Indiana · Electrical licensing · official-source guide
Indiana does not license electricians at state level. The Professional Licensing Agency regulates plumbing but not electrical work, and Indianapolis states plainly that there is no state electrical licence. Counties and cities license instead, under Indiana Code section 36-7-8-3. The state sets one electrical code, 675 IAC 17-1.8, which adopts the 2008 National Electrical Code.
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Verified against agency sources on 2026-09-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Indiana does not license electricians or electrical contractors at state level. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency publishes the list of professions it governs. It runs from accountancy to veterinary medicine and includes plumbing, home inspectors, manufactured home installers and engineering. Electrician and electrical contractor are not on it. The clearest statement comes from a city rather than the state. The Indianapolis Department of Business and Neighborhood Services, writing about the licences it issues, says that for electrical, HVAC and wrecking contractors licensing is at the discretion of the local municipality, and that there is no state licence for these contractors. Its Board of Electrical Examiners application repeats the point in its opening line: licensing is at the discretion of the local municipality in the state of Indiana, and there is not a state electrical licence. For plumbing the same page describes the opposite arrangement, with the state issuing the licence and the city requiring it to be registered locally. So the answer to who licenses an Indiana electrician is a county or city building department, and the answer changes when you cross a jurisdiction line. What does not change is the code. Indiana sets one statewide electrical code, restricts how far a local ordinance may depart from it, and leaves licensing, permits and inspection fees to local units. A contractor working across the state therefore carries one code and several licences.
The Fire Prevention and Building Safety Commission adopts Indiana's building and fire codes, and the Department of Homeland Security publishes the current table. For electrical the entry is 675 IAC 17-1.8, the Indiana Electrical Code, 2009 Edition, which adopts by reference NFPA 70, the National Electrical Code, 2008 Edition, First Printing. The table marks it currently in effect, with an effective date of August 26, 2009. The rules it replaced trace the same pattern backwards: 675 IAC 17-1.7 adopted the 2005 NEC and was repealed in 2009, 675 IAC 17-1.6 adopted the 2002 NEC, and so on to 675 IAC 17-1, which adopted the 1984 NEC. The Allen County Building Department publishes the same citation on its own current codes list, describing the Indiana Electrical Code, 675 IAC 17, as based on the 2008 National Electrical Code, first printing, with Indiana amendments, effective August 26, 2009. One and two family dwellings sit under a second rule as well. 675 IAC 14-4.4, the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, adopts the 2018 International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings, first printing, effective December 26, 2019, and the commission lists it as currently in effect. Where the residential rule and the electrical rule meet on a house, the local building department is the body that says which document governs a given permit, so confirm it before pricing a service change.
Indiana limits what a city or county may add. Indiana Code section 22-13-2-3 says the rules adopted under section 2 of that chapter take precedence over any conflicting state agency rule and over any ordinance or regulation of a political subdivision covering the same subject matter. Subsection (c) is blunter: a city, town or county may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the department's rules. Political subdivisions may incorporate the state rules by reference, and a reference by Indiana Administrative Code citation is read to include later amendments unless it names a specific edition or supplement. One recent addition is aimed squarely at electrical work. Indiana Code section 22-13-2-3.6, added by P.L.73-2026, provides that neither the commission nor another state agency may adopt rules requiring the installation of an arc fault circuit interrupter in a Class 2 structure or a structure classified as an R-2 building occupancy under the Indiana building code constructed after June 30, 2026. Subsection (b) applies the same bar to a political subdivision's ordinance or regulation, and subsection (c) voids any ordinance adopted before July 1, 2026 to the extent it conflicts. There is a companion bar on automatic fire sprinkler requirements in Class 2 structures at section 22-13-2-3.5. For a residential electrical contractor the effect is direct: a local inspector cannot require AFCI protection in the covered structures.
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Indiana leaves licensing to local government and gives it explicit statutory room. Indiana Code section 36-7-8-2 lets a county legislative body establish a county department of buildings with a building commissioner and inspectors. Section 36-7-8-3 lets the legislative body of a county that has a county department of buildings, or a joint city-county building department, adopt building, heating, ventilating, air conditioning, electrical, plumbing and sanitation standards for the unincorporated areas of the county, and those standards take effect only on written approval from the state. Subsection (c) makes the state rules the minimum on which those ordinances must be based. Subsection (d) exempts private homes built by individuals for their own occupancy. Section 36-7-8-10 supplies the money and the teeth: an ordinance adopted under section 3 may provide a reasonable penalty for violations, and may also include a reasonable fee for permits, registration, renewal, examination and reexamination. That single sentence is the statutory basis for local electrician examination fees and local licence renewals across Indiana. Section 36-7-8-7 lets municipalities and counties designate enforcement agencies, and section 36-7-8-8 addresses enforcement by a city inside a county. Indiana Code section 22-13-2-9 removes local power over a short list of subjects, namely amusement devices, boilers, lifting devices and pressure vessels. Electrical licensing is not on that list, which is why Indianapolis and Allen County can both run examining boards.
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The Department of Business and Neighborhood Services licenses individuals and businesses engaged in construction activity within the Consolidated City of Indianapolis. It does not cover the excluded cities of Lawrence, Beech Grove, Speedway and Southport, which run their own arrangements. The licence types the department issues are general, electrical, heating and cooling, wrecking and plumbing. Section 875-201 of the Revised Code requires a person, partnership or corporation to be licensed as an electrical contractor to connect electrical power for onsite construction, to install, alter, replace, service or repair a system distributing electrical power, to service equipment supplying power to factory constructed dwellings located in a mobile home park, and to install, modernize, replace, service or repair all or any part of an electrical power distribution system. The Board of Electrical Examiners application adds a scope note that matters for work mix: an electrical contractor is also entitled to install, modernize, replace, service or repair space heating or space cooling equipment using electricity as its primary source of energy, excluding work on any refrigerant cycle. Licensing is two sided. The business holds a company licence and at least one individual holds a craft licence, and the craft licence holder must be connected to a business licence. Section 875-215(1) of the Revised Code bars a craft licence holder from being connected to more than one partnership, limited liability company or corporation. Applications go to contractors@indy.gov and cannot be completed online.
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The Indianapolis Board of Electrical Examiners issues two types of licence. Master is unrestricted. Residential allows the holder to work on one and two family structures only. To go before the board an applicant must file the packet at least ten business days before the meeting, and it must contain five items. The electrical exam application. A signed and notarised letter of reference from an employer, on original letterhead, documenting six years of experience, with start and end dates and a description of job responsibilities. At least three signed and dated customer reference letters, for the individual rather than the company. A photocopy of a driver's licence. And any certifications, certificates and diplomas relating to the electrical industry. The board may assign up to two of the six years for successful completion of related college courses or a related apprenticeship. Where an employer letter is not available, three letters of reference citing dates from supply houses or general contractors who employed the applicant as an electrician may be submitted, together with corporation or business licence documents showing founding dates, and W-2s, check stubs or other tax documents recording six years in the electrical field. The board meets on the second Thursday of each month at 1:30pm, and the applicant appears in person for an interview. City-County Ordinance section 875-203 establishes the board, which has eight members: the administrator or a designee as a non-voting ex officio member, two at large members who cannot be listed contractors, one engineer, and five licensed electricians.
Indianapolis does not write its own test. The board decides whether an applicant meets the requirements to take the appropriate International Code Council examination, to reciprocate a licence, or to be granted licensure. If approved, the applicant is given the information to work with ICC and sit the examination, or to submit for licensure after attending orientation. The pass mark is 75 percent. An applicant who scores 75 percent or higher reappears before the board for orientation, and after passing must submit proof of surety bond, general liability insurance and workers compensation coverage together with the proper fees and applications. An applicant who already holds a passing ICC score may submit the score report with the application packet for board review and, on approval, sit for orientation the same day. The city publishes a form link through which ICC sends the exam result letter directly to Marion County. A residential licence holder can move up without a second board appearance, but only once and only within one year of taking the residential electrical examination. After a year the applicant must appear before the board again to upgrade. Reciprocity applicants follow a different evidence route built on Prometric scores, which the board still names by its former identities, Thompson Prometric and Experior Assessments. Their exam score must be a minimum of 75 percent and the licence in the reciprocating jurisdiction must be currently valid.
The city sets the financial requirements in its electrical contractor licence application packet, and they are specific. The surety bond must be typewritten, must name the full legal business name as principal, must carry a bond number and the name, address and phone number of the bonding company and agent, and must be in the amount of $10,000.00. The Consolidated City of Indianapolis and an unknown third party must be named as obligee. The bond must indicate coverage for an electrical contractor or electrical contracting, must be signed by the owner or principal officer, and must carry an expiration date of 12/31/2027 for the current term. Continuous bonds are not accepted. The general liability policy must show a minimum of $500,000 for each occurrence of death or bodily injury and a minimum of $100,000 for each occurrence of property damage, or a minimum of $500,000 per occurrence for combined bodily injury and property damage. The certificate of insurance must name the city as certificate holder and as additional insured as the grantor of the licence, must describe operations as electrical contractor or electrical contracting, must carry no language limiting coverage to a specific job, address, permitted work or scope, and must promise the department at least 15 days notice before cancellation. Workers compensation is required for workers employed in Indianapolis and Marion County. Sole proprietors, partnerships and limited liability companies with no employees may sign a waiver box on the application. Corporations, including Sub-S corporations, must carry the cover.
All Indianapolis electrical contractor licences expire on December 31 of odd numbered years and renew every two years, so the fees are prorated by where in the two year term you apply. A new licence holder fee is $377.00 if applied for between January 1 and June 30, 2026, $283.00 between July 1 and December 31, 2026, and $189.00 during 2027. A new business licence fee is $247.00, $185.00 and $124.00 across the same three windows. The business renewal fee is $247.00 and the licence holder renewal fee is $247.00. Business licence fees are not assessed for sole proprietorships, where only the licence holder fees apply. Authorised agents are the people allowed to pull permits on behalf of the licensed company. Five agents are free and each additional agent costs $63.00, charged against the company licence. Adding a superintendent, apprentice, journeyman or master to an account has its own paperwork through the licensing coordinator. The business name must read exactly the same on every document, the application, the certificate of insurance, the bond, the workers compensation evidence and the state business registration, and a change of business entity type forces a new business licence. Applications are emailed to contractors@indy.gov or mailed to the department at 200 E. Washington Street, Suite 107. Staff review the submission, add the fees to the licence, and send a payment link. Licence cards arrive by email after payment.
Indianapolis recognises electrical examinations passed in named jurisdictions rather than accepting any out of state licence. The Board of Electrical Examiners application lists the Indiana jurisdictions with Prometric reciprocation agreements: Allen County and Fort Wayne, Bartholomew County and Columbus, Monroe County and Bloomington, St. Joseph County and South Bend, and the cities of Anderson, Clarksville, Elkhart, Huntington, Lafayette, Jeffersonville, Mishawaka, Muncie, Nappanee, New Albany, New Castle, Shelbyville, Terre Haute, Goshen and Auburn. Outside Indiana the list names Belleville, Waukegan, Granite City and Rock Island, all in Illinois. A reciprocity applicant files the same five items as an examination applicant and adds a sixth. An original letter from the city or state that sponsored the examination, on letterhead, signed by a local building official, must be mailed directly to the Consolidated City of Indianapolis Board of Electrical Examiners. Copies are not accepted. The letter must state that the test was a Prometric examination, the test number, the exam type, the exam date, the exam score, the passing grade required in that jurisdiction, the current status of the licence, and that the municipality reciprocates with Indianapolis. The score must be at least 75 percent and the licence in the reciprocating jurisdiction must be currently valid and submitted. Applicants are told to contact the licence and board coordinator to discuss the requirements before filing.
The board publishes the exclusions, which matter for low voltage and technology work that often sits next to electrical trades. Installation or repair of electrical wiring, devices, appliances, apparatus or equipment that operates at less than twenty five volts and is capable of supplying less than fifty watts of energy does not require the licence, except for fire detection or fire alarms as defined by the state. A contractor does not have to hold an electrical contractor licence for wiring computers below twenty five volts, data systems below twenty five volts, or security cameras. Everything above that threshold falls back into section 875-201 and needs the licence. There is also a boundary worth checking before quoting. The Indianapolis licence covers the Consolidated City of Indianapolis and does not include the excluded cities of Lawrence, Beech Grove, Speedway and Southport, each of which has its own number to call about contractor licensing. A contractor who works across the Marion County line therefore needs to know which body licenses the address, not just the postal town. The city also treats anyone paid on a 1099 as a separate business for licensing purposes in practice, because the licence authorises work by the licensed business and the licensed craft holder connected to it. If crews are subcontracted, the subcontracting business needs its own licence and its own place on the permit.
Electrical licensing around Fort Wayne runs through the Allen County Building Department, which has its office in the city at 200 East Berry Street, Suite 180. The department administers and enforces building, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, electrical, plumbing, sanitation and sign codes and standards for the county, issues contractor licences and registrations, issues building permits, carries out inspections, and sponsors ICC tests, including the ICC electrical test for master and journeyman. Its contractor licensing page states the rule in one line: all contractors and subcontractors must be licensed in Allen County. To obtain a licence you either reciprocate a licence from another jurisdiction or are sponsored by Allen County to take an examination at one of its approved testing facilities. The department's own renewal guidance repeats the point for crews. All contractors and subcontractors performing work in Allen County must be licensed or registered in the county, and if a business is not self performing the work, is using other crews and is paying others on a 1099, those are subcontractors who must also be licensed or registered, with fines and penalties possible for all parties if they are not. The department also warns that a licence holder who obtains a permit for someone else commits a fraudulent action and is subject to revocation of licensure. The rulebook to read before applying is the Allen County Indiana Building Department Rules and Regulations, Nineteenth Edition, effective September 6, 2024.
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Allen County requires an approved exam sponsorship application before anyone registers for a test. The department tells applicants to review chapter 1 of its Rules and Regulations to decide which licence to pursue, then complete either the structural or the trade application. Every application carries a $25 sponsorship fee, payable only by check or money order, mailed with the application to the licensing office. The licensing specialist then contacts the applicant by mail about scheduling. All exams are open book with a four hour time limit, and the testing fees are set by the third party testing facility rather than the county. The department publishes the list of reference books permitted into the testing facility. Licence fees are annual and modest. An electrical contractor licence costs $90.00 a year. A supervisor or master registration costs $25.00, a journeyman $15.00 and an apprentice registration $10.00. HVAC sits at the same $90.00 with the same trade registration fees, a plumbing contractor registration is $25.00 and a non sanitary piping contractor is $60.00. A copy of the Rules and Regulations costs $5.00 and a copy of the ordinance costs $5.00. Renewals do not fall on one date. The department moved to a letter system in which the first letter of the company name sets the month, running from AB in January through to TUVWXYZ in October, with notifications sent through the Citizen Access portal rather than by post.
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Indiana Code chapter 24-5-11, the Home Improvement Contracts chapter, applies to residential real property in Indiana including fixtures, structures and improvements. A real property improvement contract means an agreement, oral or written, to make a real property improvement where the contract price exceeds one hundred fifty dollars. That threshold is low enough to reach routine residential electrical work. Section 24-5-11-10 requires the supplier to give the consumer a completed contract before the consumer signs it, and lists what the contract must contain at a minimum. The consumer's name and the address of the property. The name and address of the supplier, and for contracts executed after June 30, 2017 an email address the supplier maintains and uses to communicate with consumers. The name, telephone number and email address of each owner, officer, employee or agent to whom consumer problems and inquiries can be directed. The date the contract was submitted and any time limit on acceptance. A reasonably detailed description of the proposed improvements. Approximate starting and completion dates and any contingencies that would materially change the completion date. The contract price. A statement whether any third party, including a subcontractor or vendor, will furnish labour, services, material, equipment or machinery. And signature lines with printed or typed names. Section 24-5-11-9 is the one that ties back to licensing: if a licence or permit is necessary for any part of the improvement, the contract must be conditioned on the appropriate party obtaining it before work commences.
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There is no state offence of unlicensed electrical contracting, because there is no state licence. The penalty sits in three places. First, the local ordinance. Indiana Code section 36-7-8-10 authorises an ordinance adopted under section 36-7-8-3 to provide a reasonable penalty for violations, so the number is whatever the county or city wrote. Allen County's licensing guidance states that all contractors and subcontractors performing work in the county must be licensed or registered and that failing to do so may result in fines and penalties for all parties, that permits must be posted at the jobsite and visible from the nearest roadway with fines and penalties possible for failure, and that falsifying information, misrepresentation or deceit may bring fines, penalties, suspension, revocation or denial of a licence. Second, consumer law. Indiana Code section 24-5-11-14 provides that a real property improvement supplier who violates the home improvement contracts chapter commits a deceptive act actionable by the attorney general or by a consumer under Indiana Code section 24-5-0.5-4, and is subject to the remedies and penalties of Indiana Code chapter 24-5-0.5. Third, the permit. Work that needed a permit and did not get one is the usual way an unlicensed job surfaces. Indianapolis asks residents who suspect an unlicensed contractor or non-permitted work to call the Mayor's Action Center, and warns that a homeowner who hires an unlicensed contractor can be left responsible for repairs or liable for injury and property damage.
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Indiana imposes no statewide requirement to print a licence number in advertising, on a vehicle or on a written estimate, because there is no state licence number to print. The display requirements that do exist are local and attach to the job rather than the marketing. Allen County requires all permits to be posted at the jobsite and visible from the nearest roadway, and requires plans to be on site for the inspector to view on request. Indianapolis issues licence cards to the business and to each craft licence holder, and issues permits only to authorised agents named on the company licence. Verification runs through the same offices. Indianapolis publishes downloadable lists of currently licensed contractors by trade, including a licensed electrical contractors list updated monthly, and points customers to its Citizen Access portal for a detailed permit or licence history. It tells residents to confirm not only the licence but that the contractor holds the required general liability insurance, surety bond and workers compensation coverage or waiver. Allen County runs its own Citizen Access portal for licensing and permits. The state's own licence verification service covers the professions the Professional Licensing Agency regulates, which for construction trades means plumbing rather than electrical, so it will not return an electrician. For any address, the correct first call is the building department with jurisdiction, and in the four excluded cities inside Marion County that is the city itself.
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These are common details other guides publish about Indiana, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency's published list of regulated professions includes plumbing but not electrician or electrical contractor. Indianapolis states the same thing on its contractor licensing page and in its Board of Electrical Examiners application: licensing is at the discretion of the local municipality and there is no state electrical licence.
The 2008 edition. The Department of Homeland Security's rules table lists 675 IAC 17-1.8, the Indiana Electrical Code 2009 Edition, adopting NFPA 70 National Electrical Code 2008 Edition First Printing, currently in effect with an effective date of August 26, 2009. Allen County publishes the same citation.
No. Indiana Code section 22-13-2-3(c) says a city, town or county may not adopt an ordinance that conflicts with or includes more stringent or detailed requirements than the state rules. Local rules may incorporate the state rules by reference, and state rules take precedence over conflicting local ordinances on the same subject.
Not in the covered structures. Indiana Code section 22-13-2-3.6 bars the commission, another state agency and any political subdivision from requiring an AFCI in a Class 2 structure or an R-2 occupancy constructed after June 30, 2026. Ordinances adopted before July 1, 2026 are void to the extent they conflict.
A company licence and at least one craft licence holder who has passed the ICC examination, plus proof of a surety bond, general liability insurance and workers compensation. The bond must be $10,000.00. The liability policy must show at least $500,000 for each occurrence of death or bodily injury and $100,000 for property damage.
Six years, documented by a signed and notarised employer letter on original letterhead with start and end dates and job responsibilities. The board may assign up to two of the six years for related college courses or a related apprenticeship. Three customer reference letters for the individual are also required.
Seventy five percent on the appropriate International Code Council examination. An applicant who scores 75 percent or higher reappears before the board for orientation, then submits the bond, insurance, workers compensation evidence, fees and applications. Reciprocity applicants must also show a Prometric score of at least 75 percent.
A new licence holder fee is $377.00 if applied for in the first half of 2026, $283.00 in the second half, and $189.00 during 2027. A new business licence is $247.00, $185.00 and $124.00 across the same windows. Business and licence holder renewals are each $247.00.
All electrical contractor licences expire on December 31 of odd numbered years and are renewable every two years. That is why the fees are prorated by the half year in which you apply. A change of business entity type requires a new business licence rather than an amendment.
The Allen County Building Department, at 200 East Berry Street, Suite 180, Fort Wayne. It licenses contractors and registers trade licence holders for the county, sponsors ICC electrical tests for master and journeyman, and states that all contractors and subcontractors must be licensed in Allen County.
An electrical contractor licence is $90.00 a year. A supervisor or master registration is $25.00, a journeyman $15.00 and an apprentice registration $10.00. An exam sponsorship application costs $25, payable by check or money order only. Renewal month is set by the first letter of the company name.
From named ones. The Board of Electrical Examiners publishes a list of Prometric reciprocation jurisdictions that includes Allen County and Fort Wayne, Columbus, Bloomington, South Bend and more than a dozen other Indiana cities, plus four Illinois cities. An original signed letter from the sponsoring jurisdiction must be mailed directly to the board.
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