The Problem
Contractor surety and liability underwriting is a primary-source business that runs on second-hand data:
- Underwriting submissions arrive without verifiable disciplinary history attached
- Denied or revoked-license submissions look 'clean' to standard lookup tools — the regulatory record is discarded as 'not found'
- Bond status across multi-state contractors lives in dozens of disconnected portals
- Reps and warranties about "clean license history" rarely come with primary-source backing
- When a contractor goes sideways mid-bond, you find out from the claim, not the licensing board
What You Can Do
Risk-Tier Submission Triage
Hit our risk-tier endpoint at submission time. Get a 4-level classification (low / moderate / elevated / high) computed nightly from disciplinary frequency, complaint count, license currency, and specialty volatility. Denied and revoked licensees feed the model as the highest-risk-tier population — competitors that throw away the discipline-only surface miss them entirely. Triage the submission queue before manual review.
Discipline-Only Surface for Underwriting
Denied applications, revocations, and voluntary surrenders are the highest-risk-tier population — and the population that standard license tools return 'not found' on. Our lookup returns those records with their full regulatory history so your adjusters and underwriters see the warning before they bind. The visibility flag and license_type are on every plan; the full reason text + history are on this Insurer plan.
Disciplinary History Pulls
Every disciplinary action filed against the contractor — citation, suspension, revocation — with action date, case number, and source board. Attach to the underwriting file as primary-source backing. Action rows on discipline-only licensees are queryable too, so a denied-applicant submission is no longer a blind spot.
Bond Status Tracking
Track posted bond status across CA, TX, FL, NYC for every contractor on your book. Flag lapsed bonds the morning they lapse, not the day a claim hits.
Webhook Alerts on Status Changes
Subscribe a contractor's license. Get a webhook the moment status changes — suspended, revoked, new disciplinary action, risk tier escalates. Wire it into your bond-monitoring system.
Sample Insight
License #482991 · elevated
3 disciplinary actions in the trailing 24 months · 7 consumer complaints filed · license is currently active but expiring in 47 days · bond on file but recent lapse-and-restore in the last 12 months.
Underwriting note: pattern is consistent with elevated risk class. Auto-flag the submission for senior review; auto-attach the 3 disciplinary case PDFs and the bond-history audit to the file.
Illustrative only — actual risk-tier output reflects your portfolio composition and the contractor's live record.
Recommended Plan
The Insurer plan unlocks the full data surface — risk tier, bond status, complaint history, webhook alerts.
Operate at consumer-report or background-check scale? See Enterprise