Where these listings come from

The record we build from

The licensee file published by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. DBPR puts it out for anyone to download. We pull the rows filed in the two counties this registry covers — Sarasota, which the state files as county 68, and Manatee, which it files as 51 — and we build from the current file, never an archived one.

That single file is the source for every listing here. We do not buy data from a broker and we do not copy another directory.

Florida DBPR → · What we check, and how often →

We built the list first, and nobody asked us to

There are 4200 businesses listed here. None of them asked to be listed, none of them paid, and most do not know the listing exists yet. Saying that out loud is the difference between a registry and a scraper.

So every unclaimed listing carries a box at the top of the page, before anything else, that says: This profile was built from public records. It names the record the listing came from, the day we built it, the day we last checked it, and it states that the business has not claimed the profile and did not give us the information.

In that same box, at the same size and the same weight, sit three links — no hunting, and removal is never harder to find than claiming:

• Is this your business? Claim it free
• Something here is wrong
• Remove this listing

What we publish on an unclaimed listing

This is the entire field list. There is nothing else on an unclaimed listing:

• The business name exactly as the state records it, plus any d/b/a name in the record.
• The trade, taken from the license type — never guessed from the business name.
• The license number, license type, and license status, in the state's own wording.
• The date the license was issued and the date it expires.
• The date we last checked the license, and the source: Florida DBPR.
• The city and the county of record from the license, and a line saying that a city of record is where the license is filed, not a service area the business claimed.
• A website or a phone number, only where we read it off the business's own site — and then the listing names that site and the date we read it, right beside it.

We do not write a description of a business we have never spoken to. We do not generate one. There is no rating, no review count, no star, no photo of somebody's work, and no logo on an unclaimed listing.

What we never publish

• A street address. The address on a DBPR license record is a mailing address and for a small contractor it is very often a home. City and county only, on every listing, with no exception and no setting that turns it back on.
• Anything about a property owner. No owner name, no owner phone, no owner address, from any permit or property record. A homeowner on the other side of somebody's permit never entered into anything with us.
• A personal email address or a personal cell number. A business number published by the business on its own site is the only contact number that can appear here, and it appears with its source.
• A date of birth, license application details, or disciplinary history. We do not run a complaint database. Publishing one disciplinary item and not another is worse than publishing none, so we publish none.
• Anything from a record flagged exempt. Florida's public-records exemptions cover protected people and their families. An exempt record never enters the build.
• A phone number with no source. If we cannot name the page we read it from and the day we read it, the number does not go on the site. Blank is recoverable. Wrong is not.

How often we re-check, and when a listing comes down

We re-run the license check monthly, on the whole list at once. If a license goes inactive, expired, suspended, revoked, or null, the listing comes down within two business days of the check that caught it. It is not flagged and it is not grayed out. It is gone.

If a check cannot complete — a state system is down, a record is unclear — the listing keeps its old verified date. We never move a verification date forward without having actually re-verified it.

Something on your listing is wrong

Tell us and we will fix it. Public records have mistakes in them and so do we.

• We reply within two business days.
• While we are checking, we hide the disputed item on the listing. We do not leave it up with a question mark.
• We fix a confirmed correction within five business days and stamp the listing with the correction date.
• If we cannot confirm the right answer from a public record, we remove the item rather than guess.
• It is free. No account, no salesperson, no upgrade.

Anyone can send a correction, including a homeowner. A correction that changes published data needs either a public record behind it or a connection to the business. A correction that removes a disputed item needs neither — taking something down is always cheaper than being wrong about it.

Email us a correction · Contact us

Take my listing down

We will take it down. You do not have to explain why, you do not have to create an account, you will not be offered anything to stay, and nobody is going to call you to talk you out of it.

Email us the business name and the link to the listing, from an email address at the business or one we can tie to the license record. That is the only check we do, and it exists so a competitor cannot delete you.

Email us to remove your listing →

What happens next:

• We reply within one business day.
• The listing comes down within three business days of us confirming you are connected to the business. Usually the same day.
• It stays down. A removed business is not put back by the next records pull.
• We delete the rest of the profile we built. The only thing we keep is the business name and the fact that you asked us not to list you, so that we can honor it.
• We do not email you again about listings.

The page where a removed listing used to be says so plainly. It does not redirect to the directory and it does not pretend the listing never existed.

Why we do this

Not because a statute makes us. We looked: we found no Florida law requiring a directory to disclose where public-record business data came from or to honor a removal request for it, and we found no law forbidding either. Nothing on this page should be read as a legal conclusion about your rights.

We do it because a business that never spoke to us has a page here with its name on it, and the least we owe it is to say where the page came from and to take it down on request.

How we verify → · Advertising disclosure →