Florida Surety Bond

There are three types of surety bonds that can be required of you in Florida:

• License bonds needed for many professions such as contractors, auto dealers and agricultural dealers to operate legally.
• Contractor bonds for public construction projects.
• Court bonds required by the courts for various purposes.

It’s important that you understand how surety bonds work and that you're responsible to pay claims. You can also take a look at our guide to learn how to get bonded in Florida.

Florida requires license and permit bonds in order to get and file licenses/permits for many different professions. You can find the full list of license and permit bonds required by using our bond requirement search tool.

One of the most commonly needed license bonds is the Florida motor vehicle dealer bond required by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) to get a license in order to sell used motor vehicles. Another license bond that’s often needed is the Florida contractor license bond required by the Construction Industry Licensing Board (CILB) for contractors to get their license. If you’re a contractor, it’s possible that you need both a construction license bond and contract bonds depending on the type of work and where you’re performing it.

Getting bonded in Florida with construction bonds, such as bid bonds and performance bonds, is necessary to work on public construction projects. However, these are usually required by cities or municipalities as opposed to the state. You can learn more about what’s needed to get bonds for public construction jobs.

Surety bonds generally cost 1-15% of the required bond amount. Surety bond costs vary significantly depending on the bond amount required of you and your rate (which is the percentage of the full bond amount you must pay). You can use our bond premium calculator to get an instant estimate, or apply online to get an exact quote.

It’s possible to get bonded with credit issues, but it will depend on the bond type and how severe your credit issues are. You can get approved for most license and permit bonds regardless of your credit situation. However, it’s harder to get contract bonds with bad credit. You may be able to get approved for contract bonds with minor credit problems (you’ll likely be limited to smaller projects). Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to get contract bonds with severe credit issues such as civil judgments or large collections. As mentioned above, you’re responsible to pay bond claims, which makes finding a bonding agency that will defend you from claims crucial.

Court bonds aren’t needed as often as the bonds mentioned above, but can be required by Florida courts if you need to appeal a court decision, become a legal guardian of a minor or operate as a fiduciary of an estate.