The title of this post says it all. No need for a catchy story about my kids or a play on words. In what had been an often debated issue in trial courts across Tennessee, the Court of Appeals recently weighed in on the issue of whether an underlicensed contractor (one who contracts beyond the monetary limitation of its license) can form the basis of a claim under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), Tenn. Code Ann. 47-18-101 et seq.

The Setup. In Zelenik v. Crowell Homebuilding LLC, (Aug. 14, 2025), the Court held that a contractor that exceeds its monetary licensing limit at the time of contracting violates the Contractor’s Licensing Act (“CLA”), Tenn. Code Ann. 62-6-101 to -139 (2019 & Supp. 2024). The Court went on to hold that the trial court properly held that a violation of the CLA, in turn, constituted a violation of the TCPA.