Professional Licensure
Design professionals, by law, shall have and maintain a current license in the state in which the services are to be performed. The license shall also be applicable to the type of services they will be performing for you (i.e. a contractor’s license does not allow someone to provide engineering services). If you choose to use a design professional that is not licensed, your plans will likely be rejected at the building department. If the building department does approves your plans, you would still have very little recourse against the person you hired, should any problems arise later.
Some questions to pose to a potential design professional for your project:
- Are you currently licensed in the state where the project will be built?
- Does your license allow you to provide this type of service?
- How long ago did you obtain your license?
- Have you had any actions taken against you by the governing state board?
- Would you be willing to provide me with evidence of these items?
The NorthStar Engineering Building Design Department has a staff including two licensed civil engineers. They are currently licensed in the State of California, Oregon and Arizona and maintain licenses that allow them to design / engineer any building within those states (for which they have previous experience in engineering).