Florida contractor license requirements
What you need before your first paid job in Florida, one page for each trade. The license, the least insurance you must carry, whether the state asks for a bond, when you charge sales tax, and the deadlines that protect your right to be paid.
Plumbing in Florida
- License you need
- Certified Plumbing Contractor Renew Biennial, expires Aug 31 of even-numbered years
- Insurance you must carry
- $100,000 plus $25,000 for property damage
- Workers' comp
- Required as soon as you hire anyone
- Florida's minimum insurance for a plumbing contractor is $100,000 for injury and $25,000 for property damage. Many websites say $300,000. That is the figure for general and building contractors in the same rule.
- Florida checks your credit before it licenses you. You need a FICO score of 660, or you take a 14-hour course instead.
HVAC in Florida
- License you need
- Certified Air Conditioning Contractor, Class A Renew Biennial
- Insurance you must carry
- $100,000 plus $25,000 for property damage
- Workers' comp
- Required as soon as you hire anyone
- Florida's minimum insurance for an HVAC contractor is $100,000 for injury and $25,000 for property damage. Many insurance websites say $300,000. That is the figure for general and building contractors in the same rule.
- Class A lets you work on any size system. Class B stops at 25 tons of cooling and 500,000 BTU of heating. Both need the same insurance.
Electrical in Florida
- License you need
- Certified Electrical Contractor Renew Every 2 years
- Insurance you must carry
- $100,000 plus $500,000 for property damage
- Workers' comp
- Required as soon as you hire anyone
- Electricians answer to a different board from plumbers and air conditioning contractors. The Electrical Contractors' Licensing Board runs it, under part II of chapter 489 rather than part I.
- The insurance rule is much bigger than the one for the other trades. You attest to $100,000 per person and $300,000 per claim for injury, plus $500,000 property damage, or one combined limit of $800,000.
Across states
Sales tax on labor for plumbers and HVAC contractors by state. Which states tax the work itself, which tax only the parts, and how a repair differs from a new install.