Florida marketing rules for contractors: license numbers, calls, texts

Florida sets many of its marketing rules in statutes that a contractor does not meet until a customer complains: the construction licensing chapter, the consumer protection chapter and the state's own telephone solicitation act. Each one touches something you do every week, such as posting a service page, texting a lead, or turning on call recording. The sections below cite the statute so you can check it. Federal law applies here too, so use the TCPA guide and the recording guide alongside. Facts are as listed in October 2026.

Florida wants your license number in every ad, bid and contract

Under Fla. Stat. § 489.119(5)(b), a certified or registered contractor must put the license or registration number in each offer, business proposal, bid, contract and advertisement, "regardless of medium, as defined by board rule." The statute does not name websites, but the broad medium language is why most Florida contractors print the number in the website footer, on estimate pages and on paid ads. Check the Construction Industry Licensing Board's rule on media before you decide that a given channel is exempt.

Two parts of the same section are easy to miss. Under (5)(c), if a vehicle displays your name or text or artwork suggesting contracting use, the number must be clearly displayed with it (the subsection does not by itself require every contractor to sign a vehicle). Under (5)(d), business stationery and promotional novelties such as pens or clothing do not count as advertisements. The first offense of leaving the number off an ad draws a notice of noncompliance. A fine or citation can follow if you do not correct it within 30 days or repeat the mistake, under subsection (5)(e).

There is a related trap for the unlicensed. Section 489.103(9) exempts casual, minor or inconsequential work with total labor and materials under $2,500, but the exemption is lost if you advertise as a contractor. Under § 489.128, a contract entered into by an unlicensed contractor is unenforceable by that contractor, which can leave you unable to collect. The trades and thresholds are in our Florida contractor license guide.

Contract terms: a recovery fund statement and a deposit clock

Section 489.1425 requires every contract for repair, restoration, improvement or construction of residential real property to contain a written statement about the Florida Homeowners' Construction Recovery Fund, unless the labor and materials do not exceed $2,500. The statute gives the required wording, which ends with the Construction Industry Licensing Board's address and telephone number. The board may fine a contractor up to $500 for a first violation and must fine $1,000 for a second. If your quote tool turns an accepted estimate into a contract, the template needs that language.

Section 489.126 applies to anyone performing or promising to perform contractor work, licensed or not. If you collect an initial payment over 10 percent of the contract price on residential work, you must apply for the permits within 30 days and start work within 90 days after the permits are issued, unless you have just cause or the owner agrees to longer periods in writing. A deposit button on your website should not be set above 10 percent unless your schedule can meet those dates. Also, a contractor who has received money in excess of the value of work performed may not stop work for any 90-day period without just cause.

Home solicitation rules add a three-day cancellation right for some sales. A "home solicitation sale" under § 501.021 is a sale over $25 solicited in person and agreed to away from the seller's fixed business location, and it includes a transaction unsolicited by the consumer and completed by phone. It does not include a sale that results from the customer's request for specific goods or services. Section 501.031 requires the contract to carry a "Buyer's Right to Cancel" statement that gives the buyer until midnight of the third business day to cancel. Door-knocking and cold-call selling are the likeliest triggers. General contract terms are in our contract guide.

Recording calls requires every party's consent

Under Fla. Stat. § 934.03, intercepting a phone or in-person conversation is lawful only when all parties have given prior consent. The usual way to meet it is a recorded announcement up front that says the call is recorded and that continuing means consent. The same goes for the shop phone, tracking lines and any AI answering service. Put the notice before the first question, and do not rely on a footer on your website. Our call recording table shows how the rule compares with other states.

The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act covers texts and voicemail

Section 501.059 defines a telephonic sales call as a call, text message or voicemail to a consumer to solicit a sale or credit. Several rules matter for a service business:

• Autodialed or recorded sales calls: a person may not make or knowingly allow an unsolicited sales call that uses an automated system for selecting and dialing numbers, or plays a recorded message, without the called party's prior express written consent. Consent must be a signed written agreement that lists the number and says signing is not a condition of purchase. A checked box or a reply "yes" counts as a signature under the statute.
• Do-not-call list: solicitors may not call numbers on the state's "no sales solicitation calls" list, and may not contact anyone who has said they do not want such calls, including by text or voicemail.
• Identification: solicitors must state their first and last names and the business they represent at the start, and must transmit the originating number.
• Remedies: a called party may recover actual damages or $500, whichever is greater, with up to three times that for willful or knowing violations. Before suing over texts, the recipient must reply STOP, and the sender then has 15 days to stop.

The statute also says a contract made through a telephonic sales call is not enforceable against the consumer unless it is in writing and signed, with specific terms and a bold statement above the signature, subject to exceptions in § 501.059(6)(c), including sales where no prior payment is made and the invoice allows 7 days to cancel. The consent rule for autodialed or recorded calls applies to "unsolicited" calls, and the statute defines those to leave out calls made to a person with a prior or existing business relationship, calls made at the person's express request, and calls tied to an unfinished contract or debt. The act is aimed at consumer goods and services bought for personal, family or household use. Even so, a lawsuit over a marketing text is expensive, so keep written consent on file for any marketing texts and treat the business-relationship carve-out as a question for your lawyer. The federal baseline is covered in our TCPA guide.

Sales tax on invoices and the surcharge ban

Under § 212.05(1)(i), Florida taxes nonresidential cleaning and nonresidential building pest control at 6 percent, so a janitorial route or a commercial pest account is taxable while the same work in a home is not under that paragraph. When one transaction mixes a taxable service with a service or item that is not taxable, the statute requires the consideration to be separately identified and stated, or the entire transaction is presumed taxable. For your invoice template and online payment pages, that means separate line items for taxable and non-taxable work. All 50 states are compared in the sales tax table.

Section 501.0117 bars a seller that accepts credit cards from imposing a surcharge on a buyer for choosing a card over cash, check or similar means, and a violation is a second-degree misdemeanor. A surcharge is any additional amount, imposed at the time of the sale, that increases the charge for using a card. The statute does not apply to a discount offered to all prospective customers for paying by cash, check or another means not involving a credit card. A "3 percent card fee" line on an invoice or online payment page is the thing to avoid; if you want to encourage ACH or check, talk to a lawyer about how to frame a discount. Payment tools are compared in online payments for contractors.

Florida's privacy act mostly skips small contractors

The Florida privacy act's definition of a "controller" in § 501.702(9) requires more than $1 billion in global gross annual revenue and one more trait: deriving at least half of revenue from online advertising, operating a smart speaker service, or running an app store with at least 250,000 apps. A local service company does not meet that. One provision reaches further. Section 501.715 bars a person who meets the first three parts of the controller definition from selling sensitive data without the consumer's prior consent and requires the notice "This website may sell your sensitive personal data." If you do not sell customer data, this has no effect.

What this means for your setup

• Website: license number in the footer and on estimate pages; no card-fee line; a deposit setting at or under 10 percent for residential work unless you can meet the permit and start dates.
• Phone line: a recording notice before the first question, on every inbound line and tracking number.
• AI receptionist: script the notice as the first sentence, and keep call logs; see our AI receptionist service.
• Email and texts: signed, written consent for autodialed marketing texts, a prompt response to STOP, and separate line items for taxable work.

This is general information, not legal advice. Florida statutes get amended; verify the current text with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the Department of Revenue or an attorney before acting.

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