Before I tell you how I forced MA to develop a new system of renewing trade licenses and change its state policy when it comes to releasing the phone numbers and emails of its licensed contractors, I want to express my gratitute to all people and groups that fought against the rent control ballot question.
Rent Control Ballot Question
I finally found the time to read Cella vs AG where the SJC said that the question cannot be asked in November because it exempts from rent control facilities operated solely for religious puposes and that is unconsitutional. This is a great win for MA landlords. What I worry about – nothing is stopping the proponents of rent control from changing the language slightly by simply saying that it will apply to for-profit entities and will not apply to non-profit entities, delete any mention of religion, start again and file it in the next election cycle. So the battle continues.
Emails and Phones of All Licensed Plumbers in MA
Anybody who has ever needed to hire a contractor knows how difficult it is to find a fair quote for a job. A big part of the reason is because we don’t have the list and so we usually call just several contractors and not a larger sample of contractors. In order to get a good quote you need to contact a lot of contractors. In my experience if you write or text 100 contractors only 10 will reply and you may get 3 good quotes. Simply put, we need to contact a lot of contractors before we can truly compare costs. The difference can be tens of thousands of dollars for the same job.
I filed a Public Record Request with the Division of Professional Licensure to get the emails and phone numbers of all licensed plumbers in MA. They refused to provide them. I appealed with the Supervisor of Record. I won. They still refused. After I sued them a second time they changed their systems and finally provided them to me. This unnecessary drama took about 3 years. Here I am attaching My Opposition to Their Motion to Dismiss. In it you can read all about the bad behavior that the Division of Professional Licensure subjected me over the past 3 years.
After I sued them they told me that from now on they will send the emails and phone numbers of individual and corporate entities licensed to perform a trade by the state to anyone who makes a Public Record Request to get the phone numbers and emails. That’s fine but what I don’t understand is why make people send thousands of Public Record Requests to process and waste the Division of Professional Licecensure own employee’s time to process them when even a lowly state like FL has put all that information online so people can freely search for the phone numbers and emails of licensed contractors and filter by town, etc – https:/dcnonline.org. I don’t know.
I am also attaching the emails and phones of all licensed MA Plumbers. This is a step in the right direction for MA and a big win for all Massachusetts Landlords and residents who need to get fair quotes on home projects.
Happy 4th of July!