New Mexico · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
The Construction Industries Division of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department licenses this work. New Mexico has no landscape contractor classification, so a landscaping company licenses by scope: GS specialty classifications for concrete, earthmoving and masonry, MS-6 for lawn sprinklers, and GS-29 for anything unlisted. A $10,000 bond is required before licensure and at every renewal.
State-level license
Yes
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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.
The Construction Industries Division of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department licenses contractors statewide and enforces the Construction Industries Licensing Act. CID keeps offices in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces, and its own statement of purpose says it requires licensure for any person practicing or offering to practice construction contracting. There is no CID classification named landscape contractor. That is not the same as landscaping being unlicensed. CID licenses by scope of work, so a landscaping company is licensed for the operations it actually performs: concrete flatwork, earthmoving, masonry walls, sprinkler systems. Rule 14.6.6 NMAC lists the classifications and their scopes, and it closes the gap with a catch-all. Any classification not listed in that rule and regulated by CID is issued a GS-29. The symbols follow a pattern. G is general construction, E is electrical, M is mechanical and plumbing. The second letter marks the type of work, where S means specialties, and the number marks the trade. A license authorizes contracting only inside the scope of the classifications printed on it, and work outside that scope is a violation and grounds for disciplinary action. Bidding has its own rule. You may bid and contract as prime only if the major portion of the work, measured by dollar amount, is authorized by your classification, and any work outside it must be subcontracted to an entity licensed for that part. For a landscaping business that one paragraph decides how you quote. A planting and sprinkler crew that also sells a block wall and a flagstone patio either holds those classifications or hands that part of the contract to someone who does.
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Rule 14.6.6 NMAC is where a New Mexico landscaping company finds itself, one operation at a time. GS-4 covers concrete, cement, walkways and driveways, including the excavation, form work and reinforcement that goes with it, and requires two years of practical trade experience, one year of it at foreman level. GS-8 covers earthmoving, excavating and ditching, including cutting, filling, grading, trenching, backfilling and boring, and requires two years. GS-16 covers masonry, and it draws the line for hardscaping at retaining walls measuring thirty-six inches or more from the bottom of the footing and freestanding walls six feet or higher from ground level. GS-2 covers awnings and canopies, GS-25 covers swimming pools excluding the plumbing, mechanical and electrical work, and GS-29 is issued for regulated work the rule does not name. Sprinkler work sits in the mechanical series and is described further below. Two classifications absorb the whole GS series. GB-2, residential, requires two years of foreman level experience and includes all work described by the GS specialty classifications when the work is limited to residential construction. GB-98, general building, requires four years of foreman level experience with at least two years commercial, and includes all GS work. Some trades left the system. CID's licensing vendor records that licensing requirements were eliminated on April 1, 2016 for GS-3 tile, GS-10 fencing, GS-11 fixtures, cabinets and millwork, GS-12 flooring, GS-17 ornamental iron and welding, GS-18 painting, GS-22 sandblasting, GS-26 vaults and GS-28 gunite. Fencing is therefore not a CID licensed trade, although local permits still apply.
New Mexico's small job exemption is narrow and specific. Rule 14.6.2.8 NMAC defines a handyman as an individual who works on one undertaking or project at a time which, in the aggregate or singly, does not exceed seven thousand two hundred dollars ($7,200) compensation a year, with the work being casual, minor or inconsequential. The certificate applicant has to state that the work is casual, minor or inconsequential, that it will not include more than one project at one time, and that the total will not exceed $7,200 a year. The rule also states that the exemption does not reach undertakings pertaining to the installation, connection or repair of electrical and other regulated systems. For a landscaping business this is not a business model. One mid-sized backyard job can pass the annual cap, and running two projects at once breaks the condition on its own. Agricultural work is treated separately in the classification rule itself. Earthmoving, excavating and ditching activities applicable to the preparation and production of agriculture or the maintenance of livestock on a farm or ranch are exempt from licensing requirements. Irrigation activities and piping applicable solely to the production of agriculture or maintenance of livestock on a farm or ranch, excluding electrical work, are exempt. Sprinkler irrigation installation and maintenance on farm or ranch property that moves water for livestock or irrigation from a privately owned well or pipeline not connected to a public potable water supply is exempt. Residential and commercial yards are none of those things, so the exemptions do not travel to town with you.
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Irrigation is the one piece of landscaping New Mexico names directly, and it sits in the mechanical and plumbing series, not general construction. MS-6, lawn sprinklers, requires two years of experience and authorizes a contractor to install, alter, repair, service or maintain potable water sprinkler systems, to excavate, trench, backfill and grade as necessary, to install backflow prevention devices, and to handle incidental plug-in control panels, controls and control wiring not exceeding 24 volts. Anything above 24 volts belongs to a licensed electrical contractor. The broader MM-1 classification also includes potable water irrigation sprinkler systems inside its much larger plumbing scope, and MM-98 indicates licensure across MM-1 through MM-4 plus the work described in MS-3, MS-6, MS-12 and MS-14. So a company can reach sprinkler work through MS-6 alone or through a full mechanical license. Backflow protection is written into the scope rather than left to custom. The rule states that when a system is connected to a potable water source all connections must be downstream of an approved backflow prevention device, and that where a backflow prevention device is required it shall be permitted and installed by a properly licensed contractor. On the certificate side, the JS sprinkler certificate of competence can work under an MS-6, MM-1 or MM-98 license. If your crew is pulling pipe and setting valves off a city meter, this classification is the difference between a legal install and an unpermitted one.
Sourcessrca.nm.gov
Where CID is the permitting authority, the landscape work that touches regulated systems needs a permit before the work, not after. CID's own answers state plainly that a permit must be pulled by a New Mexico licensed contractor prior to the work being performed and inspected, and that a homeowner cannot hire an unlicensed crew to do permitted mechanical work. CID reports residential permits being processed in three to four working days and commercial permits in five to ten working days. The fee schedule in 14.5.5 NMAC is public, so you can price a job without calling anyone. A building permit costs $3.00 per $1,000.00 of valuation up to $15,000.00, then $1.00 per $1,000.00 above that, with plan review charged at twenty percent of the building permit fee and a preliminary plan review at fifty percent of the combined permit and review fee. On the mechanical and plumbing side, the administrative fee for any inspection is $37.50, a re-inspection is $37.50, each water distribution system is $4.00, each water service line is $4.00, each building sewer is $4.00, each swimming pool is $50.00, and each vacuum breaker or backflow device that is not an integral part of a plumbing fixture or its supply pipe is $4.00. A final certificate of approval is $7.50. Those numbers matter in a bid because a sprinkler system tied into potable water carries permit and inspection line items that a planting-only job does not.
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A New Mexico contractor license belongs to a business, and the business is qualified by a person. Rule 14.6.3 NMAC requires an individual applying for a qualifying party certificate to provide proof of work experience in the classification of contracting for which application is made. Technical training from an accredited college, university, institute or an accredited apprenticeship program counts in place of work experience, with each year of training applied as one-half year of experience, and accredited training may never exceed one-half of the total requirement. No applicant is eligible to take a qualifying examination until satisfactory work experience is documented to the division, as to four years within the ten years immediately prior to application. Each classification also states its own minimum in 14.6.6 NMAC, which is two years for most GS and MS specialties. Examinations are administered by CID or its vendor, and the rule allows the division to accept a National Association of State Contractors Licensing Agencies accredited examination at the passing exam score when the applicant completes all other qualifying party and certificate requirements. For contractors already licensed elsewhere, 14.6.3 NMAC sets out an expedited qualifying party process in which the applicant submits a division approved application and, in place of work experience verification, documentation that the applicant is currently licensed or certified and in good standing in another jurisdiction. Corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships must be authorized to do business in New Mexico to apply for, renew or keep a license, and the license cancels automatically when the entity ceases to exist.
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Two sources set the price, and both are public. The licensing vendor contracted by CID publishes the current schedule: a non-refundable $30 application fee plus a $6 certificate fee covering the license certificate and two cards for a new contractor license. On the fee schedule that applies to new and renewal licenses, the cost is $300 per classification for GB02, GB98, GA98, GF98, EE98 and MM98, and $150 per classification for all other single classifications, which is where the GS and MS specialties a landscaping company holds will fall. The maximum fee for multiple classifications within a category is $300, with the published examples being GB98 plus any GS classification at $300 and MM98 plus any MS classification at $300. A qualifying party certificate costs $30 per submittal plus $6 per classification, and adding a qualifying party to an existing license costs the same $30 and $6. A certificate of competence costs $75 per classification for application and certificate, new or renewal, with duplicate cards at $6. Rule 14.5.5.8 NMAC underlies that schedule with a non-refundable $30.00 license application fee, a basic fee of $50.00 per year or $100.00 for two years for classifications outside the 98 series, $100.00 per year or $200.00 for two years for GA-98, GB-2, GB-98, GF-98, EE-98 and MM-98, a $25.00 fee to review a failed examination and $40.00 for a special review after two failures. Rule 14.6.3 NMAC also waives license fees for the first three years for military service members and veterans.
New Mexico attaches a surety bond to the license itself. Rule 14.6.3 NMAC requires that before licensure, and as a condition of renewal, each applicant furnish the division a bond in the amount of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) underwritten by a corporate surety authorized to transact business in New Mexico. The bond's effective date must cover the entire period of licensure for the initial application and for each renewal cycle, and maintaining it for the entire period is itself a condition of licensure. Payment from the bond required by Section 60-13-49 NMSA 1978 is used to cure division certified code violations. The surety stays liable for obligations of the principal that occur before cancellation, and it must give the division and the licensee thirty days written notice of intent to cancel. If the licensee does not provide a replacement bond, action follows against the license. The same rule lists what makes a license invalid, and three items on that list are worth pinning to your office wall: failure to renew, failure to maintain proof of financial responsibility under Section 60-13-49 NMSA 1978, and failure to comply with workers compensation laws under Section 60-13-23 NMSA 1978. Failure to comply with the Parental Responsibility Act and loss of authorization to do business in New Mexico are on the same list. The bond is not liability insurance and it is not a substitute for it. It protects the public against code violations, which is a different exposure from the one a damaged irrigation main or an injured helper creates.
Sourcessrca.nm.gov
This is where New Mexico is friendlier to a landscaping contractor than most states, and it is worth knowing before a sales call. CID states on its continuing education page that the General Building Bureau does not have continuing education requirements for contractors. The requirement lands on certificate holders in the trades instead. For mechanical and plumbing certificates of competence, CID requires continuing education in every three-year period for renewal, a minimum of 16 hours of approved course work, of which 8 hours are specific to code change or update and 8 hours may be other industry related approved course work. That requirement applies to the sprinkler certificate, JS, along with plumber, pipefitter, gas, sheet metal, refrigeration and fire protection certificates. On the electrical side, renewal of a certificate of competence takes at least 16 hours in every three-year period between electrical code updates, split 8 hours of code change instruction and 8 hours of other industry related instruction, and proof must be submitted with the renewal application or the application is incomplete and will not be processed. Late renewal has its own cost. The vendor's published schedule charges $1 per day for a license renewed 1 to 30 days late, a penalty equivalent to one year's fee at 30 to 90 days, and cancels the license beyond 90 days. A certificate of competence renewed late costs $25 up to six months and is cancelled after six months. Cancellation means re-application, not a late fee.
New Mexico protects the words landscape architect, and a landscaping contractor needs to know exactly where that line falls. The New Mexico Board of Landscape Architects regulates landscape architects who research, design and prepare drawings and specifications to preserve or enhance land use and natural features, design trails, plantings and landscape irrigation, or the location and construction of approaches for structures, pathways or walkways. The board then states the limit in its own words: landscape architecture does not include landscape designers, tree experts, landscape caretakers, gardeners or contractors, and these individuals cannot call themselves landscape architects unless they are licensed. So a design-build company may sell design work and call the person doing it a designer, but the title on the proposal, the website and the truck has to stay accurate. The board's published fees are an application fee of $75, initial registration of $200 for a landscape architect and $150 for a landscape architect in training, annual renewal of $200 and $150 respectively, verification of registration at $10, inactive status at $100 and reactivation at $200. The examination is the L.A.R.E., with eligibility and score verification set by the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards. Renewal is annual, and 16.44.5 NMAC requires a minimum of 30 contact hours of continuing professional education every two years, with the reporting period beginning July 1 of every odd-numbered year. A late fee of $100 applies if the renewal is not received by July 1, with another $100 per month after that.
The New Mexico Department of Agriculture, not CID, licenses the people who apply pesticides, and its rule catches more landscaping companies than they expect. NMDA states that you need a license if you apply any pesticide, including general-use pesticides, for hire. Spraying a customer's weeds for money is covered even when the product is something a homeowner could buy. A commercial applicator is anyone who applies pesticides for hire, and a commercial operator or technician is an employee of a commercial applicator who applies pesticides. A noncommercial applicator is a property owner or manager using restricted-use pesticides on their own or an employer's property, which NMDA lists at a $100 license fee, and a noncommercial applicator may not apply pesticides for hire. Applicators must be certified in the categories they work in. For landscaping that means 3A, ornamental and turf pests, which covers ornamental trees, shrubs, flowers and turf for invertebrates, plant diseases and nematodes, and 3B, ornamental and turf weeds, which covers weed control in the same settings. Crews working fence lines and right-of-way vegetation should look at 6B. Exams run through a third-party vendor at $55 per exam at testing centers in Albuquerque, Farmington, Hobbs, Las Cruces, Portales, Los Lunas and Santa Fe, or NMDA staff can administer an exam at $20 per exam on a pre-arranged basis. Scheduling waits 48 hours after approval, and every exam and all paperwork must be finished within 60 days of the application approval date or the whole process starts again.
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The applicator license carries its own financial responsibility test, and the numbers are in the rule rather than in a broker's quote. Rule 21.17.50.21 NMAC states that a commercial applicator license shall not be issued until the applicant furnishes proof of financial responsibility acceptable to the director, satisfied by a certificate of liability insurance signed by an authorized insurance representative, a certified copy of a liability insurance policy, or a surety bond. The insurer or surplus line broker must be authorized to do business in New Mexico. Rule 21.17.50.22 NMAC sets the minimum coverage. A surety bond is $100,000. For ground or manual application, which is what a landscaping crew does, liability insurance must carry bodily injury limits of $10,000 each occurrence and $25,000 aggregate, property damage of $25,000 each occurrence, or a single limit for bodily injury and property damage of $50,000. The maximum deductible, if any applies, is $1,000. The rule also states that if a commercial applicator uses a liability insurance policy as proof of financial responsibility, the applicator shall not apply pesticides that the policy excludes, which is a real trap when a policy carves out drift or specific chemistries. Licenses are annual and the expiration dates are fixed in 21.17.50.9 NMAC: the commercial applicator license, the operator technician license, the noncommercial applicator license, the pest management consultant license and the dealer license all expire on December 31 following issuance. Recertification runs through continuing education unit workshops that NMDA approves and lists.
If you resell plants, New Mexico has a second license waiting, and it names your trade outright. NMDA states that the New Mexico Plant Protection Act requires all plant businesses to be licensed, meaning those that buy, sell, grow or collect plants. Inside the nursery dealer license, the department lists a Landscaper category defined as any person who buys and resells plants used in landscaping in connection with design services. The nursery dealer license is required for each location at which the listed activities are conducted, at a fee of $75 per location. If stock is propagated or grown on your premises you need an inspection certificate instead, at $75 plus $2 per acre of growing area, and every growing location has to be listed on the application so inspections can be scheduled. A collected plant permit, required to collect plants growing in the wild for commercial sale, is $75, and the permit numbers must be displayed on both sides of the vehicle used to transport collected plants, which is a display rule a crew hauling yucca will feel immediately. A special dealer license for sellers of only cacti or vegetable plants is $25 per location, and the department is specific that palm yucca, soaptree yucca and ocotillo are not cacti. Licenses are not transferable between businesses or locations, and holders must notify NMDA in writing of changes. Every license, certificate and permit expires annually on September 30, renewals must be postmarked before that date, and renewals sent after September 30 are subject to double fees.
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New Mexico writes its advertising rules as grounds for discipline, which makes them easy to read and expensive to ignore. Rule 14.5.8.8 NMAC lists actions by a licensee or certificate holder that violate the Construction Industries Licensing Act, and three of them are about how you present yourself. Contracting without displaying your full name as it appears on the license issued by the division is a violation. Advertising a classification or trade in which the contractor is not licensed by the division is a violation. Advertising a service in a false, fraudulent or misleading manner is a violation. The same list includes performing or holding oneself out as able to perform professional services beyond the scope of your license and field of competence, and aiding and abetting unlicensed contracting. The practical reading is short. Advertise the classifications you hold, under the exact business name on the license, and do not borrow a title you have not earned, including landscape architect. Enforcement has two tracks. The commission or an informal hearing officer may issue a letter of reprimand, deny, revoke, suspend or limit a license, assess an administrative penalty, or require continuing education within a time limit. For unlicensed activity, 14.5.8.12 NMAC states that if the division does not criminally prosecute an individual suspected of unlicensed activity under Section 60-13-52 NMSA 1978, the commission may take administrative action and seek an administrative penalty of $1,000.00 per violation. Per violation, not per complaint, is the part that stings on a multi-job investigation.
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The state license is one layer and the city is another, and in Albuquerque the city layer is the one a landscaping crew bumps into first. The City of Albuquerque Planning Department's Building Safety Division issues permits and runs building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical inspections, with building permits and plan review at Plaza del Sol. The city publishes separate permit process flowcharts for a homeowner building permit, a homeowner trade permit, a contractor building permit and a contractor trade permit, which is a useful signal that the city tracks who is doing the work. Two thresholds matter for hardscaping. The city lists walls and fences over six feet high as projects that require a building permit, and notes that walls and fences under six feet require a permit from the Zoning Counter. So a privacy wall or a tall garden wall is a permitted project either way in Albuquerque, which is stricter than a contractor used to the state masonry threshold would guess. The city also lists installation or alteration of a house sewer or water service outside of a structure as plumbing and mechanical permit work, which is the category a sprinkler tie-in and a yard line fall closest to. Zoning and code enforcement sits at a separate phone number from building permits. Outside Albuquerque, CID's own area offices in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces handle state permitting and inspection requests, so the right first call depends on which jurisdiction the address sits in.
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Every license in this page is publicly searchable, which is worth saying out loud in a sales conversation instead of hoping nobody looks. For contractors, CID's licensing vendor runs the public license search, where anyone can search an individual by certificate number, first name, last name, city or zip code, or search a company by selecting the company type Contractor. The same portal holds the renewal forms, the contractor license application, the qualifying party certificate application, the work verification forms and the contractor license bond form, so a homeowner who wants to understand what you had to do to get licensed can read the same paperwork you filed. For landscape architects, the Regulation and Licensing Department runs a separate license lookup under its Boards and Commissions Division, where the search is by profession, then by license type, name, license number, license status or address. The department frames the lookup as a service for consumers to quickly check license status and asks the public to report unlicensed activity by filing a complaint. CID also publishes disciplinary actions and runs an investigation and enforcement portal for unlicensed violations. The practical move for a landscaping company is to put the license number and the exact licensed business name on the estimate, the contract and the website, then tell the customer where to verify it. That is a two-sentence addition to a proposal, and it separates you from the crew that cannot survive the same search.
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These are common details other guides publish about New Mexico, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes, through the Construction Industries Division, but not under a landscape contractor title. CID licenses by scope of work, so you hold the classifications matching what you build: GS-4 for concrete walkways, GS-8 for earthmoving, GS-16 for masonry walls, MS-6 for lawn sprinklers, and GS-29 for regulated work the rule does not name.
MS-6, lawn sprinklers, in the mechanical and plumbing series. It requires two years of experience and covers installing, altering, repairing and maintaining potable water sprinkler systems, trenching and grading, backflow prevention devices, and control wiring not over 24 volts. MM-1 and MM-98 also include potable water irrigation sprinkler systems.
The only exemption is the handyman certificate, and it is tight. The work must be casual, minor or inconsequential, one project at a time, and must not exceed seven thousand two hundred dollars ($7,200) in compensation a year in the aggregate. Two jobs at once breaks it, regardless of price.
Not without a license. The New Mexico Board of Landscape Architects states that landscape architecture does not include landscape designers, tree experts, landscape caretakers, gardeners or contractors, and that these individuals cannot call themselves landscape architects unless licensed. Sell design work, but keep the title on your proposals accurate.
Before licensure and as a condition of every renewal, 14.6.3 NMAC requires a bond of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) from a corporate surety authorized in New Mexico. It must stay effective for the whole licensure period, and the surety has to give thirty days notice before cancelling.
CID's licensing vendor publishes $30 as a non-refundable application fee plus a $6 certificate fee for a new license, then $150 per classification for single classifications outside the 98 series and $300 per classification for GB02, GB98, GA98, GF98, EE98 and MM98. Multiple classifications in one category cap at $300.
CID states that the General Building Bureau does not have continuing education requirements for contractors. The requirement falls on trade certificates instead. Mechanical and plumbing certificates of competence, including the JS sprinkler certificate, need 16 approved hours every three years, 8 of them on code changes.
Yes. NMDA requires a license to apply any pesticide for hire, including general-use products. A commercial applicator certifies in the categories worked, which for yards means 3A, ornamental and turf pests, and 3B, ornamental and turf weeds. Employees who apply are licensed as operator technicians.
For ground or manual application, 21.17.50.22 NMAC sets minimum liability limits of $10,000 bodily injury each occurrence and $25,000 aggregate, $25,000 property damage each occurrence, or a $50,000 single limit, with a maximum $1,000 deductible. A $100,000 surety bond is the alternative proof of financial responsibility.
Probably. NMDA lists a Landscaper category inside the nursery dealer license, defined as anyone who buys and resells plants used in landscaping in connection with design services. The fee is $75 per location, and every license under that program expires annually on September 30.
Working outside your classification scope violates the licensing act and is grounds for discipline, which can include reprimand, suspension, revocation or an administrative penalty. For unlicensed activity, 14.5.8.12 NMAC lets the commission seek an administrative penalty of $1,000.00 per violation when it does not pursue criminal prosecution under Section 60-13-52 NMSA 1978.
Yes, and the type depends on height. Albuquerque lists walls and fences over six feet high as requiring a building permit, while walls and fences under six feet require a permit from the Zoning Counter. Outside water service and sewer alterations are listed as plumbing and mechanical permit work.
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