Kent Lay decided to make another go of it as chair of the Nevada State Contractors Board and wants to help a new state law on licensing of handymen get off to a strong start.
Lay, the division president of Taylor Morrison, is former president of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association. He has been on the Nevada State Contractors Board since his appointment in 2015 and served as chair from 2019 to 2022. He will serve in the 2025 and 2026 state fiscal year that started in July. He was re-appointed last year for a three-year term by Gov. Joe Lombardo and was chosen as chair by his fellow members. It’s his third term on the board.
Lay, who replaced Boyd Martin who held the position for the last three years, has more than 25 years of experience in the homebuilding and contracting industry and oversaw the construction of more than 10,000 homes.
The role of the board is to ensure the integrity and professionalism of the construction industry in Nevada, both residential and commercial. It does that by overseeing contractors through a regulatory licensing system designed to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public.
“I do it to give back to the community,” Lay said. “I think it’s a great way with all of my experience since I’ve had a great career. I think the Contractors Board does a great job of protecting the public, and that’s what we’re all about. There’s a lot of bad contractors out there that we need to protect them from, and we need to do our best to do that.”
Lay said the board regulates who gets licensed and makes sure they are qualified and bonded to protect the public and good contractors as well. Licensing is required for all work $1,000 and higher.
“We are one of the only Contractors Boards out there that has a recovery fund and with that we offer consumers that have been wronged by licensed residential contractors the ability to get back up to $40,000 in cash awards based on damage they sustained by a contractor that did them wrong,” Lay said. “We send an investigating team out there once they determined they were wronged. The contractor is given a chance to rectify the problem. If they don’t, they go to a hearing and they can be fined, their license can be suspended for a short term or it can be revoked depending on the nature of what was done.”
“From there, if the problem hasn’t been resolved, the homeowner has a chance to put in an application for the recovery fund to get back money owed to them,” Lay said. “We get bids from licensed contractors to correct the work. If they were wronged for $20,000, we will reimburse them for $20,000. By statute, we can only give up to $40,000. That is one thing we do that I pride myself in that we are able to help the public where most other states are not able to once you get wronged by a contractor. They can revoke their license but that’s it. Their only recourse is a lengthy court system to recover damages and many times by the time that happens the contractor is out of business anyways.”
The recovery fund money comes from licensed contractors who as part of their two-year license fees have some of that dropped into the fund for that purpose.
One of the responsibilities of the board is to monitor the statutes that govern contracting and suggest any changes in them.
Last week, Lay took part in a ceremony for Senate Bill 130, the restricted license bill that is also known as the Nevada Handyman License Bill. The restricted license provides a pathway for individuals to gain the experience required for a full contractor’s license, while being held accountable for the protection of consumers, Lay said.
SB 130 provides a process for the board to issue a restricted license to an applicant that authorizes the individual to perform certain work on improvement projects performed on single-family residences for which a contractor’s license is required, within the specified scope and monetary limit.
To get the license, applicants must demonstrate at least two years of experience in a certain trade; procure and maintain a surety or cash bond of $2,000 or higher; complete a business counseling or similar class with a minimum number of hours as determined by the board and complete within one year prior to applying for the restricted license.
Individuals granted a restricted license may not perform life safety trades or work exceeding $7,000, including labor and materials.
Lay said his goal this term is to get the program up and running as soon as possible and provide an easy path for handymen to be legal and licensed.
“Right now if you do over $1,000 in work, including suppliers, material and labor, you have to be licensed,” Lay said. “This gives an easy path to get a license with only two years of experience and not have to do a trade exam. It gives them the right to do up to $7,000 worth of work, including materials supply and labor.”
Those who get the license and go two years without anything on their record can get the full license that allows any type of residential and commercial remodel.
The handyman license, known as B-7, can do anything that doesn’t involve life safety issues such as electrical, plumbing and mechanical work. They can hire someone who is licensed to do that work.
The handyman can’t do additions to a home but can only remodel it, Lay said.
The bill signing ceremony last week with Lombardo was held at the Latin Chamber of Commerce, which was a big supporter of the legislation to allow their affiliates to get licensed.
“This is something the board has discussed many times over the last several years that we want the handyman to be under our license specifications to make sure they are legal and qualified to protect the public,” Lay said. “So many times we get residential homeowners come to us and say this residential contractor did this and this and did it wrong or didn’t finish it and weren’t licensed. We have no jurisdiction over them. We can’t do anything. This is a way to bring them under our umbrella to make sure they are qualified and do the work and protections out there for the consumer. Under this now, they would be protected under the recovery fund up to $7,000 in damages.”
Lay said they hope to get 25 to 50 people sign up for the program by 2026. Anyone who has been caught working as an unlicensed contractor would still be eligible to apply and go through a hearing process.
“We want them to be licensed and not out there doing it without a license,” Lay said. “If we deny every one of them, we take the chance of them turning their back on us and still doing the work. That’s not the objective. The objective is to get as many people licensed to protect the public.”
Unlicensed contractors have always been a huge problem in Nevada, Lay said. They get reports on a regular basis of those contractors taking people’s money up front and disappearing without doing anything. There are others who are honest and try to do a good job but don’t have the means to get a license.
“We’re trying to open the door for those to do the right thing and operate legally,” Lay said.
Lay said homeowners get caught up in the price rather than whether someone is licensed and don’t understand the repercussions of how they aren’t protected.
“Sometimes, it goes good but when it goes bad, it goes bad big time and creates huge problems and issues,” Lay said. “Part of our job is educating the public on not using unlicensed trades because when you do that you open yourself up to a lot of liability and problems.”
