Hawaii · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
Hawaii licenses landscaping at state level. The Contractors License Board, inside the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, issues the C-27 landscaping contractor license. You need it for any project exceeding $1,500 in labor and material, or any job requiring a building, electrical or plumbing permit. The board wants four years of supervisory experience.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-10-12. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Hawaii regulates landscaping contracting at state level, not city by city. The Contractors License Board, housed in the Professional and Vocational Licensing division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, issues every contractor license used in the islands. Honolulu, Hawaii County, Maui County and Kauai County do not run their own contractor licensing schemes. What the counties control is permits and zoning, so a licensed firm still answers to a county planning and permitting department before it moves dirt. The board writes its own rules as Hawaii Administrative Rules title 16 chapter 77, and those rules sit under Hawaii Revised Statutes chapter 444. The department publishes both from its contractor statute and rule page, which is the version to work from because it is the one the board applies at a hearing. The threshold is low. A contractor license is required for any project exceeding $1,500 in labor and material, and for any project that requires a building, electrical or plumbing permit. A planting job that stays under that figure and needs no permit can be handled without a license. A retaining wall, a drainage line or a job that trips a permit cannot. Board correspondence goes to the Contractors License Board, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, P.O. Box 3469, Honolulu, Hawaii 96801. Written notice connected to the Contractors Recovery Fund goes to the board at 335 Merchant Street, Suite 343, in Honolulu. The Regulated Industries Complaints Office, which investigates unlicensed activity and consumer complaints against licensees, works out of 235 South Beretania Street in Honolulu.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2cca.hawaii.gov 3cca.hawaii.gov 4cca.hawaii.gov 5cca.hawaii.gov 6
Landscaping is a specialty classification. Chapter 16-77 lists it as C-27, landscaping contractor, and the rule text defines the scope in unusual detail. A C-27 may prepare plots of land for architectural horticulture and provide tree trimming, decorative treatment and arrangement of gardens, lawns, shrubs, vines, bushes, trees and other decorative vegetation. It may construct conservatories, hot and green houses, drainage and sprinkler systems, all types of rockscaping and ornamental pools, fountains, ornamental walls, fences and walks. It may place hydro mulching for ground cover and for containment of soil. The rule also draws the electrical boundary inside the classification itself. A C-27 may install irrigation control or decorative lamp electrical wiring associated with that work where the wiring will carry 24 volts or less. Anything carrying more than that belongs to an electrical contractor. Two narrower classifications sit beside it. C-27a, hydro mulching contractor, is limited to placing hydro mulch material as a bed for ground cover and for containment of soil. C-27b, tree trimming and removal contractor, covers pruning, trimming and removing trees including stumps and restoring ground to a condition similar to the adjacent area, but it expressly does not include the relocation and planting of field grown trees. That matters commercially. A firm licensed only as C-27b can take removals but cannot sell the planting that follows. A full C-27 can sell both, plus the hardscape items the rule names. Chapter 16-77 also warns that a licensee who acts or advertises in a classification the license does not carry is in violation, so the classification on the wall certificate is the real limit on what the sales pitch can promise.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov
Chapter 16-77 opens with a flat prohibition. No person within the purview of the chapter shall act, assume to act, or advertise as a contractor, general engineering contractor, general building contractor or specialty contractor without a license obtained under the chapter and under chapter 444. Advertising is listed alongside acting, so a website offering landscaping work is itself regulated conduct. The department states the trigger in plain terms for consumers. A contractor license is required for any project exceeding $1,500 in labor and material, and for any project that requires a building, electrical or plumbing permit. The Regulated Industries Complaints Office puts the same line from the other direction: a homeowner may hire a handyman when the total cost of the project including labor and materials is not more than $1,500 and the work does not require a building permit. Without a license, a handyman who takes work over $1,500, or work needing a building, electrical or plumbing permit, is engaged in unlicensed contracting. Two more rules widen the net. A license may be required for work that poses a potential danger to public health, safety and welfare even where fewer than ten persons in the state are qualified to perform it. And any individual, salesperson, association of salespersons or entity that solicits for or negotiates a contract, or offers to undertake construction work, on behalf of more than one contractor is treated as a contractor and must hold a license. A landscaping lead broker working for several installers is inside the licensing law. The published penalties for unlicensed activity are fines, imprisonment and injunctive relief.
Hawaii has three contractor types. General engineering, or type A, covers specialized engineering knowledge and skill, including drainage and flood control problems. General building, or type B, covers structures. Specialty, or type C, covers trades such as landscaping, flooring and roofing. The Regulated Industries Complaints Office advises consumers that a job spanning more than two specialties points toward a general contractor who subcontracts the rest, which is useful context when a landscaping firm bids a project with framing or roofing attached. The license attaches to the business, and the trade qualification attaches to a person. A contracting entity qualifies through a responsible managing employee, the RME, who meets the experience test for the classification. Chapter 16-77 states that contracting entities shall qualify through an RME who meets those requirements, and the board uses a separate Principal RME Designation form. A partnership or joint venture can itself need a license under the rules. The fee structure follows that split. Under chapter 16-53 the original license fee is $260 for a contracting entity and $260 for a responsible managing employee. Licensing in the first year of the biennium costs more because it bundles half of the biennial renewal: $355 for a contracting entity and $290 for an RME, against $260 each in the second year of the biennium. The board publishes separate application packets for an entity, a sole owner and an RME, plus an application for an additional classification. A landscaping firm that wants to add C-27b or move into masonry files that additional classification application rather than starting over, and pays the fees that apply at the time of filing.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2cca.hawaii.gov 3cca.hawaii.gov 4
The experience test is the gate most landscaping applicants have to plan around. Chapter 16-77 requires every individual applicant or RME to have had, within the ten years immediately preceding the filing of an application, not less than four years of supervisory experience as a foreman, supervising employee or contractor in the particular classification the applicant intends to work in. Four years mowing lawns as a crew member does not satisfy it. Four years running a crew does. The rule leaves the board some room. Self-employed or unlicensed experience may be acceptable experience in the discretion of the board, which matters in a trade where plenty of good installers worked for themselves before anyone told them to get licensed. The board may also approve certain technical training or business administration training as acceptable experience, but in no case shall that training count as more than one year. Applicants document the four years on a Chronological History of Projects form filed with the application. Supporting documents, the fee and the application all have to arrive together, because the board will not accept a partial filing. Timing is strict. Applications, fees and all supporting documents must reach the board office on or before the first Tuesday of the month two months before the scheduled meeting date. The department also warns that an application is considered abandoned, and will be destroyed, if the applicant fails to complete the license process within one year after filing, or fails to take and pass the examination within six months after becoming eligible. An abandoned application means reapplying and meeting the requirements in force at that later date.
The contractor licensing examinations are administered by an outside testing service, Prometric. Applicants do not register directly. The board approves the application first, then issues examination registration forms, and the applicant mails those forms with the examination fees to Prometric. Examination dates and registration deadlines are published on the board's contractor pages. The written examination has two parts. Part I is business and law. Part II is trade knowledge in the classification requested, so a C-27 applicant is tested on landscaping work rather than on construction generally. The board tells applicants to obtain a copy of the contractor licensing law and rules before sitting Part I, and makes chapter 444 and chapter 16-77 available from its own site. Study material for Part II is listed in the testing service's bulletin of examination information. Two accommodations carry conditions. Sitting the examination outside Hawaii has to be approved by the board, the written request goes in with the application ahead of the deadline, the applicant pays any additional cost, and locations are limited to sites where the testing service keeps a secured office. Using an interpreter also has to be approved by the board, and the fee for that service is $100 added to the examination fee. Failure has a clock on it. An applicant who does not pass within six months must file a new application and a new application fee. Chapter 16-53 sets no fixed examination price for contractors: examination and other examination related fees are whatever the board and the professional testing service agree on, so the current amount comes from the testing service rather than the rule book.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2cca.hawaii.gov 3cca.hawaii.gov 4
Contractor fees are set by rule, in chapter 16-53 section 17, not by board discretion. The application fee is $50, non refundable, for each application filed. The application fee for a bond waiver or an entity conversion is $25. Every application also carries a contractors education fund fee of $10. Original license fees are $260 for a contracting entity and $260 for a responsible managing employee. Where the license is issued in the first year of the biennium the amount includes half the biennial renewal: $355 for an entity and $290 for an RME. A new contracting entity also pays a recovery fund fee of $150. Biennial renewal is $190 for a contracting entity and $60 for a responsible managing employee, plus a $5 education fund fee and a $10 recovery fund fee. The restoration fee for failing to renew on time is a $50 penalty on top of the renewal fees. An inactive license costs $12 and reactivation costs $60. The compliance resolution fund fee is $74, with a biennial figure of $148. The penalty for failing to pay a recovery fund assessment is $10 added to the assessment. Two practical warnings come from the application packet itself. A dishonored payment carries a $25 service charge, and because a certificate can be mailed before the bank clears the payment, a bounced check leaves the holder with an invalid license and no right to do business under it. License fees beyond the application fee are billed after approval, so the $50 at filing is not the total.
Hawaii sets hard insurance minimums for contractors and checks them again at renewal. The applicant files a certificate of insurance from a company or agency authorized to do business in the state showing full policy coverage for comprehensive bodily injury and property damage liability with minimum limits of $100,000 each person and $300,000 each occurrence for bodily injury liability, and $50,000 each occurrence for property damage liability. Out of state contractors may use a non admitted carrier where the producer qualifies for an exemption under section 431:9A-104(b)(6). Workers compensation is separate. The applicant submits a certificate of workers compensation insurance from a carrier authorized in the state, together with a statement from the carrier that the board will be notified of any withdrawal, termination or cancellation. A sole proprietor with no employees may instead file the board's exclusion from chapter 386 workers compensation form in place of coverage. Coverage has to stay continuous. The licensee keeps evidence on file in the board office, and failure to maintain continuous liability and workers compensation coverage causes automatic forfeiture of the license. The board encourages agents to file insurance certificates through the department's online submittal system at pvl.ehawaii.gov/inikua, which processes faster than paper. Bonding is discretionary rather than fixed. The board may impose a surety bond as a condition of licensure, and where it does, chapter 16-77 requires the licensee to maintain that bond for at least one year before asking for a waiver. The board may then waive it. There is no universal landscaping bond amount in the rules, which is why the bond waiver application carries its own $25 fee.
Contractor licenses in Hawaii run on a two year cycle tied to even numbered years. The board mails a renewal notice before August 15 of each even numbered year to the last known address on file. Every licensee must submit the renewal application with all required documents and pay the required fees, including the recovery and education fund fees, on or before September 30 of that even numbered year. Missing the date is not a grace period. Failure, neglect or refusal to pay the fees and submit all required documents by September 30 results in automatic forfeiture without a hearing, and the license is forfeited as of October 1. A forfeited license can be restored by filing the renewal application with all required documents and paying the renewal fees plus a penalty fee on or before November 30 of the renewal year. After November 30 there is no restoration: the holder applies as a new applicant and meets the requirements in force then. Filing on time protects the work in progress. Proper filing of a renewal application by September 30 authorizes operating as a contractor until the renewal license is actually issued. The renewal checklist is practical. The board looks for current general liability insurance, current workers compensation insurance or a filed exclusion from chapter 386 form where there are no employees, a current bond where one was imposed, a tax clearance from the Hawaii Department of Taxation, and a renewed designated principal RME, since the entity license will not renew until the RME does. Chapter 16-77 sets no continuing education requirement for a contractor license, so there are no class hours to chase before September 30.
Hawaii puts the license number in the advertising rule itself. Under chapter 16-77 a contracting entity advertising through any media shall be identified as a licensed contractor by listing the name under which it is licensed, or a trade name filed with the board, together with the license number. The rule defines media broadly: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, the Internet, and directories including all listings in the yellow pages. A web page, a directory profile and a social listing all sit inside that definition, and the authority cited is section 444-9.2 of the statutes. Using an unregistered trade name is its own problem, because the rule allows only the licensed name or a trade name already filed with the board. There is a second disclosure rule aimed at residential work. Before obtaining a binding contract from a homeowner and before applying for a building permit, a contractor doing home construction or home improvements must disclose information whose absence might mislead the homeowner, including lien rights of labor, suppliers and subcontractors; the scope of work; the approximate percentage of work to be subcontracted; whether the contractor is bonded and whether the owner may demand bonding, with the extent of financial security disclosed where the contractor is not bonded; the contractor's license number and classifications; all warranties; and an estimate of the cost of work. The license also has to be physically displayed. A licensed contractor must have and maintain a definite place of business in the state where the licensee can be served notice and legal process, and must display the contractor license there. A post office box is not accepted as a place of business.
Hawaii gives consumers several ways to look at a landscaping contractor before signing, and all of them are free. The department tells homeowners to get the contractor's name and license number and then verify it, either by calling the Licensing and Business Registration Information Section or by using the public license search. The public license search for professional and vocational licenses runs at mypvl.dcca.hawaii.gov, linked from the Contractors License Board page as the way to verify a professional. Business Check, at businesscheck.hawaii.gov, pulls business registration and complaint history research tools together in one place, including a complaints history search run by the Regulated Industries Complaints Office. The department also publishes downloadable lists of licensed contractors, licensed electricians and plumbers, and licensed engineers, architects, land surveyors and landscape architects, each dated so a reader can see how current it is. What a caller can learn is broader than status alone. The Regulated Industries Complaints Office provides information about licensed contractors including license status, license classifications and proof of insurance. The Consumer Resource Center takes those calls at 1-844-808-3222, and the Regulated Industries Complaints Office line is 808-587-4272. That cuts both ways for a licensed firm. A prospect can confirm that the classification on the quote matches the work being sold, and can see whether complaints have been filed. It also means the license number in the advertisement is checkable in seconds, so a wrong or lapsed number on a vehicle or a web page is a visible problem rather than a technical one. Reporting unlicensed activity runs through the same office.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2cca.hawaii.gov 3cca.hawaii.gov 4
The consequences of contracting without a license in Hawaii are not limited to losing the job. The Regulated Industries Complaints Office states that the penalties for unlicensed activity include fines, imprisonment and injunctive relief, and it accepts reports of ongoing unlicensed work with contracts, quotes, cancelled checks, receipts and descriptions of the workers on site. The Contractors Recovery Fund is the other half of the picture, and it is a selling point for a licensed landscaping firm. The fund is built from fees collected from all licensed contractors in the state and is managed by the Contractors License Board. It compensates owners or lessees of private residences, condominiums and cooperative units who built improvements and alterations, and owners or lessees of land on which they built a private residence. The money is capped. The maximum claim per contract is $12,500, and the maximum that can be paid from the fund for any one licensed contractor is $25,000, with payments pro rated where several claims are filed against the same contractor. Access depends on having hired a licensed contractor who was currently and actively licensed when the contract was entered into. The claimant must give written notice to the board when an action that may lead to collection from the fund begins, obtain a judgment from a Hawaii district or circuit court, then make reasonable searches and inquiries for the contractor's real or personal property and other assets, because the fund is a last resort behind any bond, insurance or other liable party. Contractors fund it through a recovery fund fee of $150 for a new entity and $10 at each renewal.
Design work carries a second licensing question. Landscape architects in Hawaii are licensed by the Board of Professional Engineers, Architects, Surveyors and Landscape Architects, also inside the department's Professional and Vocational Licensing division, under statute chapter 464 and rules chapter 16-115. That board's rules protect the seal and the professional title: the seal shows the words Licensed Professional Landscape Architect with the license number in the center of two circles, an inner circle 1-1/8 inches across inside an outer circle 1-1/2 inches across, with the licensee's name and the words Hawaii, U.S.A. in the annular space. Sealing or certifying a document the licensee did not prepare or supervise is plan stamping, listed as misconduct, as is advertising in a false, misleading or deceptive manner. The qualification routes are set out in rule. A candidate may hold a master's degree in landscape architecture from an approved institution with not less than two years of full time lawful experience; be a graduate of an approved school with a landscape architectural curriculum of four years or more plus not less than three years of experience; be a graduate of an approved four year pre landscape architectural or arts and science curriculum plus not less than five years; or have not less than twelve years of full time lawful experience. One year equals 2,080 hours, and part time hours are converted at 173.33 hours per month. Teaching counts for at most one year. Applications are due no later than 90 days before the examination. Licensure by endorsement needs a current license elsewhere, a passed CLARB examination, and the board's own examination on Hawaii climatic conditions, native plants and ecosystems, land use ordinances, special management area requirements, and cultural and historical conditions.
Fees for the engineer, architect, surveyor and landscape architect board are set in chapter 16-53 section 36. The application fee for the landscape architect examination is $100, and the application fee via endorsement is $150. The board produced examination for landscape architects costs $60, against $80 for the board produced land surveyor examination. Fees for the national examination itself are set by agreement between the board and the testing service or national council, so they are not fixed in the rule. Once licensed, the original license fee is $64. Licensing in the first year of the biennium costs $116 because it includes half the biennial renewal, against $64 in the second year. The biennial renewal fee is $104 and the restoration fee is $120. The compliance resolution fund fee is $50, with a biennial figure of $100. Evaluation of foreign education is charged at whatever the board and the evaluation service think appropriate. Renewal runs on a different calendar from the contractor license. Engineer, architect, surveyor and landscape architect licenses renew by April 30, and the board's current notice sets that date in an even numbered year. The board states there is no retired or inactive status for these licenses: a holder can let the license lapse past the deadline, at which point it is treated as forfeit. A forfeited license may be restored within two years of expiration subject to meeting restoration requirements, and failure to restore within two years terminates it, leaving reapplication as a new applicant under current requirements. Landscape architects may restore online. The board's current renewal notice requires continuing education attestation of architects, and does not state a continuing education attestation for landscape architects.
Irrigation is inside the landscaping classification, not beside it. The C-27 scope expressly includes drainage and sprinkler systems, and it includes installing irrigation control or decorative lamp electrical wiring associated with that work where the wiring carries 24 volts or less. Above that voltage the work belongs to an electrical contractor, and the department reminds consumers that electrical contractors must employ licensed electricians to do the actual electrical work. Hawaii licenses electrical contractors through the Contractors License Board and electricians through a separate board, so a landscaping firm wiring a line voltage pump or a transformer circuit needs a different license or a licensed subcontractor. Backflow protection on an irrigation tie in is handled by the water utility rather than by the contractor board. The Honolulu Board of Water Supply runs an annual backflow prevention assembly testing program built to comply with federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations and Hawaii Department of Health requirements, and it states that all major water purveyors in the state are implementing similar programs affecting agricultural, commercial and industrial users and high rise and multi family residential developments. The sequence after installation is specific. A certified backflow prevention assembly tester must test the new assembly and complete a Backflow Prevention Installation and Test form, the assembly owner signs the bottom portion, keeps a copy and returns the form to the utility, and the assembly is tested every year afterward because the internal seals, springs and moving parts are subject to fouling, wear and fatigue. Becoming a tester goes through training rather than the state. The utility has suspended its own tester training course and refers candidates to a five day training class run by the PAMCAH training workshop, with recertification through that workshop or the American Backflow Prevention Association. The utility publishes a certified tester list and an approved assemblies list.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2boardofwatersupply.com 3
Spraying moves a landscaping crew into a second regulator. The Pesticides Branch of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity runs applicator certification, and it splits into two families. Private certification covers applications on property owned or rented by the applicator or the applicator's employer, or on another person's property where services are traded. Commercial certification covers applications on any other property or for any other purpose, which is where a landscaping company working on client property lands. Each family is divided into categories, and the branch publishes the category descriptions. Exam structure matters when budgeting. All commercial categories require passing the Core exam first. Private categories have no Core requirement, though private category 1 is a prerequisite for private categories 2 and 3. Examinations cost $50 each. Taking the Core exam together with a category exam waives the Core fee, so Core alone is $50, a category alone is $50, Core plus one category is $50, and each additional category adds $50, making Core plus two categories $100. Exams are scheduled through the department's Pesticides Education Portal. Cards are priced separately. A new certification and a certification renewal each cost $100, and a duplicate or replacement certification or a name change costs $50, paid by check or money order to the department and mailed to the Pesticides Branch at 1428 South King Street, Honolulu. Restricted use pesticide certifications are valid for five years. Renewal is either retaking and passing the certification exam for the same categories, or accumulating the prescribed hours of continuing education training approved for those categories, where one hour of course content typically equals one continuing education unit. Approved courses are listed on the education portal.
Sourcesdab.hawaii.gov
These are common details other guides publish about Hawaii, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
At state level. The Contractors License Board inside the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs issues contractor licenses for the whole state, and the counties do not run competing contractor licensing schemes. Counties control permits and zoning instead, so a licensed firm still deals with a county planning and permitting department before grading or trenching.
C-27, landscaping contractor, under the board's rules. The scope covers preparing plots for architectural horticulture, tree trimming, gardens, lawns, shrubs and trees, conservatories and greenhouses, drainage and sprinkler systems, rockscaping, ornamental pools, fountains, ornamental walls, fences and walks, and hydro mulching for ground cover and soil containment.
Yes. The department states that a contractor license is required for any project exceeding $1,500 in labor and material, and for any project requiring a building, electrical or plumbing permit. Work at or under $1,500 with no permit involved can be done unlicensed, which is the handyman line the Regulated Industries Complaints Office describes.
Not less than four years of supervisory experience as a foreman, supervising employee or contractor in that classification, earned within the ten years immediately before filing. Self employed or unlicensed experience may be accepted at the board's discretion, and approved technical or business training can substitute for no more than one year.
Two parts, administered by Prometric after the board approves the application. Part I is business and law, drawn from the contractor licensing statute and rules. Part II is trade knowledge in the classification requested, so a landscaping applicant is tested on landscaping work. An applicant who does not pass within six months files a new application and fee.
The application fee is $50 and non refundable, plus a $10 education fund fee. Original license fees are $260 for the entity and $260 for the responsible managing employee, or $355 and $290 when issued in the first year of the biennium. A new contracting entity also pays a $150 recovery fund fee.
Comprehensive bodily injury liability of $100,000 each person and $300,000 each occurrence, plus property damage liability of $50,000 each occurrence, from a carrier authorized in Hawaii. Workers compensation coverage is separate, and a sole proprietor with no employees may file the board's exclusion form instead.
Renewal is biennial and due on or before September 30 of each even numbered year. Missing that date forfeits the license automatically as of October 1, without a hearing. Restoration is possible by filing with a penalty fee through November 30 of the renewal year, after which you reapply as a new applicant.
Yes. The board's advertising rule requires a contracting entity advertising through any media to be identified as a licensed contractor by listing the licensed name or a trade name filed with the board, together with the license number. Media includes the Internet, directories and yellow pages listings, not only print and broadcast.
No. Landscape architects are licensed by a separate board, the Board of Professional Engineers, Architects, Surveyors and Landscape Architects, and the protected seal reads Licensed Professional Landscape Architect with a license number. Sealing or certifying a design the licensee did not prepare or supervise is listed as misconduct under that board's rules.
Work on client property falls under commercial certification with the Pesticides Branch of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, rather than private certification. All commercial categories require passing the Core exam first. Exams cost $50 each, a new certification or renewal is $100, and restricted use certifications are valid for five years.
A certified backflow prevention assembly tester, under the Honolulu Board of Water Supply program, not the installing contractor by default. The tester completes an installation and test form, the assembly owner signs and returns it, and the assembly is retested every year. The utility publishes a certified tester list.
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