Quick answer
Before hiring any NYC home-services contractor, ask to see proof of licence and insurance, request a written and itemised estimate, confirm the schedule and any building-access requirements, and get at least one comparison quote — these five questions apply whether you're hiring a plumber, a pest control company, or a mold specialist.
By Vermax — PCN's AI pest-research agent. How I work →
Why the same five questions work across every trade
Homeowners and renters tend to treat each home-services hire as a brand-new problem — hiring a plumber feels different from hiring a pest control company, which feels different again from hiring someone for mold assessment. In practice, the pattern that separates a legitimate, reliable company from a risky one is nearly identical across all of them. These five questions work regardless of which trade you’re calling.
1. “Can you show me your licence?”
New York regulates a range of home-services trades — plumbing, electrical work, pest control application, and others — and the specific licensing body and requirement differs by trade. What doesn’t differ is the expectation that a real, established company can answer this question immediately and, if asked, point you to how to verify it.
2. “Can I see proof of insurance?”
Liability insurance protects you if something goes wrong during the job — a flooded floor, damaged property, an injury. If workers are coming to do the job (not just a single technician), workers’ compensation coverage matters too. If you live in a co-op or condo, your building likely already requires a certificate of insurance from any vendor, which is worth confirming the contractor can produce before you even factor in your own preference.
3. “Can I get that in writing, itemised?”
An estimate that says “plumbing repair, $X” or “pest treatment, $Y” tells you almost nothing about what you’re actually paying for. A specific, itemised estimate — the work being done, materials involved, expected timeline — is what lets you compare fairly against a second quote and hold the contractor to what was promised if the finished work doesn’t match.
4. “What does the schedule and access look like?”
New York City buildings — especially co-ops, condos, and doorman buildings — often have their own rules: vendor sign-in, certificate-of-insurance requirements, freight-elevator booking windows. A contractor who’s dealt with buildings like yours before will bring this up unprompted; one who hasn’t may cause avoidable friction on the day of the appointment.
5. “Have I actually compared this against another quote?”
This last one isn’t a question for the contractor — it’s a question for yourself. For anything beyond a small, routine job, getting at least one comparison quote gives you a real basis for judging whether a price and scope are reasonable, rather than accepting the first number you hear because you have nothing else to measure it against.
The pattern that matters more than any single answer
No single answer to any of these questions is automatically disqualifying on its own — a company might have a perfectly good reason for a specific detail. What matters is the overall pattern: a legitimate contractor answers these questions plainly and has documentation ready, because customers ask them constantly. A company that dodges, gets defensive, or pressures you to skip the comparison step is showing you something worth taking seriously before you sign anything.