The Contractor Qualifier Contingency Plan: What Happens When Your Qualifying Agent Leaves, and How Long You Have to Replace Them (2026)

Every licensed contracting company built on a qualifying agent, responsible managing employee, master of record, or license administrator shares the same single point of failure: the license lives with a person, not the company. When that person quits, retires, is fired, or dies, a regulatory clock starts, and in most states it is measured in days, not months. Miss it and the company that was bidding work last quarter is legally barred from contracting this one.

This guide covers the three things every contractor running on a qualifier needs to know before it happens: how long each major state gives you to replace a departed qualifier, what to do in the first week, and how to build a contingency plan so the departure is an HR event instead of a business shutdown.

Why the License Dies With the Person

States do not license companies on the company's own merits. They license companies through a credentialed individual, the qualifying agent, RME, RMO, or administrator, who takes personal responsibility for supervision and code compliance. That structure is the whole point: regulators want a human being accountable for the work.

The consequence is written into nearly every state's statutes: when the qualifier disassociates, the company's authority to contract is impaired automatically. Some states suspend the license, some mark it inactive, some void it outright. The differences between states come down to two numbers, how fast you must notify the board, and how long you get to install a replacement.

The State-by-State Clock

Here is how long major qualifier states give a contracting business to replace its departed qualifier, drawn from the statutes and rules each of our state guides covers in depth.

Florida, 60 days. The business must notify the DBPR and has 60 days from the qualifying agent's termination to employ a replacement. Until a new qualifying agent is in place, the company may not enter new contracts, though the board can issue a temporary, nonrenewable certificate to a financially responsible officer, president, or partner that allows finishing incomplete contracts only (F.S. 489.119). See our Florida qualifying agent guide.

California, 90 days. The licensee must notify the CSLB registrar in writing within 90 days of the RMO/RME's disassociation and has 90 days to replace the qualifier. Failure means the license is automatically suspended (or the classification removed) at the end of the 90 days. One additional 90-day extension exists, but only by petition for good cause in narrow circumstances, such as a disputed disassociation date (B&P Code § 7068.2).

Georgia, 30 days to notify, 45 for the company, 120 to replace. Georgia is the most precisely drafted rule in this group, and it puts duties on both sides. Under Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 553-11-.02, the qualifying agent must notify the Board within 30 days of the relationship ending by filing a Disaffiliation form, and the agent's own license goes to inactive status on receipt. An owner or officer of the company must notify within 45 days, and the company license goes inactive on receipt. If the departing agent was the sole qualifying agent, the business has 120 days from the date of disaffiliation to submit an application for another qualifying agent; after that the business "shall be placed on inactive status and cease to be considered licensed." Two more subsections carry real teeth: contracting as a qualifying agent after the relationship ends "shall be considered unlicensed practice," and renewing a qualifying agent license after the relationship ends "shall be considered fraud." See our Georgia qualifying agent guide.

North Carolina, 10 days to notify, and the license is invalidated. The shortest notice duty we have found, and it binds both parties independently. Under 21 NCAC 12A .0205(c), the licensee "shall notify the Board in writing in the event a qualifier ceases to be connected with the licensee," including the last date of connection, "no later than 10 days after the date of separation", and "a qualifier shall also be required to notify the Board in writing in such circumstances." Once that notice is filed, or the Board determines the qualifier is no longer connected, and there are no additional qualifiers, "the license shall be invalidated" under G.S. 87-10. North Carolina also permits more than one qualifier per licensee, which is the built-in protection: a second qualifier keeps the license standing. More in our North Carolina qualifying agent guide.

Tennessee, 10 days to notify, 90 days to requalify, and the replacement must pass the exam. Two clocks here, and most write-ups only mention one. The Board for Licensing Contractors states on its own licensing-steps guidance that the QA leaving "needs to be reported to the Board within 10 days," using the "QA, Leaving Notification" revision form. Separately, "if the QA leaves the licensed entity, the license remains with the owner and they have 90 days to replace the QA and supply the revision form, 'QA, Notice of Change,' before the license becomes invalid or the classification is removed (TCA 62-6-115; Rule 0680-1-.23)." Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0680-01-.23 frames the requirement as designating an individual to successfully pass the examination within three (3) months, so the deadline is not satisfied by naming someone, only by having them qualify. Read the rule in context: it caps designations at no more than 2 qualifying agents per major classification. Tennessee also defines who may serve: the Board states the QA "may be an owner, officer, or full time employee," and that a QA without majority ownership must file a Power of Attorney as part of the license application. See our Tennessee qualifying agent guide.

Oklahoma, no day count, because the authority to operate ends immediately. Oklahoma is the state that shows why counting days can be the wrong frame. The Construction Industries Board conditions the entity's right to work on a qualified person occupying a position inside it, with no grace period written into either act. Under 59 O.S. § 1850.7, "no business entity shall act as a mechanical firm unless a contractor is associated with and responsible for all mechanical work of such entity." Under 59 O.S. § 1012(b), it is "unlawful and a misdemeanor" for a firm to engage in or offer to engage in the business of plumbing until the person, a bona fide member, or a bona fide officer holds the plumbing contractor license. There is no replacement window in either provision, when the qualified person leaves, the condition simply stops being met. Oklahoma also puts a continuing personal duty on the departing contractor: where a bond-and-insurance waiver affidavit is on file, the CIB's own instructions state that if either party terminates employment the contractor must notify the Board in writing, and "if we do not receive notice, the Contractor can still be held liable for work performed." Liability ends when the notice arrives, not when the job does. And because Oklahoma's two trades use different tests, a permanent employee qualifies a mechanical firm, while plumbing requires a bona fide member or officer, a plumbing company's replacement plan is a governance question, not just a hiring one. Full detail in our Oklahoma contractor license qualifier guide and the Oklahoma plumbing license guide.

Colorado, 20 days. The tightest clocks in the country. An electrical contractor that loses its registered master electrician has 20 days before the registration goes inactive; a plumbing contractor that loses its responsible master plumber has 20 days before the Plumbing Board moves it to "Need Master Hire, Cannot Practice" status. See Colorado electrician licensing.

Kentucky, 30 days, or 180 on death. An electrical contractor has 30 days to replace its departed designee; if the affiliated master electrician dies, the regulation allows a 180-day interim period.

Michigan, depends which license, and the builder rule has no fixed number. For residential builders and maintenance and alteration contractors, MCL 339.2405(4) is blunt: "If the qualifying officer of a licensee ceases to be its qualifying officer, the license is suspended. However, on request, the department may permit the license to remain in force for a reasonable time to permit the qualification of a new qualifying officer." There is no statutory day count, the default is immediate suspension, and the relief is discretionary and only available on request. That is arguably worse than a deadline, because a deadline at least tells you where you stand. Michigan's plumbing side has been reported as a 30-day window to replace the master plumber a contractor holds or employs; treat that figure as needing confirmation with the state before you rely on it, since plumbing licensure sits in a separate act from the Occupational Code provisions above. Full detail in our Michigan qualifying officer guide.

Hawaii, 60 days to notify, 90 to replace. The entity must notify the Contractors License Board within 60 days and replace the RME (or move the license to inactive) within 90 days, or the license is automatically forfeited. The same obligations bind the departing RME personally. See what an RME is in Hawaii.

Alaska, 15 days. Electrical and mechanical administrators must report a change of affiliation within 15 days, and each administrator can anchor only one contractor at a time, so a departure leaves the contractor without the credential the registration requires. See our Alaska electrical administrator guide.

Washington, at all times. An electrical contractor must have its assigned administrator or master electrician at all times, L&I suspends the contractor license when the position sits empty.

New Hampshire, void, not suspended. The harshest rule we have found: a corporate or partnership electrical license is void upon the death or severance of the master electrician in responsible charge (RSA 319-C).

Three patterns are worth reading out of that list. First, the windows are short: 10 to 120 days, clustered at 20 to 90, and several states, including Oklahoma, Washington, and New Hampshire, give no window at all. Second, the consequence is usually automatic, no hearing, no discretion, no grace period beyond what the statute names. The board does not call to warn you; the license simply stops working. Third, and most commonly missed, the notice duty and the replacement window are two different clocks, and several states put the notice duty on the departing qualifier personally as well as on the company. In Georgia the agent has 30 days and the company has 45. In North Carolina both parties owe notice within 10. Tennessee wants the departure reported in 10 days and the replacement qualified in 90. A qualifier who walks away assuming the paperwork is the company's problem is creating personal exposure.

Replacement windows and consequences are set by each state's statutes and rules and change; verify the current rule with your licensing board before relying on any deadline.

The First Week After a Qualifier Leaves

If you are reading this because it just happened, here is the sequence that protects the company:

1. Establish the disassociation date in writing. Every deadline above runs from this date. An ambiguous departure date shortens your real window, and in Georgia the 120-day replacement clock runs from "the date of disaffiliation" specifically.
2. Notify the board within the required period. Florida, California, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Hawaii, and Alaska all have explicit notice duties, and late notice is its own violation. Do not wait until you have a replacement lined up to give notice, the duties are separate. Where the rule also binds the departing qualifier personally, make sure they know it.
3. Inventory contracts and permits. Which jobs are open? Which permits were pulled under the departed qualifier? In most states you cannot enter new contracts while unqualified, and some jurisdictions treat open permits as orphaned. Florida's temporary certificate, for example, covers completing existing contracts only, not new work.
4. Check whether your state has a bridge provision. Florida's temporary certificate for a financially responsible officer, Kentucky's 180-day death provision, and Michigan's discretionary "reasonable time" on request are examples. Most states have nothing, the replacement deadline is the whole story, and in states like Oklahoma there is no deadline because there is no bridge.
5. Do not let the departed qualifier renew. In Georgia, renewing a qualifying agent license after the relationship has ended is expressly "considered fraud." This is a real trap during an amicable separation where nobody has filed the disaffiliation paperwork yet.
6. Start the replacement search immediately. A qualified replacement needs the right license class, the experience record, and, in most states, a genuine, full-time W-2 employment relationship with your company. Finding that person is the long pole, which is why the contingency plan below matters more than anything you do in week one. If you are already against the clock, this is the placement problem we solve.

Building the Contingency Plan Before You Need It

A real qualifier contingency plan is four documents and one relationship:

1. Know exactly who your qualifier is, on paper. In a company that has grown by acquisition or added license classifications, it is surprisingly common that nobody can say which individual qualifies which license in which state. List every license the company holds, the qualifying individual for each, their license numbers, and their renewal dates.

2. Know your states' clocks, both of them. Pull the notice duty and the replacement window for every state you operate in (the list above is a start; our state guides go deeper). A company running on a 20-day Colorado clock plans differently than one with Georgia's 120 days, and a company that only tracked the replacement window can still be in violation for missing a 10-day notice.

3. Identify the internal bench. Does anyone else in the company already meet the experience requirements for the qualifier credential? If a project manager is two years short of qualifying, that gap is worth closing now. Some states also expressly allow a second, concurrent qualifying agent on the same license, North Carolina permits more than one qualifier per licensee, and Tennessee's rule contemplates up to two per major classification. Where available, dual qualification is the single strongest protection, because the departure of one qualifier leaves the license standing and no clock ever starts.

4. Line up the external answer. If there is no internal bench, the contingency plan is a relationship with a source of qualified professionals before the vacancy exists. That is the core of what we do: placing licensed qualifiers with contracting companies as full-time W-2 employees who genuinely supervise the work, the structure every statute in the list above requires. Companies come to us in two modes: the ones planning ahead, and the ones on day 12 of a 20-day clock. Be the first kind. Our consultation packages start with a conversation about your states, your classifications, and your timeline.

5. Put the qualifier relationship itself in writing. Compensation, supervision duties, notice expectations, and what happens at separation. A qualifier who has agreed to 60 days' notice converts most of these statutory fire drills into ordinary transitions. (What that agreement can and cannot contain varies by state, and in some states the form of the relationship is prescribed, not negotiable. See can a qualifying agent be a 1099 contractor before drafting anything.)

The Answer That Makes Everything Worse

Under a deadline, some contractors reach for the shortcut: find anyone with the right license, pay them to "sign on," and keep the license alive while they never set foot on a job. Every state in the list treats that as license lending or aiding unlicensed contracting, grounds for discipline against both the company and the license holder, and in several states a crime. Georgia's rules go further and name the specific act: renewing a qualifying agent license after the affiliation ended is "considered fraud." Oklahoma's plumbing act declares loaning a license unlawful by statute (59 O.S. § 1006(B)) and its mechanical act directs that the Board "shall suspend or revoke" for it (§ 1850.14(C)(3)). Michigan transmits the discipline in both directions, under MCL 339.2405(2) and (3), a suspension against the entity reaches the qualifying officer's other licenses and applications, and vice versa. Alaska wrote the one-contractor rule into statute precisely to kill this arrangement. The difference between license lending and a lawful qualifier engagement comes down to substance: real employment, real supervision, real responsibility, and whether your qualifier must be an owner or an employee is covered in our owner-versus-employee explainer.

A contingency plan built on a rented license is not a contingency plan. It is a second emergency scheduled behind the first one.

FAQ

How long do I have to replace a qualifying agent? It depends entirely on the state, and there are usually two clocks, one to notify the board, one to install a replacement. Replacement: 120 days in Georgia for a sole qualifying agent, 90 in California, Hawaii, and Tennessee (and in Tennessee the replacement must pass the exam in that window), 60 in Florida, 30 in Kentucky, 20 in Colorado's licensed trades, and effectively zero in Oklahoma, Washington, and New Hampshire, where the authority to operate ends or the license voids immediately. Michigan's residential builder rule sets no day count at all, the license is suspended when the qualifying officer departs, with discretionary relief only on request. Notice: 10 days in North Carolina and Tennessee, 15 in Alaska, 30 for the agent and 45 for the company in Georgia. Always confirm the current rule with your board.

Does the departing qualifier have any obligations, or is it all on the company? Often both. North Carolina requires the qualifier to notify the Board in writing independently of the licensee. Georgia gives the qualifying agent 30 days to file a disaffiliation form, separately from the company's 45-day duty, and treats contracting as a qualifying agent after the relationship ends as unlicensed practice. Tennessee wants the departure reported within 10 days on its own revision form. Hawaii's notice obligations bind the departing RME personally, and Oklahoma keeps a plumbing contractor on the hook for work performed until written notice reaches the CIB. A qualifier who assumes the filing is somebody else's job can be disciplined for it.

Can my company keep working while we look for a replacement? Usually not on new contracts. Florida bars new contracting until a new qualifying agent is employed (with a narrow temporary certificate for finishing existing work); California suspends the license outright at day 90; Colorado's "Cannot Practice" status means what it says; Georgia moves the company license to inactive on receipt of the disaffiliation form; and Oklahoma conditions the entity's right to act as a mechanical or plumbing firm on a qualified person being in place, with no window written in. Open permits and in-progress jobs are handled differently state by state, ask your board before continuing any work.

What does a replacement qualifier cost? It varies with the state, the license classification, the scope of supervision, and how quickly you need someone, which is why we quote it per situation rather than publishing a number. The factors that drive it are covered in a consultation.

Can the owner just become the qualifier? If the owner meets the experience and exam requirements for the credential, yes, that is the cleanest structure available, and several states' guides in our library walk through the individual licensing ladder. The catch is time: most master-level credentials require years of documented trade experience, which is not a solution on a 60-day clock.

Is there a way to make sure the clock never starts? Where the state allows a second concurrent qualifier on the same license, yes, that is the closest thing to immunity available. North Carolina expressly permits more than one qualifier per licensee, and Tennessee's rule contemplates up to two per major classification. If your state allows it and you are running on one person, that is the highest-value thing to fix this quarter.

We're licensed in several states. Do we need a plan for each? Yes. Each state's license has its own qualifier, its own two clocks, and its own consequence, and as Oklahoma shows, a single state can apply different structural tests to different trades. A multi-state contractor's contingency plan is a table, not a sentence, and a qualifier who can stand behind multiple classifications is worth proportionally more to you.

Statutory deadlines and license consequences described here are set by each state's legislature and licensing board and are subject to change. Rules cited were read at official sources in August 2026. Verify current requirements with the relevant board before acting on any timeline in this article.