Delaware · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
Delaware does not license landscaping contractors. The Division of Professional Regulation licenses landscape architects only, through the Board of Landscape Architecture, and protects that title. Every contractor working in Delaware must still get a business license from the Division of Revenue for $75, and anyone applying pesticides for hire needs a Department of Agriculture pesticide business license.
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Delaware has no state license for landscaping contractors. No state board tests you on planting, grading, retaining walls, patios or drainage. The Division of Professional Regulation licenses landscape architects and nobody else in this trade. What Delaware does require of every landscaping business is a contractor business license from the Division of Revenue. Title 30, Chapter 25 of the Delaware Code defines a contractor as any person furnishing labor, or both labor and materials, in connection with the improvement, alteration or development of real property. Installing a paver patio, recutting a hillside bed, or building a block wall sits inside that definition. So does site clearing, grading and landscaping, which the same chapter names directly when it lists developer costs. Three specialty credentials sit on top of the business license, and most crews need at least one of them. Applying pesticides to the property of another for compensation requires a pesticide business license from the Delaware Department of Agriculture. Applying nutrients to client turf above a quarter acre requires nutrient handler certification from the Delaware Nutrient Management Commission. Running an active construction site requires a certified responsible person under the state sediment and stormwater rules. None of those three is a contractor license, and none of them lets you use the title landscape architect. Delaware has only three counties, so the local layer is thinner here than in most states, but county and municipal plan review still governs grading and stormwater on your jobs.
Sourcesdelcode.delaware.gov 1dpr.delaware.gov 2revenue.delaware.gov 3delcode.delaware.gov 4dnrec.delaware.gov 5
Any contractor doing business in Delaware must register with and obtain a business license from the Division of Revenue. The statutory application fee is $75, and the license runs until January 1, when it is renewed for a full year on payment of another $75. The license has to be in hand, or the application started, before you sign a contract. On competitively bid contracts over $50,000 the application must be initiated before the bid goes in, and for a subcontractor that means before the general contractor bids. Revenue will not issue the license until you have filed a certificate of notice from the Delaware Department of Labor and a certificate of insurance showing workers compensation coverage, or proof that the Department of Labor has approved you as a qualified self insurer. On top of the flat fee, every contractor owes a license fee of 0.6472 percent of aggregate gross receipts. That is filed monthly by the twentieth of the following month, with a $100,000 monthly deduction. If your taxable gross receipts in the lookback period stay at or below $1,500,000, you file quarterly instead, by the last day of the month after the quarter closes, with a $300,000 quarterly deduction. Payments to licensed subcontractors come out of your gross receipts when a written agreement states the exact sums payable. For a landscaping company that subcontracts hardscape masonry or tree removal, that deduction matters, so paper every subcontract.
If your landscaping company is based in Maryland, Pennsylvania or New Jersey and crosses into Delaware for work, there is a second filing that catches crews by surprise. Delaware treats you as a nonresident contractor unless you regularly maintain a place of business in the state, and a site trailer set up for one contract does not count. A nonresident contractor must file a surety bond with the Department of Finance before construction begins. The amount is 6 percent of the contract or subcontract price on all contracts of $20,000 or more, or 6 percent of estimated cost and profit on a cost plus contract of that size. Separate smaller jobs get added together: when two or more contracts in one calendar year reach $20,000, the bond is 6 percent of the aggregate. The Division of Revenue publishes the bond form, a cash bond receipt form, an irrevocable letter of credit form, and a letter for contracts under $20,000. The Director of Revenue may accept a bank letter of credit instead of surety, and the Secretary of Finance may waive the requirement where no bond is needed to protect state tax revenue. You must notify the Department within 20 days of finishing each Delaware project. Failing to comply draws a civil penalty of up to $10,000 per occurrence, and a willful or knowing failure is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $3,000, up to 6 months in jail, or both.
This is the rule that bites landscaping companies in their marketing. Under Title 24, Section 202 of the Delaware Code, no person may hold themselves out to the public as a licensed landscape architect, or use any title or description intended to convey that impression, without a license from the Delaware Board of Landscape Architecture. The protected words are the ones your competitors throw around loosely. If you are not licensed, your website, truck lettering, proposals and social profiles cannot say landscape architect, landscape architecture, or anything crafted to read that way. You can say landscape contractor, landscape designer, hardscape installer, or lawn and garden maintenance, because Delaware does not regulate those terms. The statute defines landscape architecture broadly: consultation, investigation, research, planning, design, drawings, specifications, contract documents and responsible supervision or construction management where the dominant purpose is determining land use, settings, circulation systems and hardscape structures, grading, drainage and irrigation determination. Read that honestly before you advertise design services. The same section excludes the design of buildings, structures and self contained utilities, which belong to architects and engineers. Delaware also requires that final drawings, specifications, plans and reports involving the practice of landscape architecture, when issued or filed for public record, be dated and bear the signature and seal of the landscape architect who prepared or approved them. If your plan set goes to a county for subdivision or site plan review, that seal requirement is where an unlicensed designer gets stopped.
Sourcesdelcode.delaware.gov
If you want the title, the Board of Landscape Architecture sets two routes. The first is graduation from a school or college of landscape architecture approved or accredited by the National Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards, the American Society of Landscape Architects Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board, or another legitimate national association, plus at least 2 years of professional experience acceptable to the Board under the direct supervision of a licensed landscape architect. The second is 2 years of accepted coursework from such a school plus 4 years of supervised professional experience. Either way, you must pass the uniform national examination prepared and graded by the National Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards. The Board administers it at times set by the testing service. If you fail but clear some sections, you may retake only the sections you failed, where the testing service allows partial retakes. Fail the whole examination a second time and the Board may require you to sit the complete exam again. If you already passed the national exam elsewhere, the Council certificate is accepted and no further state exam is required. An applicant may not have a conviction substantially related to the practice of landscape architecture, though the Board can waive that after a hearing or document review if granting the waiver would not create an unreasonable risk to public safety. The Board meets quarterly, at 9:00 a.m. on the second Thursday in February, May, August and November, and reviews only complete applications, so a missing transcript costs you a quarter.
All Delaware professional license fees run through DELPROS, the state online licensing system, and are paid by card rather than by mailed check. The landscape architect application fee is $368. A reapplication costs $1104. A Certificate of Authorization for a firm costs $45. A written verification of licensure costs $35, and a verification that includes exam scores, hours or history costs $45. A request for the license roster costs $45. All processing fees are nonrefundable. Licenses renew every two years in the manner the Division of Professional Regulation sets. You are told the renewal amount at the time of renewal rather than finding it on a published schedule. Renew after the expiration date and you pay a late fee equal to 50 percent of the renewal fee on top of the renewal itself. The statute caps the late renewal window at one year and provides that a lapsed license is not renewable afterward unless the former licensee reapplies under the reciprocity conditions and pays a reinstatement fee of 3 times the reciprocity fee. Active landscape architects must complete 20 units of approved continuing education during each full licensure renewal period, which runs February 1 to January 31 of odd numbered years. Your first renewal carries no continuing education requirement. Credits are entered and tracked in DELPROS under the continuing education tab. A licensee may also request inactive status in writing, with the renewal fee prorated for the inactive time.
Sourcesdpr.delaware.gov 1dpr.delaware.gov 2delcode.delaware.gov 3
In Delaware the privilege of practicing landscape architecture is personal and not transferable, but firms can still hold work. A corporation or partnership that provides or offers to provide landscape architecture services in Delaware must apply for a Certificate of Authorization, which the Board issues alongside individual licenses. The statute sets the conditions: at least one officer, partner, member, manager or principal must be designated as responsible for landscape architecture services on the firm's behalf and must be a licensed Delaware landscape architect, and all personnel acting as landscape architects in Delaware or for Delaware clients must be licensed under the same chapter. The certificate application fee is $45 and, like everything else, is filed in DELPROS. Reciprocity is unusually clean. Where an applicant is already licensed in another state, the Board accepts a certificate or other evidence of the examination score from the National Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards showing the applicant passed the uniform national examination, in place of all other licensure requirements in the chapter. The Board then contacts every board that previously licensed you to check for pending disciplinary proceedings or unresolved complaints, and will not issue the license until any such matter is resolved. The application must arrive with full payment of the reciprocity fee. Pesticide work has its own reciprocity track: a commercial applicator certified under another state plan can become a Delaware reciprocal commercial applicator without a written exam by working for a business that holds a Delaware pesticide business license and applying online.
Sourcesdelcode.delaware.gov 1dpr.delaware.gov 2dpr.delaware.gov 3agriculture.delaware.gov 4
This is the credential most Delaware landscaping companies actually need. A pesticide business license from the Delaware Department of Agriculture is required to engage in the business of applying pesticides to the property of another within the state for compensation. That covers general use products, not just restricted use ones, so a crew spraying broadleaf weed control on a client lawn is inside the rule. Exemptions are narrow: a person applying pesticides on premises they own, lease or operate; veterinarians and physicians in professional service; and research personnel treating bona fide experimental plots. Delaware Code Title 3 sets the fee at $50 for an annual license or $100 for a biennial license, and the Department will not grant a license until you file evidence of financial responsibility, either a surety bond, a liability insurance policy or certification of one, or other evidence the Department accepts. To qualify, at least one applicator in your employ must be certified in each category of pest control you apply for. The category that matters for this trade is Category 3, Ornamental and Turf. Licenses expire December 31, or earlier if the company liability insurance policy expires first. Renewal notices go out no later than October 1. A renewal received after January 1 is assessed a late penalty of 20 percent. Every employee who applies or handles pesticides must be registered with the Department, with a photograph on the identification card, and must finish an approved training program within 45 days of hire and before registration.
Sourcesagriculture.delaware.gov 1delcode.delaware.gov 2agriculture.delaware.gov 3
The business license rides on a person. Anyone buying or using a restricted pesticide in Delaware must be certified by the Department of Agriculture, and anyone in the business of applying pesticides, restricted or general use, to the land or property of another must be certified and the business must hold a pesticide business license. Certification runs through an application and examination set by Department regulation, and the exam requirement can be waived in whole or part on a reciprocal basis with a state having substantially the same standards. The Department publishes exam instructions and a schedule each year, along with a core manual, a study guide and a calibration guide. Commercial certification is valid for one year, so recertification is annual. Private certification is valid for three years and needs three continuing education credits in that period. Commercial recertification credits are set per category over any three year cycle. Category 3, Ornamental and Turf, requires 8 hours. Category 2, Forest, requires 4 hours. Category 6, Right of Way, requires 4 hours. Miss the credits and you retake the exam. Credits come from programs the Department has pre approved, listed on its applicator course site, and from Delaware Cooperative Extension horticulture short courses. A recertification program has to run at least 50 minutes. If you sat a program within the past 60 days that was not pre approved, the Department will consider it with a timed agenda, speaker biographies, location, date and attendance verification.
Sourcesagriculture.delaware.gov 1agriculture.delaware.gov 2delcode.delaware.gov 3
Delaware is one of the few states that regulates fertilizing a lawn as a licensed activity, and the threshold is low enough that routine maintenance accounts cross it. Under Title 3, Chapter 22, every person who applies nutrients to turf totaling more than a quarter acre, which the statute spells out as 10,890 square feet, as a component of a commercial venture managed for another, must be certified by the Delaware Nutrient Management Commission or must use a duly certified person or firm. The same section requires certification for applying nutrients to land totaling more than 10 acres or as part of a commercial venture, for operating an animal feeding operation over 8 animal units, and for advising or consulting with anyone required to be certified. The Commission sets classifications by regulation, including nutrient generator, private nutrient handler, commercial nutrient handler and nutrient consultant. A landscaping company fertilizing client lawns is in the commercial nutrient handler lane. The statute allows the Commission to set a yearly fee by regulation, capped at $100 per certificate, and lets the Commission set how long a certificate stays in force and how it is renewed. The Department of Agriculture runs the program with University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, which also offers the continuing education classes used to maintain certification. The Commission was created by the Delaware Nutrient Management Law in June 1999 and handles complaints and investigations, so an unhappy neighbor downhill from a fertilized slope has somewhere to call.
Sourcesdelcode.delaware.gov 1agriculture.delaware.gov 2agriculture.delaware.gov 3
Delaware does not issue a state irrigation contractor license. There is no separate state credential for designing or installing a sprinkler system, and the statutory definition of landscape architecture specifically includes determination of landscape irrigation, which is one more reason to be careful about calling design work landscape architecture when you are not licensed. The regulated piece is water. If an irrigation system draws from its own well, the well itself needs a permit. The DNREC Well Permits Program issues well construction and use permits for wells withdrawing 50,000 gallons per day or less, inspects wells, and maintains construction and status data on every permitted well. All proposed well locations get checked for contamination issues, and a well is flagged for review when a potential contamination source sits within 1,000 feet of the proposed location. Who may drill or install matters too. DNREC licenses water well contractors, pump installer contractors, well drillers, well drivers and pump installers under 7 DE Admin. Code 7302, and the Water Well Licensing Board develops the application forms and examinations, reviews applications, examines candidates and recommends granting, renewal, denial, suspension or revocation. So a landscaping company that wants to put in an irrigation well either holds the right DNREC license or subcontracts a licensed contractor. Backflow prevention on an irrigation tie in to a public water system is handled through drinking water cross connection requirements rather than a landscaping credential, and the water utility serving the property sets the testing and reporting detail you have to meet.
Sourcesdnrec.delaware.gov 1dnrec.delaware.gov 2delcode.delaware.gov 3
Grading, excavation and hardscape construction put Delaware landscaping crews inside the state sediment and stormwater program, which was created by the General Assembly in 1978 under Title 7, Chapter 40 and operates through 7 DE Admin. Code 5101. Two credentials come out of it. Under the regulations, each active construction site must have a responsible person certified through the Contractor Training Program to provide daily oversight throughout construction. That program, formerly known as the Blue Card Course, is delivered on demand as interactive online modules through the Delaware Learning Center and costs $65. It covers the program, the regulations, and the erosion and sediment control measures Delaware requires. The second is the Certified Construction Reviewer, an inspector of sediment and stormwater controls hired by a developer when the plan approval agency requires one. The CCR course is online year round, with field trips rotating by county each month, and the Contractor Training Program is a prerequisite. CCR certification is valid for five years. DNREC also offers a Permanent Stormwater Facility Maintenance Course covering routine and non routine maintenance of stormwater best management practices for $5. Separately, construction activities with land disturbing activities of 1 acre or more must submit a Notice of Intent before plan approval and comply with the Delaware Construction General Permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Plan review, construction inspection and maintenance inspection are delegated to agencies in all three counties and several municipalities, so your plan goes to a local reviewer rather than Dover.
Delaware has one hard vehicle marking rule that hits this trade directly, and it comes from the pesticide program rather than a contractor board. Businesses licensed in Ornamental and Turf, which is Category 3, in Right of Way, which is Category 6, and in the industrial, institutional, structural and health related categories must mark their service vehicles with the business name and the pesticide business license number. The lettering must be bold and readable, not less than 2 inches and not more than 6 inches high, and the number is displayed in the format DDA Lic. No. followed by the digits. If you spray lawns in Delaware, every truck in the fleet carries that. Employees who apply or handle pesticides must also carry an identification card with a photograph. On the professional side, the limit is on wording rather than placement: without a Board license you cannot use the title landscape architect or any description built to convey that impression, and sealed plans must bear the seal of the licensed landscape architect who prepared or approved them. Delaware does not require a general contractor license number on landscaping ads, vehicles, websites or written estimates, because there is no general contractor license to number. What you should still publish is the legal business name on your Delaware business license, because that is the name a customer will find in the state license search, and a mismatch between your ad name and your licensed name costs you trust on a bid.
Each credential carries its own penalty, and the pesticide ones are the heaviest for a landscaping company. Under Title 3, Chapter 12, the Secretary of Agriculture may assess a civil penalty of up to $2,500 per offense against a person other than a private applicator, and up to $500 per offense against a private applicator, for violating the chapter, a regulation under it, or an order issued under it. No penalty is assessed without notice and an opportunity for a hearing. Several acts are criminal: applying a pesticide inconsistently with the labeling or with federal or state restrictions is a class A misdemeanor, with a first offense treated as a class B misdemeanor, as is making false or fraudulent records, invoices or reports. The Department can also suspend, modify or revoke a license or certification, and must revoke a business license if the licensee no longer employs a certified applicator with two years of practical experience. Title protection has a lighter touch. When the Board of Landscape Architecture determines that someone is practicing landscape architecture without a license, it formally warns them first, and makes a complaint to the Attorney General if the offense continues. Conviction for unlawfully practicing landscape architecture draws a fine of $50 plus costs on the first offense, increased by $250 for each subsequent offense. On the tax side, failing to file the nonresident contractor bond draws up to $10,000 per occurrence civilly, and a willful failure is a misdemeanor.
Sourcesdelcode.delaware.gov 1delcode.delaware.gov 2delcode.delaware.gov 3agriculture.delaware.gov 4
Two public lookups cover most of what a Delaware homeowner or property manager will check, and both are free. For the professional license, the Division of Professional Regulation runs DELPROS License Look Up. A searcher chooses individual or facility, enters criteria, and gets a result list; clicking the license number and then View More Info opens the detail. The tool flags disciplinary history with a Yes in the Discipline column, and the underlying documents can be downloaded. Numbers beginning with L2K or APP are applications rather than issued licenses, which is worth knowing if a prospect reports seeing your record as pending. Written verifications can be ordered through the same system for a fee. For the business license, the Division of Revenue publishes a Delaware Business Licenses Search covering businesses currently licensed in the state, searchable by business name and by business activity. The activity list includes construction transportation contractor and other construction categories, so a customer can confirm you are registered and in the right activity. Pesticide credentials are verified through the Department of Agriculture, which also publishes applicator course and credit searches, and DNREC publishes current Contractor Training Program and Certified Construction Reviewer holder lists plus a water well contractor dataset on the state open data portal. Put your license numbers where a prospect can match them to those records. A bid that hands over the pesticide business license number and the business license name shortens the trust conversation.
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Delaware has only three counties, New Castle, Kent and Sussex, and the state business license is what licenses you to contract anywhere in them. Neither the counties nor the municipalities issue a landscaping trade license that tests competence, so what you deal with locally is permits, plan review and a municipal business tax registration in the city where you operate or solicit. Wilmington, Newark, Dover, Middletown, Smyrna, Milford, Georgetown, Rehoboth Beach and Lewes each run their own business license or occupational tax registration, and the rate and renewal cycle are set by the municipal code, not by Dover, so confirm the current figures with that town before you quote work inside it. The part that touches your schedule is plan review. DNREC delegates sediment and stormwater plan review, construction inspection and maintenance inspection to agencies in all three counties and to several municipalities, which means a grading or hardscape job that triggers the state threshold is reviewed by a county conservation district or a city engineer rather than by the state program. Building and zoning permits for retaining walls above a set height, pools, decks, driveway aprons and impervious coverage changes come from the county land use department or the municipality. Historic district and homeowner association review can add another layer in Wilmington, New Castle, Lewes and the beach towns. Build the local permit window into your lead time rather than promising a start date on the state credential alone.
These are common details other guides publish about Delaware, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Delaware does not license landscaping contractors as a trade. You must register with the Division of Revenue and hold a Delaware contractor business license, which costs $75 to apply for and renews each January 1. Specialty credentials apply on top of that if you spray pesticides, fertilize client turf, or run an active construction site.
Only if you hold the license. Title 24, Section 202 bars anyone from holding themselves out as a licensed landscape architect, or using any title or description intended to convey that impression, without a Board of Landscape Architecture license. Landscape contractor, landscape designer and hardscape installer are not regulated terms, so those are safe.
The application fee is $368 in DELPROS, the state online licensing system. A reapplication costs $1104, and a firm Certificate of Authorization costs $45. Processing fees are nonrefundable. Renewal is biennial and the amount is given to you at renewal time, with a late fee of 50 percent of the renewal fee if you miss the date.
Yes. A Delaware pesticide business license is required to apply pesticides to the property of another for compensation, general use products included. Delaware Code sets the fee at $50 annually or $100 biennially, and you must show financial responsibility through a bond or liability insurance. At least one certified applicator in Category 3, Ornamental and Turf, must be on staff.
Yes, once the area gets past a quarter acre. Title 3, Chapter 22 requires certification by the Delaware Nutrient Management Commission to apply nutrients to turf totaling more than 10,890 square feet as part of a commercial venture managed for another. The statute caps the yearly certificate fee at $100. Most landscaping firms certify as commercial nutrient handlers.
Commercial applicator certification is valid for one year, so recertification is annual, and credits are set by category over any three year cycle. Category 3, Ornamental and Turf, requires 8 hours. Credits must come from programs the Department of Agriculture pre approved, and each qualifying program runs at least 50 minutes.
A nonresident contractor surety bond filed with the Department of Finance before construction starts. The amount is 6 percent of the contract price on any contract of $20,000 or more, and separate contracts within one calendar year are aggregated against that threshold. A bank letter of credit can substitute. Noncompliance draws up to $10,000 per occurrence.
Under the Delaware Sediment and Stormwater Regulations, each active construction site needs a responsible person certified through the Contractor Training Program to provide daily oversight. That training is online through the Delaware Learning Center and costs $65. Land disturbance of 1 acre or more also needs a Notice of Intent under the Delaware Construction General Permit.
No. There is no state irrigation contractor license. The regulated parts are the water source and the people who drill. DNREC permits wells withdrawing 50,000 gallons per day or less, and licenses water well contractors, pump installer contractors, well drillers and pump installers under 7 DE Admin. Code 7302 through the Water Well Licensing Board.
If your business holds a pesticide license in Ornamental and Turf, Right of Way, or the structural and health related categories, service vehicles must carry the business name and the pesticide business license number. Lettering must be bold and readable, not less than 2 inches and not more than 6 inches high, shown as DDA Lic. No. plus the digits.
Send them to two lookups. DELPROS License Look Up at the Division of Professional Regulation covers professional licenses and flags disciplinary history. The Delaware Business Licenses Search at the Division of Revenue shows businesses currently licensed, searchable by name and business activity. DNREC also publishes current Contractor Training Program and Certified Construction Reviewer holder lists.
The Board warns the person formally first, then makes a complaint to the Attorney General if the conduct continues. A conviction for unlawfully practicing landscape architecture carries a $50 fine plus costs on the first offense, increased by $250 for each subsequent offense. Where the violation injured someone, the charge moves to the criminal title instead.
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