My dad has a way of putting it. Get mugged on a street in New York and police open a file. They go looking for the guy. He took a hundred dollars, maybe a watch and a ring.
In Florida, I walked into my police department with a 120-page binder documenting what happened to my home. The losses run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. On the biggest investment most of us will ever make.
The answer: “There’s not much we can do. It’s a civil matter.”
A hundred dollars gets a detective. Hundreds of thousands gets a shrug.
Tuesday, Florida picks a new governor.
Three weeks ago, Hurricane Isaias tore roofs off homes across the Panhandle. Thousands of families there are about to hire contractors.
Last year, the state agency that licenses those contractors investigated more than 4,800 complaints of unlicensed activity.
Whoever wins inherits all of it.
I did everything the guides tell you to do
I moved to Florida for my health. More than half of my left lung has been removed. I came here to heal and to build a life near the water.
I bought a 1960s home in Hypoluxo to renovate. I did what every consumer guide tells you to do. I checked licenses. I signed contracts. I paid as the work moved forward. I kept every receipt.
That is my floor today.
Windows. Doors. Floors. Air conditioning. Ceilings. Painting. Stucco.
You don’t need a dozen bad contractors to lose a home. One or two is enough. Then the damage spreads, and every repair uncovers the next problem.
One repair estimate alone is nearly $200,000, and it covers only part of the house. I can’t rent my home. I can’t sell it. I have been financially destroyed.
One officer was honest with me. His department is overloaded. Officers are burning out. They have to focus on murders and violent crime.
I don’t blame him. I blame a system that leaves him no choice.
Nobody would investigate. Fine. I’m doing it myself. Every receipt, every permit, every name on paper. The people responsible will answer for it.
The calls keep coming
Every week, someone new reaches out after hearing my story.
One woman moved here from New York. She spent hundreds of thousands of dollars restoring her home near the Intracoastal. Today it has leaks, mold, and impact windows and doors that let the rain in.
"I'm just trying to stop bleeding money. I'm drowning. I'm wishing I hadn't left NYC."
Another homeowner, living on a fixed income, is afraid she will end up homeless.
These are people who did everything right and trusted the system.
One contractor told me the reason I’m in this situation is that I didn’t buy a $5 million home. That is Florida right now: a land of haves and have-nots.
The honest contractors are losing too
I’ve met good contractors here. They do the work right. They pull their own permits. They stand behind their jobs.
They are beyond frustrated. They lose work to crews who use someone else’s license and look just as legitimate on paper. The cheaters make the honest ones look bad.
And it isn’t about price. I didn’t hire the cheapest bid. I hired a company whose advertising, Sunbiz filing, and DBPR record all looked right. It never dawned on me that what was on paper didn’t match who was actually doing the work.
Florida doesn’t have a law problem. It has an enforcement problem.
A license can be rented. The name on the permit is not always the person in your driveway.
A permit can close on work that isn’t finished. Mine closed while doors were still waiting to be installed.
A contractor can take the money and wait you out. Lawyers cost money. Courts take years. Most homeowners give up.
The state agencies can’t keep up. Sunbiz and the DBPR mean well. They are not built to catch what is happening.
The state’s own numbers make the case. In 2025, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation processed 22,003 complaints across the professions it licenses. It also investigated 4,853 complaints of unlicensed activity. That same year, it revoked just one company’s license for deceptive practices, according to a Florida Trib investigation.
22,003 complaints. One license revoked for deception.
The Trib also found the state does not check consumer complaints before it issues or renews a contractor license.
Every piece of this is already illegal.
Florida law bars a licensed contractor from pulling a permit for a job he isn’t actually contracted to do (Section 489.127). Contracting without a license is a crime, and a felony during a declared state of emergency. Misapplying money paid for construction work is a crime (Section 713.345).
The laws are there. Too often, nobody enforces them.
And enforcement works. Last month, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced 50 arrests from “Operation Bad Builder,” a months-long undercover operation targeting unlicensed contractors. Your protection should not depend on which county you live in.
You are already paying for this
Florida has hurricanes, flooding, and storms. It also has one of the strongest building codes in the country.
And the code works when it is enforced. After Hurricane Ian, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety studied 455 homes built to Florida’s modern code. None had structural damage from wind. Homes built before 2002 had nearly twice the structural damage. Windows and doors approved under the code held up well.
Then why do homes still fall apart when a storm comes through?
Here is what I have come to believe. Bad actors have figured out how to get around the system and abuse it. A code is only as strong as the person who installs the work and the person who checks it.
The worst shortcuts are the ones you can’t see. Take a roof. A crew skips the right nails, the underlayment, the flashing. From the street, it looks perfect. The attitude is simple: you’ll never know the difference. Until the first big storm peels it off, and no one can tell you why.
A rented license and a sign-off without a real inspection turn the strongest code in the country into paper.
Storms bring out the worst of it. After Helene and Milton, Florida authorities arrested 38 unlicensed contractors targeting storm victims.
It is happening again right now. Hurricane Isaias came ashore near Destin on October 9. Insurers have logged nearly 55,000 claims, most of them in the western Panhandle. Every one of those homes needs a contractor. The honest ones and the license renters are heading there together.
And the whole country pays. After Helene and Milton, FEMA put more than $11 billion into Florida’s recovery, including $7.5 billion in federal flood insurance claims. The flood insurance program ran short. FEMA borrowed $2 billion from the U.S. Treasury to pay those claims.
One national study found that every $1 spent meeting modern building codes saves $11 in future disaster losses. Codes only save money when they are followed.
Every dollar spent rebuilding work that should have been done right the first time is a dollar every American helps cover.
One question for Byron Donalds and David Jolly
This week I wrote to the Palm Beach Post, the Sun Sentinel, and the Miami Herald with one question for both candidates:
How, specifically, will you enforce the laws already on the books?
Not a sound bite. Not a task force. Not a press conference. A plan:
End license renting. Check that the license holder is actually on the job.
Hold the sign-offs accountable. If someone certifies work, there should be proof they looked.
End the “civil matter” reflex. Give police clear guidance, and run what worked in Hillsborough in every county, starting in the Panhandle.
Ask them yourself. Copy that question and post it on both candidates’ pages before Tuesday. Whoever wins owes Florida homeowners an answer.
My brain sees what the paperwork hides
I have severe dyslexia. It’s called being neurodivergent. My brain is wired differently, and it’s lifelong.
People think dyslexia means you read a little slowly. That’s only part of it.
A page of text and numbers looks like a jumbled mess of hieroglyphics. I can’t see it. I can’t make sense of it. Add pressure, a deadline, a court filing, and the page turns into a blob.
I didn’t start out on my own. I had a lawyer. I had to let him go. That story is coming.
Since then, I have fought this case in court on my own, through stacks of legal paperwork, with a brain that does that to every page.
I used to apologize for it. I’m done apologizing.
Many of us who struggle to read work another way. We remember in snapshots, like photographs. We memorize. We play by ear. We are creative, high-functioning people. We just can’t read well.
And we see patterns.
That is how I figured out how rented licenses work. The licensed contractor doesn’t even pull the permit. Someone else uses his name, his signature, and his credentials. He gets paid under the table. Someone else does the work. When it goes wrong, every name on paper points somewhere else.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
Here is my offer to the next governor
I’m starting a channel to show you how to check a company yourself: the license, the permit, and whose name is really on the job. All from public records anyone can pull.
And to whoever wins Tuesday: I’ve worked presidential advance, operations, and communications engagements with the White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services. Put me in charge of fighting construction fraud. I will help bring real change and real accountability.
Do this before anyone touches your house
Look up the license yourself at myfloridalicense.com. Make sure the name matches the person in your driveway.
Pull the permit record yourself. Know whose name is on it.
If a contractor asks you to pull an owner-builder permit, walk away. Reputable contractors pull their own.
Pay as work is finished and inspected, not ahead of it.
If it already happened to you, report it to the DBPR, even if police call it civil. Call the Unlicensed Activity Hotline at (866) 532-1440 or file online. Every complaint is a number the next governor will see.
I put everything I wish I had known into one guide: Before You Sign, at jennifermakeeff.com/before-you-sign.
Tell me your county
Leave a comment or reply to this email. Tell me your county and what you were told. I want the next governor to see how many of us there are.
Then forward this to one Florida homeowner before Tuesday. If you know anyone in the Panhandle rebuilding after Isaias, send it to them first.
Florida was supposed to be where I healed. I never imagined I would have to fight this hard for my home.
I’m still fighting.
Sources
Florida Statutes, Section 489.127, unlicensed contracting and permit prohibitions and penalties.
Florida Statutes, Section 713.345, misapplication of construction funds.
Florida DBPR, “Florida DBPR Highlights 2025 Accomplishments”, January 2026.
Rhiannon Rashidi, The Florida Trib via WLRN, “State-licensed scams: Florida regulators allow contractors accused of deception to keep licenses”, August 2026.
FOX 13 Tampa Bay, “50 unlicensed contractors busted in Hillsborough County during ‘Operation Bad Builder’”, October 2026.
Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, “Performance of the Modern Florida Building Codes,” Hurricane Ian Part II.
Scripps News via WPTV, “Florida authorities arrest 38 unlicensed contractors exploiting hurricane victims”, November 2024.
News Service of Florida via Florida Trend, “Hurricane Isaias claims top $580 million”, October 2026.
WGCU, “FEMA spent $11 billion on Hurricanes Milton and Helene combined”, January 2026.
WWSB, “FEMA recovery support in Florida tops $11 billion”, December 2025.
WFSU, “After multiple hurricanes, FEMA is borrowing billions to pay flood claims”, February 2025.
University of Colorado Boulder, summary of the National Institute of Building Sciences “Natural Hazard Mitigation Saves” study, January 2019.
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, unlicensed contractor operation press conference, November 2024.
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