Michigan · HVAC licensing · official-source guide
Michigan licenses HVAC work at the state level. The Bureau of Construction Codes inside the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs issues the mechanical contractor license under 2016 PA 407. There is no single HVAC license. You pick from fourteen work classifications, prove three years or 6,000 hours in each one, and pass a PSI exam for each.
State-level license
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-14. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Michigan licenses mechanical contracting out of Lansing, not out of city hall. The Bureau of Construction Codes sits inside the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and its Licensing Section reviews every mechanical contractor application in the state. The same section handles boiler, electrical, elevator, plumbing, inspector and residential builder files, so mechanical work waits in one queue with the rest of the skilled trades. Applications are filed online through Accela at aca3.accela.com, or on paper to P.O. Box 30255 in Lansing when a check is attached and P.O. Box 30254 when no payment is enclosed. Checks are made out to the State of Michigan. The Licensing Section publishes a processing time of up to three to five weeks and reviews files in the order received. It also states that application fees are non-refundable and that sending duplicate applications only slows the review down. The licensing phone line is 517-241-9316, staffed 9am to 4pm Monday through Friday except state holidays, and the mailbox is lara-bcc-licensing@michigan.gov. No Michigan city or township issues you a mechanical contractor license. What the local unit issues is permits, and it runs the inspections, which is a separate layer described further down. If you intend to sell heating, cooling or refrigeration work anywhere in Michigan, the state license is the credential that has to exist first, and every permit desk in the state will ask for the number on it.
Michigan does not issue a license called HVAC contractor. It issues a mechanical contractor license that carries one or more of fourteen work classifications, and you may only perform and pull permits for the classifications printed on your license. The list runs: hydronic heating and cooling and process piping, HVAC equipment, ductwork, refrigeration, limited heating service, unlimited heating service, limited refrigeration and air conditioning service, unlimited refrigeration and air conditioning service, fire suppression, then a specialty group covering solar heating and cooling, solid fuel equipment and vented decorative gas appliances, LP distribution piping, fuel gas piping, and fuel gas piping and venting. The definitions decide what you can sell. HVAC equipment includes ductwork, gas piping and venting, and excludes portable self contained refrigeration equipment and window type air conditioners of not more than one and one half horsepower. Limited heating service is capped at gas designed sectional boilers with inputs of not more than 1 million Btu, other gas fired or solid fuel equipment under 400,000 Btu per unit, and oil fired equipment designed for number 1 or number 2 fuel oil firing less than five gallons per hour per unit. Unlimited heating service carries no thermal capacity or fuel restriction. Limited refrigeration and air conditioning service is tied to group one refrigerants listed in the Michigan Mechanical Code, while the unlimited version is open as to capacity and refrigerant type. Read the wording before you apply, because the exam you sit and the permits you can later pull both follow it.
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A residential change out company in Michigan normally starts with HVAC equipment, listed as classification 2 or b. That single classification covers the furnace or air handler, the ductwork attached to it, and the gas piping and venting, so it buys the most work per exam. Add limited or unlimited heating service if you want to service heating equipment rather than only install it, and add limited or unlimited refrigeration and air conditioning service for the cooling side. Commercial refrigeration, supermarket racks, walk in coolers and food storage equipment fall under classification 4 or d, refrigeration, which is its own exam. Boiler and radiant work falls under hydronic heating and cooling and process piping, which also covers residential boiler installation. The Bureau is blunt about two combinations that catch contractors out. Replacing a gas water heater requires a Michigan mechanical license carrying either HVAC equipment or gas piping and venting classifications, and a Michigan plumbing contractor license as well, with both a mechanical permit and a plumbing permit pulled for the job. Setting a standby generator and supplying it with gas piping requires the HVAC equipment classification, and the permit has to list the generator as a gas or oil burner plus the lineal feet of gas piping. Decide which calls you intend to run before you choose classifications, because every classification you skip is a call you have to turn down or hand to a subcontractor.
Michigan does not let you qualify once and collect classifications. The applicant must be of good moral character under 2016 PA 407, Article 8, MCL 339.5807, and must have a minimum of three years or 6,000 hours of experience in each work classification being applied for, or an equivalent the board accepts. Proof is not a checkbox. The application has to include statements signed under penalty of perjury by each contractor of record who is a present or former mechanical contractor employer, confirming the three years or 6,000 hours in every classification requested. Each statement has to give a detailed and specific description of the work performed, the beginning and ending dates, how long the work was performed, the employer it was performed under, and the title of the person signing. The description has to go into heating and cooling Btu ratings, venting and duct systems, fuel types, refrigerant types, equipment types, and fire suppression systems and equipment where relevant. School counts, but only partly. If the department is satisfied that you finished a two year or equivalent HVAC program at a recognized trade school, community college or university, or a two year HVAC training program approved by the United States Department of Labor, it credits that program toward the requirement. The credit is capped and must not exceed one year or 2,000 hours of the three years or 6,000 hours required. Start collecting signed employer statements before you apply, because chasing a former Michigan employer later stalls the file.
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Most Michigan mechanical contractors add classifications over time rather than testing for everything at once. The Bureau controls that with a prerequisite ladder, and you must have held the prerequisite classification for not less than three years immediately preceding the date of the application to add. Ductwork requires that you already hold HVAC equipment. Limited heating service requires HVAC equipment. Limited refrigeration and air conditioning service requires HVAC equipment or refrigeration. Unlimited heating service requires HVAC equipment or limited heating service. Unlimited refrigeration and air conditioning service requires HVAC equipment, or refrigeration, or limited refrigeration and air conditioning service. Any specialty classification requires HVAC equipment. That structure is why HVAC equipment is the classification most Michigan companies test for first. The cost of adding depends on where you are in your three year license cycle. Adding a classification in the first year of the cycle is 300 dollars, in the second year 200 dollars, and in the third year 100 dollars, which means adding late in a cycle is the cheaper move if the timing suits your work. The experience rules do not soften for additions. You still document three years or 6,000 hours in the new classification with signed employer statements, and you still sit and pass the examination for it. Plan additions around the classifications you keep subcontracting out, since each one you bring in house changes what your own crews can permit.
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You must take and pass an examination for each work classification you want on the license. Since June 14, 2017 the examinations have been conducted by PSI rather than by the state. Approved applicants are contacted by PSI to schedule, and can choose among five PSI testing centers across Michigan, with testing available six days a week. All examination fees are paid to PSI at the time the exam is scheduled, and examination fees are no longer sent to the State of Michigan or the Bureau of Construction Codes. The content is broader than code alone. Michigan mechanical examinations may include questions drawn from the Skilled Trades Regulation Act, 2016 PA 407, and from the Stille DeRossett Hale Single State Construction Code, 1972 PA 230, as well as from the applicable code. The Bureau publishes a suggested reading list per classification. It points at the 2021 Michigan Mechanical Code and the 2015 Michigan Residential Code with their referenced standards, plus ASME B31.3 for hydronic and process piping, ACCA Manual J for load calculation, ACCA Manual D for residential duct systems, ANSI SMACNA 006 for metal and flexible duct construction, the SMACNA fibrous glass duct standard, and the 2021 International Fuel Gas Code for HVAC equipment. Study the Michigan code editions the Bureau names rather than the newest national edition, because the Michigan adoption is what the questions follow.
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The license fee is paid at the time of application, not after you pass, and it is non-refundable. An initial mechanical contractor license or classification is 300 dollars. Adding a classification costs 300 dollars in the first year of the license cycle, 200 dollars in the second year, and 100 dollars in the third year. Checks and money orders are made payable to State of Michigan BCC, or you can apply and pay online through Accela. The examination fee is separate and is paid directly to PSI when you schedule, not to the state. Renewal is 300 dollars, and a mechanical contractor who misses the deadline pays a 100 dollar late fee. There is one fee exemption worth knowing. Under 2012 PA 312, a veteran who provides satisfactory proof of separation from the armed forces of the United States under honorable or general under honorable conditions is exempt from the initial licensing fee. To claim it you attach a DD-214, DD-215 or military discharge document showing honorable to the application, and applications claiming the veteran exemption may be emailed to the Bureau rather than mailed. That exemption applies to the initial license fee, and the Bureau states plainly that application fees will not be refunded if you file more than once, so get the classifications right on the first submission.
Michigan mechanical contractor licenses renew every three years by August 31, which is unusual in a state where most construction trade licenses renew annually. Not all mechanical contractor licenses expire in the same year, so your cycle depends on when the license was first issued rather than on a statewide date. You can start renewing 90 days before the expiration date. Renewal costs 300 dollars. Renewing is possible through Express Pay without logging in to Accela, or by logging into an Accela account, though address and contact changes have to be made inside the account first and the license has to be linked to that account before you can renew or amend it. Miss the date and a 100 dollar late fee applies. The Bureau warns that letting the license lapse can hurt your ability to pull permits, removes your ability to sign for time for future applicants, and can lead to citations or enforcement action. If a mechanical contractor license stays expired more than three years, you have to re-apply and re-test, which means sitting every classification exam again and rebuilding the experience documentation. One thing Michigan does not require of mechanical contractors is a code update course to renew. Electrical and sign trades face code update requirements, but the renewal page states that mechanical contractor license holders are not required to take code update courses.
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The Michigan application for mechanical contractor examination and licensing, form BCC-11, asks for identity, work classifications, signed employer experience statements and the license fee. It does not ask for a surety bond, and it does not ask for a certificate of general liability insurance. Treat that as a floor, not a ceiling. Local permit offices, property managers, general contractors and commercial customers in Michigan routinely require a certificate of insurance before they will let you on site, and workers compensation coverage for employees is a separate obligation from the license itself. Note how the license is held. The application is filed in the legal name of an individual, with a full Social Security number, and the experience statements are signed by the contractor of record at the employers you worked for. That means the license attaches to a person who then stands behind the company, which is also why the Bureau warns that an expired license removes your ability to sign for time for future applicants. If the licensed individual leaves your company, the classifications leave with them and the crew loses its ability to pull permits. Build the business so more than one person carries the classifications you depend on, and keep the license holder current, because the Bureau will not backdate a lapse and cannot fix a permit that was pulled while a license sat expired.
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Michigan permits must be secured before the start of any project, and the Bureau states that flatly. A separate permit is required for each phase of a phased project where occupancy is requested at different times. For a residential home, plans are required when the total heating Btu input exceeds 375,000 Btu per hour. For commercial, industrial and institutional work, the Bureau frames plan review by exception: review is not required only when the building is under 3,500 square feet, and is business or mercantile occupancy, and has only one fire area. If any one of those three fails, plan review applies. Inspections have hard rules that protect the contractor as much as the inspector. Concealed work must be inspected and approved before it is covered, and the Bureau specifically answers no to whether you may cover work if the inspector has not appeared within 72 hours of your request. Expired permits are usually not reopened; a new permit listing all equipment needing inspection has to be secured to get the inspection. There are Michigan design details in the same guidance that bite on residential jobs, including the requirement for make up air when a residential kitchen hood is capable of exceeding 400 cfm exhaust, and a prohibition on installing solid fuel appliances in garages under Michigan Mechanical Code 901.5. Build these thresholds into your quoting, not into your change orders.
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Michigan runs three levels of code enforcement jurisdiction, and the level differs by discipline within the same town. The Bureau of Construction Codes publishes a Statewide Jurisdiction List showing, for every unit of government in Michigan, whether building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing are administered at state, county or local level. If the entry reads LOCAL, that city, township or village runs its own program. If it reads COUNTY, a county enforcing agency serves it. If it reads STATE, the Bureau itself is responsible for code enforcement there. The mix is real. In the list, mechanical is shown as LOCAL for the City of Detroit, the City of Grand Rapids, the City of Warren, the City of Sterling Heights, the City of Ann Arbor, the City of Lansing and the City of Flint. Wayne County itself is listed as having no county program. In other parts of Michigan, particularly in the Upper Peninsula, entries such as Alger County and the City of Munising show building and electrical at county level while mechanical and plumbing sit at STATE, meaning your mechanical permit and inspection come from the Bureau rather than from the county. The list is updated after every Construction Code Commission meeting, and temporary assistance to a local enforcing agency is flagged with an asterisk. Check the list before you quote a job in an unfamiliar Michigan township, because it tells you who issues the permit.
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Your state mechanical contractor license travels with you across Michigan. The permit process does not. Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights, Ann Arbor, Lansing and Flint all run their own mechanical programs under the Bureau list, which means each one maintains its own permit application, its own inspection scheduling and its own fee schedule, and none of them can substitute for the state license you already hold. A Detroit furnace change out and a Grand Rapids furnace change out use the same Michigan classification and the same Michigan Mechanical Code, and two different permit counters. That has practical consequences for a growing company. Set up accounts and contractor records at each permit office you work in before you sell the first job there, not after, because permits must be secured prior to the start of work and a delay at the counter is a delay on the install date. Where a Michigan unit of government is listed as STATE for mechanical, the Bureau issues the permit and performs the inspection instead, and questions on state issued permits go to the relevant division at the Bureau. If you disagree with a local inspector, the path is set: the authority having jurisdiction in your township or city is required by statute to have a construction board of appeals, and you contest the decision with that board. If you are in state jurisdiction, the appeal goes to the State Construction Code Commission on its published form.
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Michigan publishes a public license lookup, and that is the number a careful customer checks. The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs runs a Find or Verify a Licensed Professional or Business page that groups licenses by type, and under Skilled Trades it lists Mechanical Contractor alongside Electrician, Plumber, Residential Builder, Code Official and Elevator. Mechanical Contractor points at the LARA Accela citizen portal licensee lookup. Anyone can search it without an account. What the search returns is the licensee, which is why the classifications on your license matter to your marketing as much as to your permits. If your advertising says you service commercial refrigeration and your license carries only HVAC equipment, the gap is visible to any customer who looks and to any Michigan inspector who pulls your permit history. Put the mechanical contractor license number on written estimates, proposals and your website so a prospect can run the lookup without asking you for it, and describe your services in the same language as your classifications. The Bureau's own complaint form asks the complainant for the license number of the company, so the number is the identifier the state uses to connect a job to a contractor. Keeping the license active also protects the advertising claim: the Bureau states that a lapsed license can hurt your ability to pull permits and can lead to citations or enforcement action.
The Bureau of Construction Codes runs an Enforcement Section that reviews and investigates complaints against mechanical contractors, along with residential builders, maintenance and alteration contractors, electricians, plumbers, boiler and elevator licensees, local code enforcing agencies, and barrier free design non-compliance. The Bureau names its own examples of complaint subjects: negligence resulting in physical harm to a consumer, performing work without a permit or proper licensure, and fraud or deceit in the performance of work. Working without the right classification on your Michigan license is therefore not a paperwork problem, it is a complaint category. Know the limits of that process too, because customers often do not. The Bureau states it has no legal authority over contractual, monetary or warranty disputes, and no authority to conduct criminal prosecution. Complaints must be made in writing, by the Bureau's statement of complaint form, by email to LARA-BCC-Compliance@michigan.gov, or by letter, and the enforcement line is 517-241-9309. Where a local code enforcing agency has jurisdiction over the allegations, the Bureau may forward the complaint to that local unit, and it asks complainants to try the local agency first in areas enforced at local or county level. Complaints are expected to include the job location, the township, city, village and county, the license number if known, and whether a permit was obtained and inspections performed. The Bureau also publishes disciplinary action reports.
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Michigan's Licensing Section does not publish a general reciprocity route for mechanical contractors on its applicant information page. The route it does publish is the Military Examination Waiver Procedure. That procedure is open to a member of the armed forces or uniformed services, a veteran who was honorably discharged, or a dependent of either, and it applies only to applicants who already hold a valid license or registration in another state and are asking for the examination to be waived. The Bureau notes specifically that the waiver procedure is not the route for applicants who are only trying to waive fees based on service or veteran status; that is the separate initial fee exemption under 2012 PA 312. Everyone else moving a business into Michigan sits the Michigan examination for each classification and documents three years or 6,000 hours in each classification with signed employer statements, exactly like an in state applicant, including years worked in another state. There is a separate path called Pathway to Licensure for people who once held a Michigan license and let it expire more than three years ago. For a license expired less than three years, the renewal process applies instead. If you are planning a move into Michigan, apply before you commit to a start date, because the Bureau publishes a review time of up to three to five weeks before PSI even contacts you to schedule.
The Michigan mechanical contractor license is a state credential. Federal refrigerant rules run alongside it and neither one substitutes for the other. EPA regulations at 40 CFR Part 82, Subpart F, issued under Section 608 of the Clean Air Act, require that technicians who maintain, service, repair or dispose of equipment that could release ozone depleting refrigerants into the atmosphere must be certified. The EPA structures that certification by equipment type, with Core material plus Type 1 for small appliances, Type 2 for high pressure equipment, and Type 3 for low pressure equipment, and it publishes the test topics for each. Certification is issued by approved certifying organizations rather than by the EPA itself, and the EPA states that it does not issue certification cards. It publishes steps for replacing a lost Section 608 technician certification card and a list of certifying organizations that will replace cards. For a Michigan HVAC or refrigeration company the practical reading is straightforward. Your Michigan license and its classifications decide what work your company may sell and permit. Section 608 decides which of your technicians may legally touch the refrigerant circuit on that work. A technician with Section 608 and no Michigan mechanical classification cannot pull the permit, and a Michigan licensee whose crew lacks Section 608 has a federal exposure on every recovery and charge. Track both credentials per person, with expiry dates, in the same place.
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These are common details other guides publish about Michigan, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. Michigan issues a mechanical contractor license through the Bureau of Construction Codes, and the license carries one or more of fourteen work classifications such as HVAC equipment, ductwork, refrigeration, hydronic heating and cooling and process piping, and the heating and refrigeration service classifications. You may only perform and permit the classifications printed on your license.
A minimum of three years or 6,000 hours in each work classification you apply for, or an equivalent acceptable to the board. The application must carry statements signed under penalty of perjury by each present or former mechanical contractor employer of record, describing the work, the dates and the length of time it was performed.
Partly. If the department is satisfied you completed a two year or equivalent HVAC program at a recognized trade school, community college or university, or a two year HVAC program approved by the United States Department of Labor, it credits that toward the requirement. The credit must not exceed one year or 2,000 hours of the three years or 6,000 hours.
PSI has conducted the examinations since June 14, 2017. Approved applicants are contacted by PSI to schedule at one of five PSI testing centers in Michigan, available six days a week, and the examination fee is paid to PSI at scheduling rather than to the State of Michigan or the Bureau of Construction Codes.
An initial mechanical contractor license or classification is 300 dollars, paid at the time of application and non-refundable. Adding a classification costs 300 dollars in the first year of the license cycle, 200 dollars in the second and 100 dollars in the third. Renewal is 300 dollars, with a 100 dollar late fee after expiration.
Every three years, by August 31. Not all mechanical contractor licenses expire in the same year, so the cycle depends on when yours was issued. Renewal opens 90 days before expiration and can be done by Express Pay without logging in, or through an Accela account if you also need to change your address.
No. The Bureau of Construction Codes states that mechanical contractor license holders are not required to take code update courses to renew. Some other Michigan trades, including electrical and sign specialists, do face code update requirements within a year of a new code being adopted, so do not assume the rule is the same across licenses.
A 100 dollar late fee applies. The Bureau warns that a lapse can hurt your ability to pull permits, removes your ability to sign for time for future applicants, and can lead to citations or enforcement action. If the license stays expired more than three years, you must re-apply and re-test on every classification.
Yes, in a narrow case. Under 2016 PA 407, the owner of a single family dwelling that is or will become their residence may personally install a heating or refrigerating system there if they affirm owner occupancy on the permit application. They must secure the permit from the municipality's enforcing agency and obtain the inspection once the equipment is operating.
Both cities run their own programs. The Bureau's Statewide Jurisdiction List shows mechanical as LOCAL for the City of Detroit and the City of Grand Rapids, as it does for Warren, Sterling Heights, Ann Arbor, Lansing and Flint. Elsewhere in Michigan, mechanical can sit at county level or at state level, where the Bureau inspects.
Yes, for refrigerant work. Federal rules at 40 CFR Part 82, Subpart F require technicians who maintain, service, repair or dispose of equipment that could release ozone depleting refrigerants to be certified, by Core plus Type 1, Type 2 or Type 3. The EPA does not issue the cards; approved certifying organizations do.
Through the department's Find or Verify a Licensed Professional or Business page. Mechanical Contractor is listed under Skilled Trades and points at the LARA Accela licensee lookup, which anyone can search without an account. Putting your license number on estimates and your website lets a prospect run that search without having to ask you.
We can review the local market, your current search visibility, and paid-search fit before recommending any marketing work.