How to check a contractor license

One rule covers this: check on the register run by the board that issued the license. 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 license 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.

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

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 license.
• 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 license 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.

In a state with no general-contractor license — 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 license.

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