Searching for a contractor or a licence number: consult the Licence holders' repertory.
Searching for a contractor or a licence number: consult the Licence holders' repertory.
COVID-19: Answers to your questions [Fr]. Please note that Montréal’s service point is closed. However, examinations are still on.
According to our language policy, only certain contents may be translated. Visit the French version to obtain all the information.
Construction contractors sometimes form partnerships for the purpose of carrying out work on a single, generally large-scale, construction project. Everyday language uses "consortium" or "joint venture" to designate these partnerships, which can be general or undeclared partnerships, with or without a written contract.
Under section 3.2.5 of the Regulation respecting the application of the Building Act, a contractor partnership is exempt from the obligation of holding a licence where the following conditions are met:
The planned work is authorized by the following licence subclasses:
Each of the contractors who are members of the general or undeclared partnership must hold a general contractor's licence covering the entire project.
The tender documents for the construction project require the successful bidder to provide a contract performance guarantee and a labour, material and services payment guarantee (e.g. security, certified cheque).
All of these conditions must be met in order to qualify for the exemption.
If this is not the case, your contractor partnership will need a licence to bid on the project and to carry out the project work, or have it carried out.
You believe that your partnership meets all of the conditions set out in section 3.2.5 of the Regulation respecting the application of the Building Act, and you therefore intend to bid on a project without applying for a contractor's licence?
Beware! Before you bid, make sure your file contains all the necessary documents clearly showing that this exemption applies. The client could require these documents in order to verify that the bids submitted are compliant.
In particular, your file should contain the following:
The general partnership must, during the course of its activities, indicate its legal form of business organization, either as part of its legal name or following it. Note that a general partnership, over and above any ground for dissolution provided for by the contract, is dissolved by the attainment of its object or the impossibility of attaining it, or with the consent of all partners.
An undeclared partnership, over and above its termination with the consent of all its partners, ceases with the advent of its term or the occurrence of the condition appended to the contract, through the attainment of the object of the contract or the impossibility thereof.
Lastly, even if the exemption does apply to your partnership, it is essential that you read the tender documents carefully, particularly any clause pertaining to licences issued by the Régie du bâtiment du Québec. The client could indeed require that any bidder hold a building contractor's licence, even in the case of a partnership to which the exemption set out in section 3.2.5 applies.