's business name, with a final inspection. A permit in another company's name, or none for work that needed one, is the thing to ask about.
3. Check the date. Is the permit from the period the contractor described? A reference from five years ago says less about today's crew.
4. Talk to the owner. Call, or knock if the contractor arranges it. Visiting lets you see the work, which the New York Attorney General recommends.
5. Pick one yourself. Where the city portal lets you search by contractor name, pull up the firm's older permits, choose one that reached a final, and look at that job too. The firm did not choose that one.

See every Minneapolis roofer and its permit history →

Eight questions to ask a reference

1. Was it the same kind of job as mine? A roofer's best reference for a reroof is a reroof, not a gutter repair.
2. Who did the work? The owner's own crew or subcontractors, and were they the people you met at the start?
3. Did it finish on the contract date and price? If not, why, and was the reason in writing?
4. How were changes handled? A written change order with a price before the work, or a surprise on the final bill?
5. Did the contractor pull the permit and get the final? The reference may not know; the portal does.
6. Were the subcontractors and suppliers paid? Ask whether anyone came asking for money or filed a lien. The NAIC also suggests checking the contractor's insurance with the insurer directly (NAIC, Sept 2024).
7. What went wrong, and how was it fixed? Every job has something. How the contractor handled it is the answer you came for.
8. Would you hire them again for a bigger job? A pause is an answer.

Signs a reference is not real

• Every reference is a mobile number and a first name, and none will give an address.
• The address has no permit for work that needed one, or a permit in a different company's name.
• The reference cannot say what the job cost or when it finished.
• All three jobs are more than three years old, and the firm's page here shows no permits in the last 12 months.

None proves fraud alone. Together they are the cue to go back to the checks in contractor red flags and how to verify a contractor.

What the record cannot tell you

Whether the owner was happy, whether the work has held up, and anything the inspector does not look at. That is what the conversation with the reference is for. Work done without a permit, and jobs in cities we do not cover, are not in our file. Our data refreshes about monthly; the city portals are live.