How to Get a Contractor License or Registration in North Dakota

Who issues it, and who has to have it

The licensing authority is the Secretary of State. N.D.C.C. 43-07-01(5) defines "registrar" as the secretary of state, and the whole of chapter 43-07 is administered there rather than by a trade board. That is unusual and it matters practically: your contractor licence, your entity registration and your trade name all live at the same agency, and N.D.C.C. 43-07-04(3) lets a failure in one take down the other.

The trigger is a dollar figure per job. N.D.C.C. 43-07-02(1) bars acting as a contractor "when the cost, value, or price per job exceeds the sum of four thousand dollars" without a licence. The Secretary of State restates it for anyone "who engages in the business of construction" over that amount, and names subcontractors, general contractors, public contractors and nonresident contractors.

The definition of contractor in N.D.C.C. 43-07-01(1) is broad and covers repair and demolition as well as new construction, across buildings, roads, bridges, airports, dams, sewers, water and gas mains, pipelines and "every other type of structure, project, development, or improvement coming within the definition of real or personal property." N.D.C.C. 43-07-01(3) defines a nonresident contractor by reference to having no established place of business in the state, or no workforce safety and insurance reporting and contributions in the previous year, or no income tax return in the state.

Official sources: N.D.C.C. Chapter 43-07 (Contractors), published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch; North Dakota Secretary of State: Contractors licensing

Choosing the class, and the fees the statute sets

N.D.C.C. 43-07-07(1) creates four classes and limits them by the value of a single contract project rather than by trade or by annual turnover. Class A "is subject to no limitation as to the value of any single contract project." Class B may not take a single project "of a value in excess of five hundred thousand dollars," class C "three hundred thousand dollars," and class D "one hundred thousand dollars."

The fees are statutory. N.D.C.C. 43-07-07(2) sets $450 for class A, $300 for class B, $225 for class C and $100 for class D on application, and 43-07-07(3) sets renewals at $90, $60, $45 and $30. Subsection (4) directs twenty-five percent of collections to the secretary of state’s general services operating fund and the balance to the state general fund. Subsection (5) waives the fee entirely for a nonprofit "constructing or rehabilitating a single-family dwelling that will be given to or sold below the appraised value to a low-income person."

You can move between classes at renewal. N.D.C.C. 43-07-10(3) provides that where a contractor applies for renewal "under a class different from the license previously issued, the new class license may be issued upon the payment of the fee required for the issuance of the license of the class applied for," which is the higher initial fee rather than the renewal fee. Growing into class B is therefore a $300 decision made at renewal time, not a mid-year emergency.

One older citation to distrust. N.D.C.C. 43-07-05, headed "Classes of licenses," reads "Repealed by S.L. 2015, ch. 291, sec. 7" in the current chapter text. The classes live in 43-07-07 now, and any source citing 43-07-05 for class limits is citing a repealed section.

Official sources: N.D.C.C. Chapter 43-07 (Contractors), published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch; North Dakota Secretary of State: Contractors licensing

What you file, and what the registrar can ask for

N.D.C.C. 43-07-04(1) requires an applicant aged eighteen or older to submit "an application under oath containing a statement of the applicant’s experience and qualifications as a contractor," on forms the registrar prescribes, specifying the class sought. It must be accompanied by a copy of a certificate of liability insurance, which the Secretary of State requires to name the Secretary of State as certificate holder, and by "a statement from North Dakota workforce safety and insurance that the contractor has secured workforce safety and insurance coverage satisfactory to workforce safety and insurance."

The registrar may go further where it thinks it appropriate, including obtaining criminal history record information on the applicant or on the officers, members or partners of the applicant, at the applicant’s expense, from the bureau of criminal investigation or a similar entity in another state.

There is no state trade examination in chapter 43-07, and no minimum years of experience stated as a number. The statement of experience and qualifications is filed under oath and assessed by the registrar under N.D.C.C. 43-07-04.1, which allows refusal where the application "contains false or misleading information." That is a different kind of gate from a written exam and it is worth taking as seriously.

Processing has a clock. N.D.C.C. 43-07-09 gives the registrar fifteen days from the date of application to investigate and determine eligibility, and provides that no licence issues until the registrar has all necessary documentation and the fee. The licence then runs to the end of the current contractor year ending March first, with the January or February exception carrying it to March first of the following year.

Official sources: N.D.C.C. Chapter 43-07 (Contractors), published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch; North Dakota Secretary of State: Contractors licensing

Renewal, and the difference between not in good standing and expired

The renewal application under N.D.C.C. 43-07-10(1) is a report as well as a payment. It must list "each project, contract, or subcontract completed by the licensee during the preceding calendar year in this state over the amount of fifty thousand dollars and the nature of the work of each," which the registrar forwards to the state tax commissioner. It must include a current certificate of liability insurance naming the registrar as certificate holder unless one is already on file, and a certification that all payroll taxes, including North Dakota income tax, workforce safety and insurance premiums and unemployment insurance premiums, have been submitted. Those documents "need not be notarized."

The deadline is before March second, and the consequence of missing it is the sharpest sentence in the chapter. N.D.C.C. 43-07-10(3): a contractor who fails to file by "the March first deadline" is not in good standing "and the contractor is deemed to be unlicensed within the meaning of section 43-07-02." Section 43-07-02 is where the class A misdemeanor and the bar on maintaining any claim, action, suit or proceeding both live.

There is a recovery window. The registrar must notify by mail within sixty days after March first, and the contractor has until June first to renew by paying a fifty dollar penalty fee, filing the application and paying the renewal fee. A contractor who applies within ninety days of the deadline is not subject to the investigation authorised by 43-07-09. "After the June first deadline any licenses not renewed are expired."

Not in good standing has a second route in that has nothing to do with the calendar. N.D.C.C. 43-07-04(3) lets the registrar classify a licence as not in good standing, on twenty days written notice, where the contractor fails to maintain liability insurance, to file or renew a fictitious name certificate, to maintain active corporation or LLC status or foreign registration, to file or renew a trade name registration, or to maintain LLP or limited partnership registration. Subsection (4) then requires the contractor to "cease soliciting or entering new contract projects," and directs revocation if the defect is not cured within thirty days or if the contractor takes new work anyway.

Official sources: N.D.C.C. Chapter 43-07 (Contractors), published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch; North Dakota Secretary of State: Limited Liability Company (LLC)

What unlicensed contracting costs in North Dakota

Three consequences stack, and the third is the one most contractors have never heard of.

The criminal one is in N.D.C.C. 43-07-02(2): "Any person acting in the capacity of a contractor without a license is guilty of a class A misdemeanor." The civil one is in the same subsection: regardless of prosecution, and in addition to the licence fee, the registrar may assess a civil penalty after written notice "in an amount not to exceed three times the amount set forth in section 43-07-07," and "Any civil penalty must be assessed and collected before a person is issued a license." You cannot buy your way current without paying it first.

The third is the bar on suing, in N.D.C.C. 43-07-02(1): an unlicensed person may not "maintain any claim, action, suit, or proceeding in any court of this state related to the person’s business or capacity as a contractor without first having a license as provided in this chapter." That is the same class of provision as K.S.A. 50-6,123(a)(2) in Kansas, RCW 18.27.080 in Washington, ORS 701.131 in Oregon, S.C. Code 40-59-30(B) in South Carolina and Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code 7031 in California. Because 43-07-10(3) deems a contractor who missed renewal to be unlicensed for the purposes of 43-07-02, a forgotten March deadline can reach a payment dispute months later.

Separately, N.D.C.C. 43-07-02(3) creates the offence of construction fraud, covering payment obtained by intentional deception, payment taken for materials the supplier is then willfully not paid for, and willful abandonment after payment. Abandonment is defined by clock: failing substantially to commence within sixty days of a written start date or ninety days of the contract date where none was agreed, or failing to complete within ninety days of a written completion date or one hundred eighty days of the contract date. Subsection (5) grades it: under ten thousand dollars is a class C felony, more than ten thousand and up to fifty thousand a class B felony, more than fifty thousand a class A felony. Subsection (4) gives defences including full return of payment before charges were filed, a legitimate legal excuse, or factors outside the contractor’s control with substantial efforts to resolve the dispute.

On top of all that, N.D.C.C. 43-07-14(3) lets the attorney general bring a consumer fraud action under chapter 51-15 against a licensee or "any unlicensed person engaging in the business or acting in the capacity of a contractor in violation of section 43-07-02," with all the remedies and penalties of that chapter.

Official sources: N.D.C.C. Chapter 43-07 (Contractors), published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch

Electrical and plumbing are licensed separately, by their own boards

A contractor licence under chapter 43-07 is about the value of your contracts, not about your trade. The trades are licensed under their own chapters, and one of the grounds for discipline in N.D.C.C. 43-07-14(1)(e) is "Engaging in work without any trade or professional license as required for the work pursuant to local, state, or federal law." The contractor licence does not cover the trade licence, and holding one while lacking the other is itself a complaint ground.

Electrical work sits under N.D.C.C. chapter 43-09. Section 43-09-09(1) provides that "A person may not undertake or plan to undertake with another person to plan, lay out, supervise, install, make additions, make alterations, or make repairs, in the installation of wiring, apparatus, or equipment for electric light, heat, or power or for a power limited system, unless licensed by the board." Section 43-09-10 names the classes: master electrician, journeyman electrician, class B electrician and power limited electrician. Section 43-09-11 sets the ladder, including eight thousand hours for a journeyman "which experience may not be obtained in less than three years," one year as a licensed journeyman before master, and eighteen months in farmstead or residential wiring for class B.

Chapter 43-09 also carries a rule that catches contractors who intend to sub the work out. Section 43-09-09.2(1) provides that where a licence is required, "a person may not advertise to contract for electrical services without being licensed as or being associated with a class B electrician, master electrician, or power limited electrician, unless that person intends to contract the electrical services with a licensed electrical contractor." Section 43-09-16 lists who is outside the chapter entirely, including utility employees up to the first point of service attachment, telecommunications and cable staff, appliance dealers connecting appliances to an existing receptacle, and an individual installing a nonelectrical system.

Plumbing sits under N.D.C.C. chapter 43-18, and its trigger is geographic. Section 43-18-11 provides that no person, firm, corporation or limited liability company "shall engage in the business of a master plumber, journeyman plumber, or plumber’s apprentice in any location of this state having a public system of waterworks or sewerage unless registered and licensed to do so by the board." Section 43-18-10 requires a firm installing plumbing in such a location to have a licensed master plumber in charge at all times, and adds that "In cities of less than one thousand population and in all rural areas, a licensed journeyman plumber may engage in the business of installing plumbing." Section 43-18-09 gives the state plumbing code "the force and effect of law."

We publish no electrical or plumbing board fee for North Dakota. N.D.C.C. 43-09-13 and 43-18-13 leave the amounts to the boards, and those boards publish their schedules on hosts that are not official government sites, so we do not carry the figures. Get them from the board itself.

Official sources: N.D.C.C. Chapter 43-09 (Electricians), published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch; N.D.C.C. Chapter 43-18 (Plumbing), published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch; N.D.C.C. Chapter 43-07 (Contractors), published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch

Check the official page yourself before you file or sign

North Dakota is unusually well documented compared with most states in this library: the contractor licence classes, the fees, the thresholds and the penalties are all in the statute itself rather than in an agency fee schedule, and chapter 43-07 can be read end to end in one sitting. That is a good reason to read it rather than to trust a summary, including this one.

Three limits on what you just read. We publish no bond figure, because N.D.C.C. 43-07-11 was repealed in 1995 and no bond requirement survives in the chapter. We publish no electrical or plumbing board fee, because the statutes leave those to the boards and the boards publish on hosts that are not official government sites. And we publish no unemployment insurance date or figure, and no municipal fee, bond, threshold or renewal cycle for any North Dakota city or county, because we could not source the first on an official host and our own rules bar the second while no local jurisdiction has cleared publication review.

Official sources: N.D.C.C. Chapter 43-07 (Contractors), published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch; North Dakota Secretary of State: Contractors licensing