Washington L&I Contractor & Tradesperson License Scraper

Scrape Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) contractor, electrician, plumber, elevator, and asbestos-worker license records from the official "Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business" public registry. Search by business/individual name, license or registration number, UBI (Unified Business Identifier), or workers' comp account ID. Optionally enrich every result with the full license detail record — address, surety bonds, liability insurance, business owners, associated licenses, and safety/contractor violations. No login, no API key, no proxy required.

What this actor does

• Four search modes: by name, by license/registration/certificate number, by UBI number, by workers' comp account ID
• 20 license categories covered: general/specialty construction contractors, electrical (contractor, administrator, electrician, master electrician, trainee), plumbing (contractor, plumber, plumber trainee, medical gas), asbestos (contractor, supervisor, worker), elevator (contractor, mechanic, primary contact), and manufactured home installers
• Optional detail enrichment: attach full business detail — surety bonds, liability insurance, business owners/officers, associated licenses, safety and license violations, DOSH inspections
• Filters: license category, license status (active/inactive), city, zip code, and violations-only
• Empty fields are omitted — every record only contains data L&I actually returned for that license

Data source

This actor is built on Washington State L&I's own public JSON search API for the Verify tool (secure.lni.wa.gov/verify) — the same backend the official website's search page calls. It requires no login, no API key, and no residential proxy, so it works reliably on Apify's free plan.

This actor replaces an original target of Indiana's professional licensing lookup (mylicense.in.gov), which sits behind Cloudflare bot-management that blocks every zero-cost access path we verified: plain HTTP requests, browser-impersonating HTTP clients, and headless-browser automation (including anti-detect browser stacks) were all challenged or blocked before reaching any license data. Washington L&I was chosen as a genuinely open, equivalent public contractor/tradesperson license registry with no such barrier.

Output per license record

• licenseId — the L&I license, registration, or certificate number
• ubi — Washington Unified Business Identifier, when on file
• businessName — business or individual licensee name
• contractorType / licenseType — e.g. Electrician, Asbestos Worker, General/Specialty Contractor
• contractorGroup — top-level category (e.g. Electrical, Plumber, Asbestos)
• asbestosGroup — asbestos-program sub-classification, when the license is asbestos-related
• status — Active, Inactive, Expired, Suspended, Out of Business, Re-Licensed, or Archived
• statusDescription — the raw L&I status text (e.g. EXPIRED, ACTIVE, SUSPENDED) — detail mode only
• employerDisplayStatus — L&I's workers'-comp employer-account display status, when on file
• city, state, zipCode, county, address1, address2, phoneNumber — detail mode only for address/phone
• businessType — e.g. Limited Liability Company, Individual, Corporation
• parentCompany — parent/umbrella business, when on file
• effectiveDate, expirationDate, suspendDate — ISO YYYY-MM-DD
• specialtyCode1, specialtyName1, specialtyText1 and specialtyCode2/specialtyName2/specialtyText2 — construction contractor specialty classification
• contractorTypeDescription — plain-language description of the license type
• licenseTypeCode — L&I's internal short code for the license type (e.g. CC) — detail mode only
• relationType — the licensee's relation type on the record (e.g. Business, Individual) — detail mode only
• hasSafetyViolation, hasContractorViolation — boolean flags
• hasInactiveWorkersCompAccounts — boolean
• associatedLicenses[] — other licenses/registrations tied to the same business or person
• businessOwners[] — owners/officers/partners, with role and start/end dates
• bonds[] — surety bond company, account number, amount, effective/expiration dates
• insurances[] — liability insurance firm, account ID, amount, effective/expiration dates
• savingsAccounts[] — savings account assignment in lieu of bond, when on file
• violations[], summons[], warrants[], debarments[], strikes[] — enforcement history, when on file
• lapses[] — license lapse/reinstatement history
• courses[], affidavits[], codes[] — continuing education and compliance records, when on file
• doshInspections[] — Washington DOSH workplace safety inspection history, when on file
• employerBusinessDetails — workers'-comp employer business record (legal name, business ID, address), when on file
• contractorTrackingUrl, contractorRegistrationUrl — related L&I portal links
• sourceUrl — canonical L&I Verify detail page URL for the license
• recordType: "license", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	byName	byName / byLicenseId / byUbi / byAccountId
name	string	smith	Business name or individual last name (mode=byName); min 2 characters
licenseId	string	–	License/registration/certificate number, exact or prefix (mode=byLicenseId)
ubi	string	–	9-digit Washington UBI number (mode=byUbi)
accountId	string	–	Workers' comp account ID, e.g. 123,456-01 (mode=byAccountId)
city	string	–	Restrict results to a single Washington city (case-insensitive, applied server-side by L&I)
zipCode	string	–	Restrict results to a single 5-digit Washington zip code (applied server-side by L&I; ignored if city is also set)
licenseCategory	string	–	Restrict results to one of 20 license categories
statusFilter	string	–	active / inactive / expired / suspended / out of business / re-licensed / archived
violationsOnly	boolean	false	Only emit records with a safety and/or contractor violation flagged
sortOrder	string	desc	desc / asc — L&I's own relevance ranking
fetchDetails	boolean	true	Enrich each result with the full detail record (bonds, insurance, owners, violations, etc.)
maxItems	integer	10	Hard cap on emitted license records (1–500)

Example: search by business name with detail enrichment

{
  "mode": "byName",
  "name": "smith",
  "fetchDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 20
}

Example: look up an exact license number

{
  "mode": "byLicenseId",
  "licenseId": "ABCAR824BB",
  "fetchDetails": true
}

Example: search by UBI number, active licenses only

{
  "mode": "byUbi",
  "ubi": "604164913",
  "statusFilter": "active"
}

Example: browse all licensed electricians without detail hydration (faster)

{
  "mode": "byName",
  "name": "construction",
  "licenseCategory": "Electrician",
  "fetchDetails": false,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: search by name restricted to one city

{
  "mode": "byName",
  "name": "construction",
  "city": "Spokane",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: compliance check for licenses with flagged violations

{
  "mode": "byName",
  "name": "construction",
  "violationsOnly": true,
  "maxItems": 25
}

Use cases

• Due diligence — verify a contractor's license, bond, and insurance status before hiring
• Compliance monitoring — track license status and violation history for vendors and subcontractors
• Lead generation — build lists of licensed contractors/tradespeople by category or region
• Insurance & surety underwriting — cross-check bond and insurance coverage on file with L&I
• Legal & background research — pull violation, debarment, and lapse history tied to a business or UBI

FAQ

What is the data source? This actor uses Washington State Department of Labor & Industries' own public "Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business" lookup tool at secure.lni.wa.gov/verify. It is a genuine public REST API with no authentication requirement — the same data the L&I website itself displays.

Is this affiliated with Washington State L&I? No. This is an independent, third-party actor that reads L&I's public verification data. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries.

Why does fetchDetails matter? Search results alone give you the license number, business name, category, and basic status. Turning on fetchDetails (the default) fetches the full record for each result — address, bonds, insurance, business owners, and violation history — at the cost of one extra request per record. Turn it off for faster, lighter-weight bulk name/category browsing.

Why are some fields missing on certain licenses? L&I only returns the fields it has on file for a given license. Bonds, insurance, and violation history are commonly empty for license types that don't require them (e.g. individual trade certifications like Electrician or Asbestos Worker don't carry bond/insurance records the way business contractor licenses do). Empty fields are always omitted rather than shown as blank or null.

What's the difference between "Construction Contractor" and the electrical/plumbing/asbestos/elevator categories? "Construction Contractor" is L&I's general contractor and specialty-trade contractor registration (bonded businesses). Electrical, plumbing, asbestos, and elevator categories are separate certification/licensing programs for individual tradespeople and specialty contractors in those disciplines, each with their own bonding/insurance rules.

How fresh is the data? Every run queries the live L&I API directly — there is no caching layer, so results reflect L&I's registry at the moment the actor runs.

Can I narrow results to a specific city or zip code? Yes. Set city (e.g. Seattle) or zipCode (e.g. 98121) alongside any search mode — L&I's own registry applies the location filter server-side on top of your name/license/UBI/account search, the same as the location dropdown on the official Verify tool's results page. If both are set, city takes priority.

Can I search by partial name? Yes. name (mode=byName) and licenseId (mode=byLicenseId) both support partial/prefix matching, mirroring L&I's own search behavior — the same as typing into the site's search box.

Does this include Washington's professional licenses (real estate, cosmetology, etc.)? No — those are handled by a different Washington State agency (the Department of Licensing, DOL) with a separate lookup tool. This actor is scoped to L&I's contractor, tradesperson, and workers'-comp registry only.