Washington State law (RCW 39.04.350) requires that bidders be registered as of the bid submittal deadline, and that a public agency may not award a public works contract to a contractor that was not registered as of the bid submittal deadline (one of many mandatory bidder responsibility criteria).One Firm Registered: If a joint venture is the entity submitting a public works bid, the joint venture, which is a separate legal entity, does not necessarily need to be separately registered as a contractor as of the bid submittal deadline. RCW 18.27.065 states the following:
"A partnership or joint venture shall be deemed registered under this chapter if any one of the general partners or venturers whose name appears in the name under which the partnership or venture does business is registered."
There are two possible situations that may arise:
- Venturer Name in JV Entity Name: If ABC Construction was a registered contractor and submitted a bid as "ABC Construction/XYZ Construction, A Joint Venture," the registration of ABC Construction would be sufficient to for the joint venture to be registered, because the name of ABC Construction is included in the name of the joint venture.
- Venturer Name Not in JV Entity Name: If, however, ABC Construction was a registered contractor and entered into a joint venture with XYZ Construction under the joint venture name of "Alphabet Construction, A Joint Venture," the registration of ABC Construction would not be sufficient to register Alphabet Construction as a contractor. ABC Construction's name would need to be included in the name of the joint venture, or Alphabet Construction would need to be separately registered as a contractor.
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3 comments:
Your comment at the end of the post to check each state's laws is critical. Each state certainly treats this issue differently.
Louisiana, for example, is exactly the opposite.
This, from the LA State Board of Contractor's Website:
I want to do a joint venture with a licensed Louisiana contractor. How does that work?
All parties in a joint venture are required to be licensed at the time the bid is submitted. Each party to the joint venture may only perform within the applicable classifications of the work of which he is properly classified to perform (Section 1103 of the Rules and Regulations of the Board).
link to FAQ here.
We talk about construction licensing in Louisiana and Washington on the Construction Law Monitor.
We are a construction company who wants to form a joint venture with a licensed plumbing compnay in Louisiana because they are licend to do plmbing and we are not. Can we make this happen.
Marcia, I suggest you contact an attorney to help you with your joint venture formation. Scott Wolfe Jr., who practices in Louisiana, should be able to help you. Here's his website address that includes contact information: http://www.wolfelaw.com/.
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