08-18-2006, 10:53 AM
After years of exposure to the BI way of doing things, there are still some issues I just don't get. What is the deal with building and home improvement trades' licensing in Hawaii County?
It seems like a good many specialty tradespeople are either unwilling or unable to get licensed. The unlicensed folks I have managed to get to talk about it say that the licensed people lobby to make it extremely hard to be licensed to cut down on competition and insure that they can charge more. The licensed guys say the unlicensed are unqualified and that it is not really that hard to get licensed. The truth is probably somewhere in between, as usual, but I would love to hear somebody with inside knowledge speak honestly on the subject.
I know that licensing of all sorts of professionals is theoretically to protect the consumer, but some other aspects of the Hawaii regulatory environment seem to be designed to protect entrenched interests more than the consumer, IMHO.
Cheers,
Jerry
Edited by - JerryCarr on 08/18/2006 17:55:03
It seems like a good many specialty tradespeople are either unwilling or unable to get licensed. The unlicensed folks I have managed to get to talk about it say that the licensed people lobby to make it extremely hard to be licensed to cut down on competition and insure that they can charge more. The licensed guys say the unlicensed are unqualified and that it is not really that hard to get licensed. The truth is probably somewhere in between, as usual, but I would love to hear somebody with inside knowledge speak honestly on the subject.
I know that licensing of all sorts of professionals is theoretically to protect the consumer, but some other aspects of the Hawaii regulatory environment seem to be designed to protect entrenched interests more than the consumer, IMHO.
Cheers,
Jerry
Edited by - JerryCarr on 08/18/2006 17:55:03