The three checks
| Check | Where | What to look for | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| License or registration | Your state board (table below); in some states the city | Status "Active", the class covers your job, the name matches the contract | 3 minutes |
| Permit history | Our firm pages, by name (all cities); the city portal for any single permit | Permits in your trade, the share that reached a final, usual job value | 5 minutes |
| Insurance | A certificate of insurance from the contractor, then a call to the insurer | Liability and workers' comp, current dates, your name as certificate holder | 2 minutes and a phone call |
The order matters less than doing all three. A licensed firm can still have a poor permit record, and a firm with a long permit record can let its license lapse. Seattle electrical shows both at once: 82.6% of firms matched an active L&I license and the file as a whole finished 94.6% of permits, but 77 firms matched a license that was no longer current.
Where to check a license, state by state
The lookup is free in every state below. "Our guide" explains what each board's record shows and who it covers.
| State | Who licenses contractors | Lookup | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Registrar of Contractors, every contractor | ROC Contractor Search | Arizona |
| California | CSLB, every contractor | Check a License | California |
| Colorado | No state GC license; DORA for electricians and plumbers; cities for the rest | DORA Verify a License | Colorado |
| Florida | DBPR, Construction Industry Licensing Board | Verify a License | Florida |
| Hawaii | DCCA Professional and Vocational Licensing | Public license search | Hawaii |
| Illinois | No state GC license; IDFPR for roofers; Chicago licenses GCs | IDFPR lookup | Illinois |
| Iowa | Registration with DIAL ($2,000 a year from construction) | Iowa Labor Portal search | Iowa |
| Massachusetts | Construction Supervisor License plus HIC registration | OPSI license verification | Massachusetts |
| Minnesota | DLI, residential building contractors and roofers | License and registration lookup | Minnesota |
| Missouri | No state GC license; cities (St. Louis) | City of St. Louis License Collector | Missouri |
| Nevada | State Contractors Board, with a monetary limit per license | License Search | Nevada |
| New Mexico | Construction Industries Division, via PSI | RLD Verify a License | New Mexico |
| New York | No state license; counties and cities (NYC DCWP and DOB) | NYC DCWP license search | New York |
| North Carolina | Three boards: general, electrical, plumbing/heating | NCLBGC search | North Carolina |
| North Dakota | Secretary of State, any job over $4,000 | FirstStop contractor search | North Dakota |
| Ohio | No state GC license; OCILB for five trades; cities register the rest | OCILB lookup | Ohio |
| Oregon | Construction Contractors Board, every contractor | CCB License Search | Oregon |
| Pennsylvania | Registration with the Attorney General ($5,000 a year of home improvements) | HIC search | Pennsylvania |
| Tennessee | Board for Licensing Contractors | verify.tn.gov | Tennessee |
| Texas | No state GC license; TDLR for electricians and A/C; TSBPE for plumbers | TDLR License Search | Texas |
| Utah | DOPL, by classification | Verify a License | Utah |
| Vermont | OPR registration for residential jobs over $10,000 | OPR lookup | Vermont |
| Virginia | DPOR Board for Contractors, Class A/B/C | License Lookup | Virginia |
| Washington | L&I registration, every contractor | Verify | Washington |
Seven of the 24 have no statewide license for general contractors: Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. Pennsylvania registers home-improvement contractors instead. The Illinois Attorney General says the state does not require general contractors to hold a license; New York's Department of State says "New York State does not license home improvement contractors"; Ohio's OCILB says "In Ohio, residential contractors are not required to be licensed." In those states the permit history carries more of the weight.
What each lookup shows (and does not)
Boards differ in how much they put on the record. Washington's L&I Verify shows registration, bond, insurance, workers' comp, "lawsuits against their bond" and "safety or construction citations". Oregon's CCB shows whether the contractor "is actively licensed and has a surety bond", "submitted proof of liability insurance" and any "complaints or disciplinary actions filed with the CCB in the past 10 years". California's CSLB lookup includes complaint disclosure. Nevada adds the monetary limit, the largest contract the firm may take for one client on one site (NRS 624.220), and Virginia the class: a Class C firm's ceiling is a single job under $30,000.
None of them shows the permits a firm pulled or whether its jobs passed inspection. That record sits with the city.
Reading the permit history
On a firm page, read the trade that matches your job. These are the city-wide spreads to compare against:
| City and trade | Permits | Finished, all firms | Firms with 10+ permits | 10th to 90th percentile firm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minneapolis roofing | 18,620 | 93.0% | 351 | 75.6% to 98.8% |
| Austin HVAC | 18,237 | 80.7% | 167 | 60.3% to 96.2% |
| Seattle electrical | 15,130 | 94.6% | 252 | 85.1% to 99.0% |
| Miami plumbing | 7,927 | 90.8% | 84 | 79.5% to 98.0% |
| San Francisco remodel | 5,126 | 81.9% | 67 | 66.9% to 92.6% |
A firm near the bottom of its city's spread has more open or expired permits than its peers. Ask about them by permit number; an honest answer is usually quick ("the owner never booked the final").
See every Minneapolis roofer with license and finished share →
Check references by address, not by phone number
References a contractor hands you are chosen by the contractor. Addresses are not. Ask for three street addresses of jobs like yours from the last year, then search each one on the city's permit portal (official search for each city) and look for a permit in the firm's name, of your job type, with a final inspection. A permit that names a different company, or no permit at all for work that needs one, is the answer to follow up.
Expect some firms to have little to show. Among Seattle heat-pump installers, 16.5% pulled exactly one heat-pump permit in three years; among Minneapolis roofers, 563 firms did. One permit is one job you can look at, not a bad sign. The questions-to-ask guide has the rest of the list.
Insurance: the check no public record does for you
Outside Oregon and Washington, the lookups above do not show liability insurance. Ask the contractor's agent to send a certificate of insurance directly to you, with you named as certificate holder, then phone the insurer on the certificate and confirm the policy number and dates. Our bonded vs insured guide explains which covers what.
Limits of what we show
We match permits to licenses by business name and, where the city records it, license number. "No match found" is not the same as unlicensed: permits often carry a trading name. License status is the board's on our snapshot date, and the board's own lookup is the live record. Several of our cities (Chicago, Colorado Springs, Cleveland, Greensboro, Raleigh and others) are not yet matched to a license file at all, so their pages show no license status.
How we know this
License shares are the share of firms in our permit file whose name matched an active record in the state register on the snapshot date; "no longer current" counts matches to expired, suspended, revoked or similar records. Board names, lookups and the quoted lines on what each record shows come from the boards' own pages, read 20 October 2026 for our state guides, which give the full sources.
Numbers come from public permit records in 53 cities, data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Questions
- Is a business license the same as a contractor license?
No. A city business license or tax registration says the company may trade there. A contractor license (or registration) comes from a state board or, in states without one, from the city's building department, and it is the one tied to bonds, insurance and discipline.
- My state has no contractor license. What do I check?
Three things: the trade licenses the state does issue (electricians and plumbers almost everywhere), any city license where the work is (Chicago and New York City run their own), and the permit history. In Texas, which has no state license for general contractors or roofers, only 4.9% of Austin remodel firms match any active Texas license, because there is none to match.
- Does a license mean the contractor is insured?
Not everywhere. Oregon's CCB record shows whether the contractor submitted proof of liability insurance and carries workers' comp. Most other lookups do not show liability insurance. Ask for a certificate of insurance naming you, and call the insurer on the certificate to confirm it is current.
- How do I check complaints?
On the same board in most states. Minnesota's lookup shows "whether enforcement actions exist against a license"; Oregon's shows complaints filed in the past 10 years; Washington's shows lawsuits against the bond. Hawaii keeps complaints in a separate RICO search.
- How do I verify a contractor is legitimate and properly vet them before hiring?
Three checks, about five minutes each: the licence number on the state board's lookup (status, class and bond), the firm's permits on your city's portal or our compare pages (how many jobs like yours, and how many reached a final), and a certificate of insurance sent by the insurer. Re-check the licence before the first payment: licences lapse and bonds get cancelled, and Washington L&I updates its records each weekday by 5 a.m. Pacific.
- The name on the license doesn't match the name on the quote. Is that a problem?
Ask before you sign. A trading name ("ABC Roofing") on a license held by "ABC Roofing & Exteriors LLC" is ordinary; a different company or a person's name is not. The contract, the license and the permit should all carry the same business, because the bond and the board's complaint process follow the license holder, not whoever printed the quote.
Build your own list
Pick your city and the kind of work. Every firm with a permit on record, sorted by what you value.
Related guides
- Check a License — CSLB (2026-10-20)
- Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business — Washington L&I (2026-10-20)
- Consumer Tools — Oregon Construction Contractors Board (2026-10-20)
- Verify a License — DBPR Online Services (2026-10-20)
- License and registration lookup — Minnesota DLI (2026-10-20)
- License Lookup — Virginia DPOR (2026-10-20)
- Contractor License Search — Nevada State Contractors Board (2026-10-20)
- Contractor Search — Arizona Registrar of Contractors (2026-10-20)
- License Search — Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (2026-10-20)
- Tennessee license search (verify.tn.gov) (2026-10-20)
- Verify a License — Utah Division of Professional Licensing (2026-10-20)
- Verify License Search — NC Licensing Board for General Contractors (2026-10-20)
- Verify a Contractor's HICPA Registration — Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General (2026-10-20)
- NYS Department of State: home improvement contractors (May 2026; accessed 2026-10-20)
- Verifying licensed contractors — Ohio Division of Industrial Compliance (OCILB) (2026-10-20)
- Home Repair and Construction: How to Choose a Contractor — Illinois Attorney General (2026-10-20)
- Contractor registration public search — Iowa Labor Portal (2026-10-20)
- Contractors — North Dakota Secretary of State (2026-10-20)
- Public license search — Hawaii DCCA Professional and Vocational Licensing (2026-10-20)
- Verify a License — New Mexico Regulation & Licensing Department (2026-10-20)