Adams v. Department of Business and Professional Regulation

FIRST D ISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL
S TATE OF FLORIDA
_____________________________
No. 1D2025-0290
_____________________________
E DWARD A DAMS,
Appellant,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF B USINESS AND
PROFESSIONAL R EGULATION ,
Appellee.
_____________________________
On appeal from the Department of Business and Professional
Regulation.
Melanie S. Griffin, Secretary.
April 29, 2026
O STERHAUS, C.J.
Edward 	Adams 	challenges 	the 	administrative 	fine 	levied
against 	him 	by 	the 	Florida 	Department 	of 	Business 	and
Professional Regulation arising from his company’s installation of
a vinyl pool liner for a customer without the required contracting
license. He argues that § 489.103(6), Florida Statutes, exempted
his 	work 	from 	requiring 	a 	contracting 	license 	such 	that 	the
Department’s order should be reversed. We affirm.
The basic facts of this case are undisputed. A client hired
Adams’s company, Vinyl Pools R Us, to convert her fiberglass
swimming pool to a vinyl-lined pool. This conversion involved the
installation of custom-made vinyl liner on a track at the top of the

2
pool from which it would then drape down over the original
fiberglass. The client’s dissatisfaction with the work led to a
complaint and to the Department’s investigation of Adams under
state laws that regulate unlicensed contracting. See § 489.13(1),
Fla. Stat. (2025) (“Any person performing an activity requiring
licensure under this part as a construction contractor is guilty of
unlicensed contracting if he or she does not hold a valid active
certificate or registration authorizing him or her to perform such
activity[.]”). After an informal hearing before a Departmental
hearing officer, the recommended order concluded that Adams and
his 	company 	were 	not 	registered 	or 	certified 	to 	perform 	the
swimming pool work under chapter 489, Florida Statutes, and its
corresponding 	regulations. 	The 	hearing 	officer 	recommended
administrative fines, including $4,000 for having violated state
licensure 	rules 	and 	$145.73 	in 	investigative 	costs. 	The
Department’s final order adopted the hearing officer’s factual
findings and legal conclusions and ordered Adams to pay fines
totaling $4,145.73. Adams then appealed.
On appeal, Adams makes two arguments. He argues first that
a licensing exemption in § 489.103(6) applied to his work because
the vinyl pool liner was only a temporary and transitory cosmetic
covering that wasn’t “fabricated into” the pool. Nor did it become a
“permanent fixed part of the [pool’s] structure.” The relevant
exemption reads:
(6) 	The sale or installation of any finished products,
materials, 	or 	articles 	of 	merchandise 	that 	are 	not
fabricated into and do not become a permanent fixed part
of 	the 	structure, 	such 	as 	awnings. 	However, 	this
subsection 	does 	not 	exempt 	in-ground 	spas 	and
swimming 	pools 	that 	involve 	excavation, 	plumbing,
chemicals, or wiring of any appliance without a factory-
installed electrical cord and plug.
The record, however, doesn’t support Adams’s argument for
the exemption. According to Adams’s testimony at the informal
hearing, the vinyl liner was installed into the pool by being affixed
within a track at the top of the pool, draping down to hold the pool’s
water. He explained that the liner “comports to the shallow end of
the pool, the slope, and the deep end of the pool, the side walls. And

3
if there’s steps or swim-outs, all the liner contorts to all of that.” In
other words, the testimony confirmed that the track and liner were
“fabricated into” to the pool. Id.; see also Fabricated, American
Heritage 	Dictionary 	of 	the 	English 	Language 	(5th 	ed. 	2022),
https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=fabricated
(“To make; create. [Or to] construct by combining or assembling
diverse, typically standardized parts”); § 489.103(12), Fla. Stat.
(distinguishing between a “person who only furnishes material or
supplies” and one who “fabricat[es] them into, or consum[es] them
in the performance of [the work]”). Adams further acknowledged
that a defective liner would cause water to leak from the pool into
the earth. In other words, vinyl-lined pools cannot function as
swimming pools without the sort of liner that Adams installed
here. Because the liner’s capacity to hold water was vital to the
swimming 	pool’s 	ability 	to 	serve 	its 	very 	purpose, 	we 	reject
Adams’s 	argument 	that, 	once 	installed, 	the 	vinyl 	liner 	didn’t
become a “permanent fixed part of the structure” of the pool under
§ 489.103(6).
Finally, 	we 	find 	no 	fault 	with 	how 	the 	Department’s
administrative rule addresses certification standards for pool-
related contractors. Fla. Admin. Code R. 61G4-15.032. Florida law
requires both structural and non-structural swimming pool work
to be completed by a contractor unless it is exempt for the reasons
discussed 	above. 	§ 489.113(3)(c), 	Fla. 	Stat. 	The 	Legislature
delegated 	rulemaking 	authority 	to 	the 	Construction 	Industry
Licensing Board “to adopt rules . . . to implement the provisions of
this chapter conferring duties upon it.” § 489.108, Fla. Stat.; see
also §§ 489.105 & 489.107, Fla. Stat. The Rule’s provision for
“Swimming 	Pool 	Structural 	Specialty 	Contractors” 	does 	not
contradict the statutory scheme by including the “installation of .
. . vinyl liners” within the scope of work that must be performed by
an appropriately credentialed contractor. Fla. Admin. Code R.
61G4-15.032(2)(b). The Rule neither expands the exercise of the
Department’s delegated legislative authority nor contradicts the
exemption 	contained 	in 	§ 489.103(6). 	We 	thus 	reject 	Adams’s
administrative code-based arguments.
A FFIRMED.
R OBERTS and B ILBREY , JJ., concur.

4
_____________________________
Not 	final 	until 	disposition 	of 	any 	timely 	and
authorized motion under Fla. R. App. P. 9.330 or
9.331.
_____________________________
John Nicholas 	Bogdanoff of 	the Carlyle Appellate 	Law 	Firm,
Daytona Beach, for Appellant.
Matthew 	Harrison 	Mears, 	Chief 	Appellate 	Counsel, 	Brooke
Elizabeth Adams, Chief Appellate Counsel, and Andrew Fier,
General 	Counsel, 	Department 	of 	Business 	and 	Professional
Regulation; Maureen Yvonne White, Chief Attorney, Division of
Real Estate, Department of Business and Professional Regulation;
and 	Roberta 	F. 	Katz 	of 	the 	Department 	of 	Business 	and
Professional Regulation, Tallahassee; for Appellee.