North Carolina contractor license requirements
What you need before your first paid job in North Carolina, 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 North Carolina
- License you need
- Plumbing Contractor, Class I Renew Annual. Every license expires December 31. Renew in January or pay $25 extra. After three years unrenewed you must retest
- Insurance you must carry
- No state minimum customers usually ask for $1,000,000
- Workers' comp
- Required as soon as you hire anyone
- North Carolina does not ask a plumbing contractor for liability insurance or a bond to get or keep the license. Nothing in G.S. 87 Article 2 or the Board's rules sets an insurance minimum. Websites that list one are quoting another state or a city permit rule.
- There is no continuing education. The Board dropped the requirement on December 31, 2012, and the CE rule (21 NCAC 50 .1401) is repealed.
HVAC in North Carolina
- License you need
- Heating Group No. 3 Contractor, Class I Renew Annual. Every license expires December 31. Renew in January or pay $25 extra. After three years unrenewed you must retest
- Insurance you must carry
- No state minimum customers usually ask for $1,000,000
- Workers' comp
- Required as soon as you hire anyone
- North Carolina splits HVAC into three licenses by system type, not by size of business. Heating Group 3 covers 15 tons or less and every single-family home. Anything over 15 tons is Group 2, and Group 2 has no Class II residential option. Boilers and steam or hot water heat are Group 1. Window units need no license at all.
- Replacing a whole central air conditioner, heating unit, or duct system is a capital improvement. You charge the customer no sales tax and pay tax yourself on the equipment. Replacing a coil, blower, condenser coil, control, or a section of duct is a taxable repair, and you charge tax on the whole bill, labor included.
Electrical in North Carolina
- License you need
- Limited (L) electrical contracting license Renew Every year. The license expires one year after the day it was issued, and the board sends a renewal notice about 60 days before
- Insurance you must carry
- No state minimum customers usually ask for $1,000,000
- Workers' comp
- Required as soon as you hire anyone
- Electrical has its own board. Plumbing, heating and fire sprinkler share one board; electrical contractors answer to a different one, with different rules and a different renewal date.
- Your license class is set by the size of a single job, not by your skill. Limited stops at $60,000, Intermediate at $150,000, Unlimited has no ceiling.
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.