How to resign as a qualifying agent
Two different provisions govern leaving, and which one applies to you depends on whether the company had other qualifiers. Here is how to tell which you are, the thirty day deadline that carries discipline of its own, and the part that does not end when you walk away.
General information about Florida law, not legal advice. Speak to a Florida construction attorney before entering any qualifying arrangement.
If you are the only licensed contractor at the company, the statute is short: when you cease to be affiliated, you must inform the department, and a Board rule gives you thirty days to do it. Failure to report is itself grounds for discipline. The three notices and the sixty day clock you will read about elsewhere come from a different provision that only applies where the company had more than one qualifying agent under a Board-approved joint agreement. And under either route, leaving is prospective only. You remain responsible for whatever arose while you held the status.
First work out which of the two you are
This is the fork the rest of the page turns on, and getting it wrong is how people end up following a procedure that does not apply to them.
- You were the only licensed contractor affiliated with the company. This is the ordinary case and the one most qualifiers are in. Florida Statute 489.119(3)(a) governs you.
- The company had more than one qualifying agent, and all of you signed a joint agreement on a Board form designating you the sole primary. Florida Statute 489.1195(3) governs you, and only then.
The second route is the one that gets quoted everywhere, because it is the one written out in detail. But it opens with a condition that is easy to read past.
A qualifying agent who has been designated by a joint agreement as the sole primary qualifying agent for a business organization may terminate this status as such by giving actual notice to the business organization, to the board, and to all secondary qualifying agents of his or her intention to terminate this status. Florida Statute 489.1195(3)(a).
Designated by a joint agreement. And a joint agreement, under 489.1195(2)(a), exists only for a business organization that has more than one qualifying agent, executed on a form provided by the Board by all of them. If you were the company's only licensed contractor, none of that applies to you and neither does the sixty days.
If you were the only qualifier
The statutory duty is one sentence long.
If any qualifying agent ceases to be affiliated with a business organization, he or she shall inform the department. Florida Statute 489.119(3)(a).
No three notices. No waiting period on your side. But the deadline that binds you is not in the statute at all, and it is the one thing on this page you should not leave this page without.
A certificate holder or registrant shall notify the Board Office within thirty (30) days after the qualifying person has ceased to be affiliated with the qualified business organization. Failure to report the information required by this rule shall result in disciplinary action. Rule 61G4-15.007, Florida Administrative Code.
Thirty days, and not filing is itself a disciplinary matter. You can leave a company cleanly and still be disciplined for the leaving.
There is a second notice most people never make. If you are going on to contract in your own name or with another company, Florida Statute 489.119(3)(b) requires you to inform the department in writing of that too.
The sixty days belongs to the company, not to you
There is a sixty day figure in 489.119(3)(a), and it is the source of most of the confusion, because it is a clock running on somebody else.
If the qualifying agent is the only certified or registered contractor affiliated with the business organization, the business organization shall notify the department of the termination and shall have 60 days from the termination of the qualifying agent's affiliation in which to employ another qualifying agent. Florida Statute 489.119(3)(a).
Read the opening clause, because it does work. The sixty days runs only where you were the company's only licensed contractor, and it is the company's window to replace you rather than a period during which you remain exposed. It has teeth of its own: under Florida Statute 489.127(1)(g), operating a contracting business more than sixty days after the termination of its only qualifying agent is unlawful.
The company is also not simply frozen in the meantime, which is worth knowing before you are told that your leaving will destroy it. The executive director or chair of the Board may grant a temporary nonrenewable certificate to the financially responsible officer, the president, a partner, or the general partner, and that certificate lets the business finish work it already has.
The line that decides what follows you
Most versions of this subject, including an earlier version of this page, draw the line at when work begins. That is the wrong line, and the statute draws it somewhere less comfortable.
For the purposes of this paragraph, an incomplete contract is one which has been awarded to, or entered into by, the business organization prior to the cessation of affiliation of the qualifying agent, or one on which the business organization was the low bidder and the contract is subsequently awarded, regardless of whether any actual work has commenced under the contract prior to the qualifying agent ceasing to be affiliated. Florida Statute 489.119(3)(a).
The test is when the contract was signed, not when the crew arrived. A job contracted and permitted under your license, that breaks ground the month after you leave, is not somebody else's simply because no dirt had moved.
And the governing sentence on responsibility is the same either way you left.
Any change in the status of a qualifying agent is prospective only. A qualifying agent is not responsible for his or her predecessor's actions but is responsible, even after a change in status, for matters for which he or she was responsible while in a particular status. Florida Statute 489.1195(3)(d).
- Ends on the day your status ends: responsibility for the company taking on anything new.
- Does not end: everything that arose while you held the status, whenever it surfaces. There is no limitations period in Chapter 489 for Board discipline.
- Never began: your predecessor's work. That half is genuinely protective and it is worth knowing.
Can the company stop you
Not from doing the thing that matters, but the honest answer is less clean than a flat no.
Your duty under 489.119(3)(a) to inform the department is yours alone and requires nobody's permission. Nothing the company does can prevent you discharging it, and discharging it is what starts your thirty day compliance clock running in your favor rather than against you.
What the company can do is slow the paperwork. DBPR's change of status form must be signed by an officer of the business entity as well as by the qualifying agent, so an uncooperative company can stall a filing that needs both signatures. That is an argument for informing the department yourself, in writing, keeping proof of when you sent it, and not waiting for a countersignature that may never come.
- The worst option is neither staying nor leaving. Drifting away while your name remains on the record is precisely the situation Florida Statute 489.129(1)(e) describes, where allowing your license to be used without active participation in the operations, management or control is prima facie evidence of an intent to evade.
- If you were a joint-agreement sole primary, your notice to the Board must include proof satisfactory to the Board that you gave the other two notices. Notice to the Board alone, without that proof, is not satisfactory notice and starts nothing.
What to do, in order
- Work out which of the two routes you are on, because the paperwork differs.
- Tell the company in writing, dated. Not required by the statute in the ordinary case, but it fixes a date that everything else is measured from.
- Inform the department. Within thirty days, and keep proof of the date.
- If you were a joint-agreement sole primary, also notify every secondary qualifying agent, and send the Board proof that you notified everyone.
- File the change of status with DBPR, and chase it if the company is slow to sign.
- Inform the department in writing if you are going on to contract in your own name or with another company.
- Keep everything. Permits pulled under your number, approvals you gave, approvals you refused, the dates. Your responsibility for that period does not expire, so neither should your file on it.
Both sides checked against the state record before anyone is introduced.
Frequently asked questions
How do I resign as a qualifying agent in Florida?+
If you were the company's only licensed contractor, Florida Statute 489.119(3)(a) requires you to inform the department when you cease to be affiliated, and Rule 61G4-15.007 gives you thirty days to notify the Board Office. If the company had more than one qualifying agent and you were designated sole primary by a Board-approved joint agreement, Florida Statute 489.1195(3) applies instead and requires notice to the company, the Board, and every secondary qualifying agent.
Is there a sixty day waiting period before I am free?+
Not in the ordinary case. The sixty days in Florida Statute 489.119(3)(a) is the company's window to employ a replacement, not a period during which you remain responsible. A sixty day clock does apply to a joint-agreement sole primary under 489.1195(3)(b), where status ceases on designation of a new primary or sixty days after satisfactory notice reaches the Board, whichever comes first.
What is the deadline to notify the Board?+
Thirty days after ceasing to be affiliated, under Rule 61G4-15.007(1). Subsection (3) of that rule says failure to report shall result in disciplinary action, which makes it the one deadline on this subject you cannot afford to miss.
Am I clear of work the company starts after I leave?+
Not necessarily. The statute keys to when the contract was awarded or entered into, not when work began, and says so expressly: an incomplete contract includes one entered into before you left regardless of whether any actual work had commenced. Responsibility follows what arose while you held the status.
Can the company refuse to let me resign?+
It cannot prevent you informing the department, which is your duty alone. It can slow the paperwork, because DBPR's change of status form requires an officer's signature as well as yours. Inform the department yourself in writing, keep proof of the date, and do not wait on a countersignature.
What happens to the company when I leave?+
If you were its only licensed contractor it has sixty days to employ another qualifying agent and may not engage in contracting in the meantime, unless the Board grants a temporary nonrenewable certificate to the financially responsible officer, president, partner or general partner, which allows it only to finish contracts it already holds. Operating beyond sixty days without a qualifying agent is unlawful under 489.127(1)(g).
Does resigning erase the years I was there?+
No. Florida Statute 489.1195(3)(d) makes any change of status prospective only. You are not responsible for your predecessor's actions, and you remain responsible for matters for which you were responsible while in that status. Chapter 489 sets no limitations period for Board discipline.
Is this legal advice?+
No. This is a plain reading of Florida Statutes 489.119, 489.1195, 489.127 and 489.129 and Rule 61G4-15.007, quoted above so you can check them yourself. If you are leaving a company where something has already gone wrong, speak to a Florida construction attorney before you file anything.