Check a contractor's license in New Jersey

How to look one up

1. Ask the company for its New Jersey registration number. The law expects it on ads, business cards, work vans and paperwork, so it should be easy to find.
2. Open the Division of Consumer Affairs License Verification System, choose Business Search, and pick Home Improvement Contractors as the profession.
3. Search by the registration number, or by part of the business name plus the city if all you have is a name. The Division of Consumer Affairs' License Verification System is a real-time lookup; its Business Search finds home improvement contractor businesses by business name, license number or city and lists each one's registration number, license type, status and city.¹
4. Confirm the status reads Active and the business name matches your contract, including any LLC or Inc.
5. If a plumber, electrician or HVACR contractor is part of the job, look that person up too with the Person Search under their own board.

Does New Jersey license general contractors?

Not today. Instead of a general contractor license, New Jersey runs a mandatory registration for the businesses that remodel and repair homes. New Jersey's Contractors' Business Registration Act requires every home improvement contractor business, from a sole proprietorship up, to register with the Division of Consumer Affairs every year before selling or making home improvements, unless the law exempts it.²

The Division counts remodeling, renovating, repairing, painting and additions to residential property as home improvements, including kitchens, bathrooms, finished basements, roofing, siding, windows, doors and cabinets; building a new house is not covered.³ So a company redoing your kitchen or bath falls under this program, while a builder putting up a brand-new house answers to different rules.

New Jersey registers home improvement contractor businesses rather than licensing them, and the Division of Consumer Affairs has warned that some contractors wrongly call their registration a 'license'.⁴ If someone tells you they hold a New Jersey home improvement license, what they can actually show you is a registration number, and that number is what you look up.

That is set to change. A law signed on January 8, 2024 (P.L.2023, c.237) created the New Jersey State Board of Home Improvement and Home Elevation Contractors to license individual contractors, but its licensing requirement stays inoperative until six months after the board adopts its rules.⁵ Once that individual license takes effect, an applicant must be at least 18, have finished a registered apprenticeship or approved program or have two years of experience under a licensed contractor, pass the board's exam on state home improvement law, and complete at least six hours of continuing education for each two-year renewal.⁵ Until individual licensing is up and running, the business registration remains the record to check.

What it takes to stay registered in New Jersey

• To register or renew, a New Jersey home improvement contractor business must file proof of commercial general liability insurance, workers' compensation insurance unless the law exempts it, and an 'additional security' such as a compliance bond, an irrevocable bank letter of credit, or other security the Division accepts.²
• The liability policy has to be at least $500,000² for each occurrence.
• The additional security must be at least $10,000 for a business whose contracts are under $10,000 (or under $150,000 over the prior 12 months), $25,000 for contracts from $10,000 to $120,000 (or $150,000 to $750,000 over 12 months), and $50,000 for a contract over $120,000 (or over $750,000 over 12 months).²
• A New Jersey home improvement contractor business registration must be renewed online by March 31 of every year.²
• Registered home improvement contractor businesses must prominently show their registration number at their places of business, in all advertisements, on business cards, on commercial vehicles and on all business documents.²
• The steps the Division lists are an application, proof of insurance, the added security and a fee. None of them tests anyone's trade skills, so a registration tells you the business is on file and covered, not how well its crew sets tile or frames a wall.

What registration does for a homeowner

• A New Jersey home improvement contract for more than $500, and any change to its terms, must be in writing and signed by all parties, and must list the contractor business's legal name, business address and registration number, include a copy of its liability insurance certificate with the insurer's phone number, and state the total price including any finance charges.⁵
• The additional security must be replenished as claims are paid, covers penalties the Division assesses, and cannot be used for treble damages awarded under the Consumer Fraud Act.²
• A home improvement contractor business that is required to register but hasn't, including one that let its registration lapse, may not sell or make home improvements in New Jersey; it faces civil penalties and can be denied registration later, and knowingly violating the Act can be a crime of the fourth degree.²
• Homeowners can file a complaint about a home improvement contractor with the Division of Consumer Affairs online or by mailing its complaint form, but if the complaint is anonymous the Division can't update the homeowner or obtain restitution for them.⁶

Plumbers, electricians and HVACR contractors in New Jersey

• New Jersey's State Board of Examiners of Master Plumbers licenses master plumbers, who must renew their licenses every two years, and investigates plumbers who break the state's consumer protection laws.⁷
• New Jersey's Board of Examiners of Electrical Contractors requires every electrical contractor to be licensed and to hold a business permit renewed every three years, and it also registers journeyman electricians.⁸
• New Jersey's State Board of Examiners of Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors requires HVACR contractors to be licensed by the state and to renew every two years.⁹
• Because those trades answer to their own boards, they usually won't show up as home improvement businesses. People licensed or regulated by a professional board, such as master plumbers or electrical contractors, are exempt from home improvement registration when working within their profession, as are new home builders registered with the Department of Community Affairs.²