Licensee-in-charge

Definition

The individual whose personal license the business itself operates under.

Why It Matters

Several trades will not issue an operating permit without one, so the seller is often the person named and the license can lapse at closing unless a qualified replacement is on file the same day. That makes it a closing condition and not a first-week task: the business stops trading, not merely stops complying. Ask early who is named, whether they are staying, and what the board requires of a successor, because some trades want years of licensed experience nobody can shorten.