How to check a contractor licence

§ 1Where to look

One rule covers this: check on the register run by the board that issued the licence. Nothing else counts. A profile on a lead-generation site, a badge on a company website and a screenshot in a text message are all reproductions, and reproductions go stale the day a licence lapses.

Our lookup directory lists each state board’s own search page and says what its record returns, so you can go straight to the source instead of through a search engine.

§ 2Reading the record

Four fields decide whether a licence is any use to you today.

What to read on a licence record
Field	What good looks like	What should stop you
Status	Active	Inactive, suspended, expired, revoked
Classification	Covers the work you are buying	A class that does not include your job
Bond	On file, current	Cancelled, or a gap in the dates
Expiry	Comfortably after your completion date	Expiring mid-project

Match the name, not just the number.

A live number belonging to a different legal entity is the oldest trick in this trade. The name on the register must be the name on your contract and on the certificate of insurance — all three, or none.

§ 3What it does not show

A clean record is a floor, not a recommendation. Registers are administrative: they record whether the paperwork is in order, and in most states they record formal disciplinary actions once those have concluded.

Complaints in progress generally do not appear until they are resolved.
Civil judgments live in court records, not on the licence.
Insurance is separate: a bond on file is not general liability, and a board rarely publishes a contractor’s GL limits. Ask for the certificate.
Who will actually be on site is a contract question. The licence belongs to the entity, not to the crew.

The bond is the clearest example of the gap. California’s $25,000 contractor bond is a consumer-protection instrument, and it is small against most residential remodels. It is not the contractor’s liability cover and it should never be read as one — see our bond versus liability comparison.

§ 4States with no register

In a state with no general-contractor licence — Texas is the clearest case — there is no statewide record to check. Verification moves to three other documents: the city or county registration, the certificate of insurance, and, for the licensed trades, the state trade licence.

That last one is the piece people forget. Even where nobody licenses the general, the electrical and mechanical work on the job is licensed at state level, and those numbers are searchable.