Led contamination risk is definitely more serious than HOA-hellhole

> if they don’t have a license or permit, how can you verify they are following best practice?

What exactly do you think licenses/permits guarantee? At best, an inspector knows the least responsible crews and checks in on them more often. That's about it.

The only way you can actually verify someone is following best practices is to know what those practices are and observe their behavior. By expressing a belief that permitted professionals somehow automatically conform and DIYers automatically do not, one indicates that one has no idea what best practices actually are but yet feels qualified to judge anyway.

Licenses confirm that the person doing the work is trained in the best practices + safety for the work that they are doing. Permits ensure that they have filed a plan with the city/state that matches safety regulations, and that this plan is available for the public to review and comment on. It doesn't guarantee automatic conformity, but it shows that their plans have been confirmed _and_ provides an avenue to verify that they are conforming to those plans.

I can't confirm everything that a doctor does either, but I'd still much rather see a licensed one than an unlicensed one.