Check it yourself, on the state's own system, before any money moves. And know what you are checking, because "licensed" is not one thing in this country: 26 states run a statewide license for general contracting, 11 run a registration instead, and 14 have no statewide general contractor license at all. In that last group a contractor can say "licensed and insured" and be telling the truth about something entirely different.
SiteKiln is written for contractors. This page is for you, the homeowner. It is general information, not legal advice.
Three different systems, and they are not the same promise
Contractor licensing is state law, so there is no national register and no single meaning to the word. Counted across all 51 jurisdictions in our own dataset:
| What the state runs | How many | What it actually tells you |
|---|---|---|
| A statewide license for general contracting | 26 | Someone assessed competence, usually a trade exam plus a financial or bond requirement |
| A statewide registration | 11 | The contractor filed paperwork and usually posted a bond or insurance. It is a record, not an exam |
| No statewide general contractor license | 14 | Nothing at state level for general contracting. Individual trades are usually still licensed |
A registration is a filing, not a competence test. That is not a criticism of registration states, it is just what the document means. Someone who is registered has told the state they exist and, in most of those states, carried insurance or a bond. Nobody has tested whether they can build a wall.
The fourteen states where "no statewide license" is the correct answer
If your job is in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas or Wyoming, there is no statewide general contractor license to look up. This surprises people, and it is not a loophole. It is a deliberate choice by those legislatures to license at city or county level, or to license only the trades where the risk is highest.
Two things follow from it, and both matter to you.
First, the trades usually ARE licensed statewide even where general contracting is not. Texas licenses electricians and HVAC through TDLR and plumbers through the state plumbing board. Missouri's only statewide contractor license is electrical. Ohio licenses five commercial trades. Illinois licenses roofing statewide with no dollar figure at all, and Kansas registers roofers through the Attorney General above a threshold. So in a no-statewide-license state you should still expect a real, checkable, statewide credential for the electrician and the plumber, and you should ask for it.
Second, the check moves to the city or the county. A local licensing office, a business license, a permit history. It is more work than typing a number into a state website, and it is the only check available.
The dollar figure that triggers a license, and why it is not comparable between states
Most licensing states have a threshold: below it, no license is required. People assume these figures are roughly the same idea with different numbers. They are not. Our dataset records what each figure MEASURES, and no two states measure the same thing.
| State | Threshold | What the figure measures |
|---|---|---|
| California | $1,000 or more | The aggregate contract price for one project, labor and materials, and splitting a job to get under it is blocked by statute |
| Arizona | $1,000 or more, or any work needing a building permit | Aggregate contract price for one undertaking, with an anti-evasion rule |
| Nevada | Repair or maintenance under $1,000 is exempt | The VALUE of the work, not the contract price. A cheap price on valuable work does not buy the exemption |
| North Carolina | $40,000 or more | The cost of the undertaking, EXCLUDING the cost of land |
| Georgia | Residential above $2,500 | The value of the work OR the compensation, whichever is HIGHER |
| South Carolina | Commercial above $10,000, residential builder above $5,000 | Total cost of construction, meaning what the owner and every contractor and subcontractor spends |
| Utah | Small-job exemption under $7,000 | The agreed value including labor, materials, AND all change orders |
| Louisiana | Home improvement $7,500 or more | The entire cost of labor, materials and rentals, regardless of who pays it or whether it was donated |
| Virginia | Above $1,000 | Fair market value. The contract price is only prima facie evidence of that value |
Read the Utah and Louisiana rows again. In Utah, a job quoted under the exemption that grows past it through change orders needs a license by the end. In Louisiana, materials you bought yourself, and even donated work, count toward the figure. If you are hiring near a threshold, the number on the estimate is not the number the state is measuring.
Our checker does this lookup for you. "Do I Need a Contractor License?" at /tools/contractor-license-checker gives your state's requirement, the dollar threshold and who issues it. It is written for contractors, and it answers the homeowner's question just as well.
What to actually check, in order
- Get the license number in writing, from the contractor, before you look anything up. Not read out on the phone, not off a truck door or a magnet. A number you typed in yourself from a written quote is a number you can trace back.
- Look it up on the issuing board's own site. Not a directory, not a review site, not a badge on their web page. The board's system is the only record that is current.
- Check it is ACTIVE, not expired, suspended or lapsed. An expired license and no license are the same thing to most courts, and in several states working on a lapsed license carries the same consequences as never having had one.
- Check the CLASSIFICATION covers your work. A license is usually issued for a class of work. A residential builder classification does not automatically cover a commercial job, and a specialty classification does not cover general contracting. Virginia goes further and issues Class A, B and C by project value, with a second ladder based on 12-month totals, so a Class C contractor is not licensed for a large job at all.
- Check the NAME matches the business on your contract and the name on your check. A license belongs to an entity or a qualifying individual. If the paperwork says one company and the license says another, ask why before you accept the answer.
- Check the bond or insurance the state requires is in place, where it publishes that. Several registration states exist mainly to make sure that bond is real.
Why an unlicensed contractor is your problem, not just theirs
The consequences of unlicensed contracting fall hardest on the contractor. In several states they cannot sue you for payment at all, and California goes further and lets a customer recover everything already paid.
That sounds like it is in your favor and it is worth understanding why it usually is not.
- Your insurer may take a view. A claim arising from work that required a license and was done without one is a conversation you do not want to have.
- Permits and inspections may be unavailable, because in most jurisdictions the permit requires a licensed contractor or an owner-builder declaration you would be signing yourself.
- When you sell, it surfaces. Unpermitted or improperly permitted work shows up in disclosure and in survey, and it is a price negotiation you will lose.
- The recovery funds usually require a license. Several states run a homeowner recovery or guaranty fund that pays out when a contractor causes loss. They generally only cover work done by a LICENSED contractor, so hiring outside the system puts you outside the safety net that exists for you.
Common questions
How do I check if a contractor is licensed?
Get the number in writing, then look it up on the issuing state board's own system. Check three things: that it is real, that it is currently active, and that the classification covers the work you are hiring for.
What if my state has no contractor license?
Fourteen states run no statewide general contractor license. Check at city or county level instead, and still expect a statewide credential for the electrician, plumber and HVAC contractor, because most of those states license the individual trades.
Is a registered contractor the same as a licensed one?
No. Eleven states run registration rather than licensing. Registration is a filing, usually with a bond or insurance requirement behind it. It records that the contractor exists. It does not mean anyone tested their competence.
Does a small job need a licensed contractor?
It depends on your state's threshold, and the thresholds are not comparable. Nevada measures the value of the work rather than the price, Utah counts change orders, and Louisiana counts materials regardless of who paid for them.
Can a contractor split a job to stay under the license threshold?
Not in the states that thought of it. California and Arizona both write anti-evasion rules into the statute, and Georgia measures the higher of the work's value or the compensation, which closes the same gap from the other side.
Does an expired license still count?
Treat it as no license. Most boards and courts do. In several states working on a lapsed license carries the same consequences as never holding one, including losing the right to sue for payment.
Where these figures come from
The counts and thresholds on this page are read from SiteKiln's own 51-state contractor licensing dataset, in which every row carries a last-verified stamp naming the source that was read and the date it was read.
The three-way split of 26 statewide licenses, 11 registrations and 14 with no statewide general contractor license was counted across all 51 rows. What each dollar figure measures is recorded per state as its own field, because the statutes genuinely differ on it, and that field is quoted rather than summarized here.
The honest bit
Most contractors reading this are licensed, current and correctly classified, and find the whole subject slightly insulting. They are right to. Checking a license is not an accusation, it is the same thing you would do with any professional you had not met before, and a good contractor will hand you the number without being asked.
What we would push back on is the idea that a license is a guarantee. It is a floor, not a ceiling. It tells you somebody met a standard on a day in the past. It tells you nothing about whether they turn up, whether they clean up, or whether they will still answer the phone in year three when something needs looking at.
The license check takes ten minutes and rules out a category of disaster. Everything else you learn from references, from previous work you can go and look at, and from how they behave before there is any money on the table.
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