Hiring the wrong contractor is one of the most expensive mistakes a homeowner can make. The Maryland Home Improvement Commission receives thousands of complaints every year, from work that was never finished, to deposits that disappeared, to projects done so poorly they had to be torn out and redone. The homeowners who file those complaints almost always say the same thing afterward: the warning signs were there, they just did not know what to look for.
Southern Maryland is a strong market for home improvement. Calvert, St. Mary's, and Charles County have a large stock of homes built between 1970 and 2005 that are hitting the age where roofs, siding, kitchens, bathrooms, and decks all need attention at once. That demand attracts good contractors, and it also attracts bad ones. Here is how to tell the difference before you write a check.
Step 1: Verify the MHIC License
This is the single most important step. It is also the easiest, and the one that most homeowners skip.
In Maryland, any contractor who performs home improvement work over $500 must hold a license issued by the Maryland Home Improvement Commission (MHIC). This is not optional. It is state law, codified under Title 8 of the Business Regulation Article, Maryland Code. A contractor who works without an MHIC license is operating illegally, and you have significantly fewer legal protections if something goes wrong.
How to verify: Go to the MHIC license lookup on the Maryland Department of Labor website at labor.maryland.gov/license/mhic, or call the MHIC directly at 410-230-6231. Enter the contractor's name or license number. The lookup tells you whether the license is active, when it was issued, when it expires, and whether there are any complaints or disciplinary actions on file.
What to look for:
- Active status. An expired license is the same as no license. Do not accept "I'm in the process of renewing", the renewal takes days, not months, and a contractor who lets the license lapse is not running a tight operation.
- Clean complaint history. The MHIC tracks complaints and their resolution. A single resolved complaint over many years of operation is not necessarily a red flag, disagreements happen. Multiple complaints, unresolved complaints, or disciplinary actions are a clear warning.
- The right name. The license is issued to a specific individual and business entity. Confirm the name on the license matches the name on the contract and the business card. A contractor who says "I work under my boss's license" may or may not be telling the truth, and the arrangement may or may not be compliant. You want the licensed entity on the contract.
What the license means. The MHIC license confirms the contractor passed the state exam, carries the required insurance, and has been vetted by the Commission. It also means you have access to the Maryland Home Improvement Guaranty Fund, a state-administered fund that reimburses homeowners up to $20,000 per claim for financial losses caused by a licensed contractor's failure to perform. Without an MHIC license, you cannot access that fund.
Step 2: Verify Insurance
A licensed Maryland home improvement contractor is required to carry a minimum of $500,000 in general liability insurance. This requirement has been in effect since June 1, 2024. But "required" and "currently in force" are not the same thing, and policies can lapse.
Ask for a Certificate of Insurance (COI). Any legitimate contractor will provide one without hesitation. The COI should show the contractor's name, the insurance company, the policy number, the coverage limits, and the policy dates. If the dates show the policy has expired, or the contractor cannot produce a COI at all, stop the conversation there.
Why it matters to you: If an uninsured contractor damages your property, drops a ladder through a window, tears up your yard with equipment, causes a leak during a roof repair, you are paying for the damage out of your own homeowner's insurance, or out of your own pocket. If an uninsured worker is injured on your property, you could be liable.
Workers' compensation. If the contractor has employees (not just subcontractors), Maryland law requires workers' compensation insurance. Ask about it. If the contractor uses subcontractors, ask whether those subs carry their own insurance. An uninsured sub who falls off your roof creates a liability that lands on the property owner.
Step 3: Get Multiple Estimates
Get at least three written estimates for any project over $5,000. For larger projects, a kitchen remodel, a roof replacement, a basement finish, four or five estimates give you a better picture of the market rate and a better sense of which contractors understand the scope.
What a good estimate includes:
- A detailed scope of work, not "remodel the bathroom" but a line-by-line description of what is being done: demolition, framing, plumbing, electrical, tile, fixtures, vanity, paint, cleanup
- Material specifications, the specific products, brands, and grades being used, not just "install new flooring" but "install Shaw Floorté Pro LVP, color Tawny Oak, glue-down installation, including moisture barrier"
- A line-item cost breakdown, labor and materials separated so you can see where the money is going
- A timeline with milestones, when the work starts, when key phases are expected to complete, and when the project wraps
- Payment terms, how much is due when, tied to work completion, not calendar dates
- Permit responsibility, who pulls the permits and who pays for them (this should be the contractor)
- Warranty information, what the contractor warrants, for how long, and what is covered
What a bad estimate looks like: a single number on a piece of paper, verbal only, or an email that says "we can do the job for $X." If you cannot see what you are paying for, you cannot hold anyone accountable for delivering it.
The lowest bid is not the best bid. This is the most common and most expensive mistake homeowners make. If three contractors estimate a roof replacement at $12,000, $13,500, and $14,000, and a fourth comes in at $7,500, that fourth estimate is not a deal. It is a red flag. The low bidder is cutting corners somewhere, thinner underlayment, fewer nails per shingle, no drip edge, subcontractors paid under the table, or no insurance. You will pay the difference later, just not to the contractor.
Step 4: Check References and Reviews
Ask for three to five references from jobs completed in the last 12 months. Call them. Ask specific questions:
- Did the work start and finish on time?
- Did the final cost match the estimate? If not, why not?
- Were there any problems during the job, and how did the contractor handle them?
- Was the jobsite kept clean?
- Would you hire them again?
A contractor who cannot or will not provide references is telling you something.
Check Google reviews. Look for volume (how many reviews), recency (are people still reviewing, or did the reviews stop two years ago), and how the contractor responds to negative reviews. Every business gets a bad review eventually. What matters is whether the contractor responds professionally and tries to resolve the problem, or ignores it, or responds with hostility.
Be cautious of review-only businesses. A company with 200 five-star reviews and no physical address, no MHIC license, and no photos of real work is not necessarily legitimate. AI-generated fake reviews are increasingly common in the contractor space. Look for reviews that mention specific details, the reviewer's town, the type of work done, the crew's names, because generic praise without specifics is more likely to be fabricated.
Check the Better Business Bureau. BBB accreditation is not a guarantee of quality, but the BBB complaint history is a useful data point. Unresolved complaints are a red flag.
Step 5: Understand the Contract Before You Sign
Maryland law requires a written contract for any home improvement project over $500. The MHIC has specific requirements for what the contract must include. At a minimum, a legally compliant Maryland home improvement contract covers:
- The contractor's name, address, phone number, and MHIC license number
- A detailed description of the work to be performed
- The total price and a payment schedule
- The estimated start and completion dates
- A notice of the homeowner's right to cancel within three business days of signing (the "cooling off" period, this is a federal requirement under the FTC's Cooling-Off Rule for contracts signed anywhere other than the contractor's permanent place of business)
- Warranty terms
- A statement about who is responsible for permits and inspections
Never sign a blank or incomplete contract. If a section is blank, it will be filled in later, and maybe not the way you agreed.
Never pay the full amount up front. A reasonable payment structure ties payments to completed milestones. A typical schedule for a larger project is 10 to 30 percent at contract signing, 30 to 40 percent at the midpoint (materials on site, rough-in complete), and the final 30 to 40 percent upon completion and your sign-off. Maryland law caps the initial deposit at one-third of the total contract price unless the contract specifically lists materials that must be special ordered.
Never pay cash with no receipt. If the contractor does not want a paper trail, there is a reason, and it is not one that benefits you.
The Red Flags
Any one of these is a reason to walk away. Most of them are obvious in hindsight, but they are remarkably easy to overlook when someone is standing in your driveway offering a good deal.
They show up uninvited. The contractor who knocks on your door after a storm and says they noticed damage on your roof is, in the vast majority of cases, a storm chaser. They follow severe weather events from market to market, do fast low-quality work, collect the insurance check, and leave. They will not be around in six months when the shingles start lifting.
They pressure you to sign immediately. "This price is only good today" is a pressure tactic, not a business practice. A legitimate contractor will give you time to compare estimates, check references, and think it over. The deal that disappears tomorrow was never a real deal.
They cannot provide an MHIC license number. No exceptions. No "it's being processed." No "I work under someone else's license." If they cannot give you a number you can verify at labor.maryland.gov right now, they are not licensed.
They ask for a large up-front payment. More than a third of the total contract price as a deposit is a red flag. Full payment before work begins is a disqualifying red flag. The MHIC complaint files are full of cases where a homeowner paid a large deposit and the contractor never came back.
They do not want to pull permits. "We don't need a permit for this" is sometimes true for very small jobs, but for any structural work, electrical work, plumbing work, roofing, or any project over $500 in Maryland, a permit is almost always required. A contractor who avoids permits is avoiding inspection, and the inspection is what confirms the work meets code.
They want to use your insurance claim as the contract price. A reputable contractor estimates the job based on the work required, not on the insurance payout. A contractor who adjusts their scope to match whatever the insurance company will pay is inflating the claim, which is insurance fraud, and you, the policyholder, are the one liable for it.
They have no online presence at all. No website, no Google Business Profile, no reviews, no social media. In 2026, a legitimate contractor has some form of verifiable online presence. A contractor who is invisible online is either brand new (in which case they should be forthright about it) or is avoiding being found, possibly because of a history under a different business name.
Questions to Ask Every Contractor
Print this list. Bring it to every estimate appointment. The answers tell you more about the contractor than their sales pitch ever will.
- What is your MHIC license number?
- Can you provide a current Certificate of Insurance?
- Do you carry workers' compensation insurance?
- Who will be on site managing the project day to day?
- Will you use subcontractors for any part of the work? If so, are they licensed and insured?
- Who pulls the permits?
- Can you provide three references from jobs you completed in the last year, in this area?
- What is your standard payment schedule?
- What happens if the project runs over the estimated cost?
- What does your warranty cover, and for how long?
- How do you handle change orders, additions or modifications to the scope during the project?
- What is your typical timeline for a project like this?
- How will communication work during the project, who do I call, and how quickly do you respond?
A contractor who answers these questions clearly, directly, and without hesitation is telling you something good. A contractor who gets evasive, vague, or irritated by the questions is telling you something too.
What to Do If Something Goes Wrong
Even with careful vetting, problems can arise. Here is what Maryland law gives you.
File a complaint with the MHIC. The Maryland Home Improvement Commission investigates complaints against licensed contractors. File at labor.maryland.gov/license/mhic or call 410-230-6231. The MHIC can mediate disputes, issue fines, suspend or revoke licenses, and in some cases, authorize reimbursement from the Guaranty Fund.
The Guaranty Fund. If a licensed contractor takes your money and does not perform the work, or abandons the project, the Maryland Home Improvement Guaranty Fund can reimburse you up to $20,000 per claim. This protection only applies to work performed by licensed contractors, which is one more reason to verify the license before you hire.
The three-day cancellation right. If you signed a contract at your home (not at the contractor's office), federal law gives you three business days to cancel without penalty. The contractor is required to give you written notice of this right at the time of signing. If they did not, the cancellation window may extend.
Small claims court. For disputes under $5,000 in Maryland, small claims court (District Court) is an option that does not require an attorney.
The Bottom Line
Hiring a contractor is not complicated, but it requires doing the work up front that most people skip. Verify the MHIC license. Verify the insurance. Get multiple written estimates. Check references. Read the contract. Pay on a milestone schedule.
The 30 minutes you spend vetting a contractor before you sign saves you from the months you would spend dealing with the consequences of hiring the wrong one.
Every good contractor in Southern Maryland, the ones who have been doing this for years, who depend on their reputation, who do the job right, will welcome your questions. They know the questions protect you and them. It is only the contractors who cannot pass the test who resist the testing.
Looking for a contractor you can trust? Gray & Sons Contracting brings 50 years of Southern Maryland craftsmanship to every project across Calvert, St. Mary's, and Charles County. Ask us anything, MHIC license, insurance, references, warranty. We are an open book. Get a Free Estimate