What Subser Confidence and license statuses mean
Every contractor page on Subser shows two things: a Subser Confidence grade, and the registration status WA L&I holds for that business. They answer different questions, and this page explains both.
Subser Confidence
A grade says how much we can independently back up about a business. It is never an opinion, and it is never bought — each level is earned by a record we can point at. A grade only ever appears on an active registration.
- Subser ConfidenceListedActive WA license
- The business holds a current contractor registration with WA L&I, and we check it daily. That is the floor — it says the registration is real and current, and nothing more.
- Subser ConfidenceVerifiedActive WA license
- Someone at the business has claimed the listing and confirmed they control it. You know you are looking at the business's own account, not just a public record.
- Subser ConfidenceEndorsed · 3Active WA license
- Other licensed contractors have vouched for them by name. Endorsements come from businesses with their own active registrations, and the count is shown on the grade.
- Subser ConfidenceProvenActive WA license
- Their track record is measured from real jobs run through Subser — scheduled, completed and invoiced — rather than from anything they or a reviewer typed.
WA L&I registration statuses
The status comes straight from the WA L&I contractor registry. We normalize the wording but never the meaning, and the raw registry value is shown whenever it says more than our label.
- Active
- A current registration. The business is registered to do contracting work, and any bond and liability policy on file is shown on their page.
- Expired
- The registration lapsed and was not renewed. Contractors are required to keep a current registration to work legally, so an expired record is worth asking about before hiring.
- Suspended
- WA L&I has suspended the registration, often over a bond or insurance lapse. The date shown is when the suspension took effect.
- Re-licensed
- The record was replaced. WA L&I keeps the old row and marks it re-licensed when a contractor registers again, usually as a new business under a new UBI. The business may well still be working — but under a different registration than the one on this page, so the dates here are historical.
- Inactive
- Closed, out of business, or otherwise no longer active in the registry. The page is kept as a record of what was filed.
Check it yourself
Everything here comes from public records, and every contractor page links straight to that business's entry in the Department of Labor & Industries lookup so you can confirm it at the source.
Subser doesn't do star ratings or reviews — just verified records.