South Dakota · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
South Dakota does not license landscaping contractors at state level. The Department of Revenue requires every contractor to hold a contractor's excise tax license before starting work. Adjacent licenses are mandatory where they attach: the Plumbing Commission's underground irrigation license for sprinkler installation, and ornamental and turf pesticide applicator certification for spraying or fertilizing for hire.
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South Dakota does not license landscaping contractors. There is no state landscaping license, no state general contractor license, and no state home improvement registration that a landscaping company has to hold. What the state requires instead is one mandatory registration plus three adjacent licenses that specific tasks trigger. The Department of Revenue states that any person entering into a contract for construction services, meaning construction, building, installation, repair, or remodeling to real property, must hold a contractor's excise tax license, and that an individual must be licensed before starting work in South Dakota. It adds that all contractors must be licensed regardless of the type of work. That is a tax registration rather than a competency license, and it is not optional. Sitting on top of it are three competency licenses. The South Dakota Plumbing Commission licenses underground irrigation installers and contractors along with plumbers, sewer and water installers, appliance installers, manufactured and mobile home installers, water conditioning installers, and on-site wastewater installers, so a sprinkler system connected to potable water needs a license. The South Dakota Board of Technical Professions licenses landscape architecture and states that a person must be licensed before offering and providing that service on projects located in South Dakota. The state pesticide rules require a commercial applicator treating ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowers or turf to be certified in ornamental and turf pest control. A crew that grades, plants, lays sod, builds a patio, and sets a retaining wall needs none of those three. It still needs the tax license, a permit where the city requires one, and an inspection in the five cities that run their own program.
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Administrative Rules of South Dakota 20:53:08:02 states that persons engaged in underground irrigation installation must have a special underground irrigation license issued by the commission, and that the license is not required of persons already licensed as plumbing contractors, plumbers, or plumber apprentices. The rule defines underground irrigation installation as the practice of and the furnishing or use of materials and devices for installing underground irrigation systems and connecting them to the local source of potable water, including maintenance and service covering operation, adjustment, repair, removal, and renovation of those connections and devices. That definition is wider than new installation. Service calls, head replacement, backflow device work, and system renovation all sit inside it. The rule then splits the trade three ways. An underground irrigation contractor is a person who engages in the business or trade of installing underground irrigation system plumbing inside or outside a building and connecting it to the local source of potable water. An underground irrigation installer is a person whose principal occupation is to work as an employee of or under the direction of an underground irrigation contractor. An underground irrigation apprentice works as an employee of an underground irrigation contractor under the immediate and personal supervision of a contractor or an installer for the purpose of learning and assisting. The business holder of the work is the contractor license. If you are the owner selling irrigation systems, you need the contractor license, not the installer license. If you hire crew to run pipe and set heads, each one needs at least an apprentice license, and the commission states that applications must be submitted for all license types with the appropriate application fee.
The commission publishes the experience ladder for each trade it licenses. For an underground irrigation contractor license, it states that you must have one year of experience as an underground irrigation installer, fill out the specialty contractor license application, and submit it with the application fee. For an underground irrigation installer license, it states that you must have two years of experience as an underground irrigation apprentice and file the specialty installer license application. Administrative rule 20:53:08:04 says the same thing and adds an alternative route: an applicant for the contractor license must have one year of experience as an underground irrigation installer, or a combination of three years of experience as an underground irrigation apprentice or installer. That second path matters, because it lets a long-time crew lead reach the contractor license without first holding the installer license for a year. The rule requires an applicant to prove experience by means of affidavits, lets the commission investigate that experience, and requires the applicant to show that the applicant's work complies with applicable codes. If the commission rejects the application, the matter is treated as a contested case. The commission adds that verification of experience must be provided or signed off by a licensed plumbing or specialty contractor, or the equivalent if it came from another state, and that you cannot provide your own experience verification. There is a dedicated Underground Irrigation Experience Verification form on the commission's forms page for that purpose. Note the gap between the two numbers on the contractor route. Compared with the plumbing contractor license, which requires six years with at least two as a contractor or plumber and at least 1,900 hours per year, the irrigation route is short.
The commission states that it administers and establishes educational, training, and examination requirements for underground irrigation contractors, installers, and apprentices along with its other trades. Administrative rule 20:53:08:08 sets the content and the bar. The examination consists of questions based on the code, and the applicant may use the code to answer them. The questions for the underground irrigation contractor and the underground irrigation installer need not be the same. The passing grade for the underground irrigation contractor is 80 percent. The passing grade for the underground irrigation installer is 70 percent. The rule also builds in an upgrade: if an underground irrigation installer scores 80 percent or above on the installer examination, the installer is not required to write the contractor examination when applying for the contractor license, but must pay the license and examination fee for a contractor license and must meet the contractor experience requirement. The specialty contractor application carries a matching checkbox for license by upgrade and states that it requires experience verification and a score of 80 percent or more on the exam. On logistics, the commission states that exams are held in Pierre at any time by advance appointment, and are also held in Sioux Falls and Rapid City, but not on preset dates. It says those sessions run when the office has received enough applicants to warrant travel, and gives eight to 10 applicants as the minimum. First-time examinees must have submitted application and exam fees and been approved before scheduling. Re-exam fees must be submitted at least two weeks before a session to be added to it. Out-of-state applicants may test on affidavits showing the same qualifications required of South Dakota applicants.
Every fee below comes from Administrative Rules of South Dakota chapter 20:53:12, effective July 2, 2025, or from the commission's own exam page. Rule 20:53:12:01 sets the initial license application fee at twenty dollars for an apprentice license and fifty dollars for an installer, plumber, or contractor license. The specialty contractor license application states the same fifty dollar application fee on its face, and says the application expires 30 days from the date of receipt, after which you reapply and resubmit fees. Rule 20:53:12:02 sets the initial examination and reexamination fee at one hundred dollars for a contractor license and one hundred dollars for an installer license. The exam page states the same figures: contractor exams and re-exams are $100.00, plumber or installer exams and re-exams are $100.00. Rule 20:53:12:03 sets the initial license fee and the annual renewal fee. For an underground irrigation contractor license it is two hundred dollars, the same figure that applies to appliance, manufactured and mobile home, and water conditioning contractors. For an installer license it is one hundred five dollars. For an apprentice license it is twenty dollars the first year, thirty the second, forty the third, and fifty for four or more years. A plumbing contractor license costs two hundred seventy-five dollars and a sewer and water contractor license two hundred thirty-five dollars, so irrigation is the cheaper specialty. A temporary license fee is fifty dollars and the temporary license expires three months from issuance or when the holder passes the required exam, whichever comes first. A duplicate or replacement license is ten dollars. License verification is twenty dollars per request. All fees are non-refundable and must accompany the application.
The commission states, as a notice on its own front page, that per state law plumbing licenses expire annually on Dec. 31, and that reinstating a license requires a reinstatement form submitted with the appropriate fee. Administrative rule 20:53:12:03 calls the figure an annual license renewal fee and requires a renewal application with the appropriate fee for all licenses issued under South Dakota Codified Law chapter 36-25. The same rule sets the enforcement trigger: any licensee continuing to perform or offering to perform licensed services sixty days or more after license expiration is subject to disciplinary proceedings. That is the sentence to keep in mind if a renewal slips while you are mid-season. Reinstatement forms on the commission's forms page cover a license expired more than a month but less than a year, with a separate specialty license reinstatement application. Continuing education is narrower than most contractors expect. Administrative rule 20:53:11:03 states that the requirement applies to any plumbing contractor, restricted plumbing contractor, plumber, restricted plumber, or third year apprentice plumber licensed by examination. Underground irrigation licensees are not on that list. Rule 20:53:11:05 sets the amount for those who do owe it at a minimum of four hours each calendar year, and the commission adds that two of the four hours must cover code and that verification of completion must reach the commission office before renewal is processed. The commission does publish a list of approved continuing education providers and states that a course offered in another state may be accepted if it meets or exceeds South Dakota requirements. So an irrigation contractor renews on fee and paperwork, while a plumbing contractor on the same payroll renews on fee, paperwork, and four documented hours.
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The connection to potable water is the reason the state licenses this work at all, and the code sets what that connection has to look like. The commission states on its inspections page that it has completed the adoption process for the 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code and that the adopted amendments were provisionally effective as of Oct. 28, 2025. The state plumbing code sits in Administrative Rules of South Dakota article 20:54, and the commission points to it along with chapter 20:53 for the rules governing plumbing. Rule 20:54:25:01 states that potable water supply piping, water discharge outlets, backflow prevention devices, and similar equipment may not be located so as to make possible their submergence in any contaminated liquid. Rule 20:54:25:02 states that before any device for the prevention of backflow or backsiphonage is installed, it must first have been certified as meeting the approval of devices or assemblies section of the Uniform Plumbing Code, 2024 edition. Rule 20:54:25:03 states that the water-distributing system and each water outlet must be protected against backflow, either by an air gap above the flood-level rim of the receptacle or, where a minimum air gap is not possible, by an accessible backflow preventer installed on the discharge side of the manual control valve. The state's amendments to the adopted code add a reporting duty worth knowing: copies of testable backflow assembly test reports for the initial installation must be sent to the water supplier, and copies of annual testable backflow preventer test reports must also be sent to the water supplier. The amendments also define a testable assembly as one with properly located, resiliently seated test cocks and tightly closing, resiliently seated shutoff valves at each end.
The commission states that you must have a plumbing inspection certificate for all plumbing installations, and that the only exceptions are cities with their own inspection requirements. Outside those cities, the state runs inspections through six regional inspectors whose counties are published by name. The commission requires inspection requests at least 72 hours in advance, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, and recommends five business days because of the size of each inspector's region. It says emergency inspections can generally be handled within 24 hours of the request, in extreme situations only. On the state level, inspections are made after a plumbing installation certificate has been secured. The posted state fees are $20 for the installation certificate, $110 for inspection of a single family dwelling, $100 for a small structure with five or fewer fixtures, $275 for a large structure with six or more fixtures, and $75 for each additional inspection from the fourth and above. Administrative rule 20:53:10:03 sets matching plumbing permit fees of one hundred ten dollars for a single-family dwelling, two hundred seventy-five dollars for larger occupancies, one hundred dollars for a commercial facility with five or fewer plumbing fixtures, and seventy-five dollars for each additional inspection. Rule 20:53:10:02 adds an administrative late fee of one hundred dollars assessed to the installer for failure to file a plumbing installation certificate, requires the green copy of the certificate to be posted at the job location, and requires the pink copy to be given to the owner of the premises. A typical job is inspected in three phases, and the underground phase must be done before any plumbing trenches are backfilled.
Because the state licenses no landscaping trade, the city is where most landscaping companies meet a regulator. The Plumbing Commission sets the boundary in writing. It states that the only exceptions to the state plumbing inspection certificate requirement are cities that have their own inspection requirements, and that at present Aberdeen, Brandon, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, and Spearfish perform their own inspections. It tells contractors to contact the finance or inspection office of the city where the home or commercial structure is located to learn whether an inspection is required by local ordinance. That covers the two largest metros. Sioux Falls and Rapid City both run their own programs, so a sprinkler tie-in there is inspected by the city rather than by the state inspector, and the state license you hold does not substitute for the local permit. For the rest of each metro area, the commission's region table puts Minnehaha, Lincoln, Clay, eastern Turner, and Union counties in the Southeast region, and splits Pennington County between the Northwest and Southwest regions, so a job in a suburb outside the city limits usually goes back to the state inspector. The tax layer is also local. The Department of Revenue states that municipal sales and use tax applies to all sales of products and services that are subject to state sales or use tax, at a rate of 1 to 2 percent on top of the 4.2 percent state rate. It also states that businesses with multiple locations in South Dakota must hold a license for each location, while a statewide tax license for consolidated filing lets a company file one return.
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The commission publishes the governing language rather than a reciprocity table, which is the honest version. It quotes South Dakota Codified Law 36-25-21: the commission may register, without examination upon payment of the required fee, nonresident applicants registered under the laws of other states having requirements for regulating plumbers which the commission determines are substantially equivalent to the requirements of this state. It then quotes administrative rule 20:53:02:21, which requires applicants who want licensure without examination to apply on commission forms, to have been licensed by examination in the state they come from, to come from a state with licensure laws similar to South Dakota's, and to show that their work in that state complied with that state's plumbing code and that the code equals or exceeds the South Dakota state plumbing code. The commission says it will investigate these matters and may require affidavits. Two practical branches follow. If you were licensed by testing on the International Plumbing Code or another code, the commission states that you must provide verification of your current license and the experience necessary to obtain it in order to be approved to take the South Dakota examination for the same license type. South Dakota has adopted the Uniform Plumbing Code, so an IPC-based license does not transfer without testing. If the state you worked in did not require a license for that work at all, you must provide work experience verification plus proof that licensure was not required there, in order to be approved for examination here. Administrative rule 20:53:08:05 covers out-of-state irrigation applicants directly and lets them take the examination on affidavits showing the same qualifications required of South Dakota applicants. The specialty contractor application carries a license by reciprocity checkbox requiring proof of the individual's state license by exam.
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If you design, the title matters more than the shovel work. The Board of Technical Professions states that a person must be licensed by the board before being permitted to offer and provide architecture, engineering, land surveying, landscape architecture, or petroleum release services on projects located in South Dakota. South Dakota Codified Law 36-18A-65 makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor to practice or offer to practice landscape architecture without being licensed or exempt, to use or employ the title landscape architect with or without qualifying adjectives without being licensed, or to use any other words, letters, or figures indicating or intending to imply that the person is a landscape architect without being licensed. Section 36-18A-8 adds that no person or business entity may use in connection with its name, or otherwise assume, use, or advertise, any title or description that may falsely convey the impression that it is licensed. Even persons who fall inside the chapter's exemptions are told they may not use the title of landscape architect or any other words, letters, or signs in connection with their name that may falsely convey that impression. The statutory definition of practice in 36-18A-5 reaches further into ordinary landscaping than most contractors assume. It names production of overall site plans, landscape grading and landscape drainage plans, irrigation plans, planting plans, and construction details, along with specifications, cost estimates, feasibility studies, master plan analysis, and field observation of land area construction, restoration, and maintenance. The board's own landscape architects page points applicants to 36-18A-30 and administrative rules 20:38:30:04, 20:38:31:01, and 20:38:31:05 for education and experience, to the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board for accredited programs, and to the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards for exam dates.
Design work carries a second license at the company level. The board states that any business entity which offers and provides these professional services on projects located in South Dakota must obtain a certificate of authorization from the board, and that any licensee who offers and provides the services must be included under a business certificate of authorization unless employed by an exempt entity. To obtain the certificate, the business entity must employ one or more professionals licensed in South Dakota in the same field of practice. South Dakota Codified Law 36-18A-48 adds that the business entity is responsible for the conduct or acts of its agents, employees, officers, partners, members, or managers with respect to those services, that no person is relieved of responsibility for their own acts by reason of employment with the entity, and that a licensee who renders occasional, part-time, or consulting services to an entity may not be designated as the person in responsible charge. The board also tells business entities to check separately with the Secretary of State about a certificate of authorization from that office. The board's published fees are a landscape architect application fee of $100, a comity or reciprocity individual application fee of $100, and a business certificate of authorization application fee of $100. Renewals run on a two year cycle: $80 for an individual, $80 for a business, $40 for inactive status, $10 for retired status, and a $100 late renewal penalty. Reinstating a lapsed individual license within three years is $180 and reinstating a business license is $180. Landscape architecture exam fees go directly to the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards. Renewal also requires a minimum of 30 professional development hours in the two year period, at least 20 of them in technical subjects and up to 10 in professional management subjects.
The chemical side is the third license, and it attaches to work most landscaping companies sell by default. Administrative rule 12:56:04:04 states that commercial applicators using pesticides to control pests in the maintenance and production of ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowers, and in the maintenance and production of turf, must be certified for ornamental and turf pest control, and that licensed applicators in that classification must be certified and licensed to use any pesticide. The certification mechanics sit in chapter 12:56:05. Rule 12:56:05:02 states that applicators requiring a license must be certified to be eligible for a license, and that initial certification is obtained by passing a written examination furnished by the department with a score of at least 70 percent. Rule 12:56:05:03 lets an applicant who fails take a reexamination three days after notification of the failure. Rule 12:56:05:01 sets the maintenance cycle: certification may be maintained by passing a written examination with a score of at least 70 percent every two years following initial certification, and in lieu of a renewal examination, attendance at a certification course held under the direction of the department qualifies the licensed applicator for maintenance of certification. Recordkeeping is where this license shows up on the job. Rule 12:56:07:01 requires each applicator to record, for every application, the name and address of the person for whom the pesticide was applied, the location, the pest treated, the area or number of plants treated, the year, month, day and time, who applied it, the trade and common name of the product, the company name on the label, weather including wind direction, estimated velocity and temperature, and the amount and concentration applied. Rule 12:56:07:03 requires those records to be kept three years. Rule 12:56:07:04 requires a commercial applicator, upon written request, to give the customer a record of each application to the customer's land.
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South Dakota taxes the two halves of a landscaping job differently, and the Department of Revenue draws the line item by item. Its contractor's excise tax guide states that services subject to sales tax include landscape designing, lawn mowing, spraying, and fertilizing, ornamental shrub and tree planting, trimming and removal including stump removal and grinding, pruning, utility line tree trimming, seeding or laying sod, and mowing highway edges. It states that services subject to contractor's excise tax include laying bricks, whether around a flower bed or for a retaining wall, patio, walkway, or driveway, installation of a lawn sprinkler system, installation of fountains and ponds that contain heaters or flowing water, brush or timber clearing services such as for a shelter belt, and stump removal in fields. One exception is flagged: seeding or sodding a public road right of way as part of a highway construction project is subject to contractor's excise tax. The guide separately states that installation of irrigation systems is subject to contractor's excise tax. The rates come from the department's own license requirements publication: state sales and use tax is 4.2 percent, municipal sales and use tax runs 1 to 2 percent, and the department's contractor's excise tax page states that the excise tax imposed on the gross receipts for construction projects is at a rate of 2 percent. A single job that includes a patio, a sprinkler system, sod, and a spring fertilizer application therefore straddles both taxes, which is a bidding problem before it is a filing problem. There is no fee for a sales or contractor's excise tax license, and the department issues a license card once the license is approved.
This is the section where South Dakota is lighter than contractors moving in from neighboring states expect. The Plumbing Commission's licensing rules in Administrative Rules of South Dakota chapter 20:53 set application, examination, license, renewal, temporary license, duplicate, and verification fees, and they set experience and examination standards, but they do not impose a surety bond or a general liability insurance minimum on an underground irrigation contractor. The only bond provision in the chapter, a bond of the secretary-treasurer, is marked repealed. The Board of Technical Professions likewise publishes application, renewal, reinstatement, and penalty fees for landscape architects and business certificates of authorization without a bond or insurance figure. Workers compensation is also optional. The Department of Labor and Regulation states plainly that there is no law in South Dakota requiring any employer to carry workers compensation insurance, that coverage is highly recommended, and that an uninsured employer may be sued in civil court by an injured worker. The department describes the program as an insurance program for employers who choose to have coverage, paying medical and disability benefits for work-related injuries and diseases. What is not optional is tax registration. The Department of Revenue states that an individual must be licensed before starting work in South Dakota and that all contractors must be licensed. It also states that businesses with multiple locations in the state must hold a license for each location, though a statewide tax license for consolidated filing is available. So the compliance floor for a landscaping company here is a tax license, the irrigation license if you touch potable water, applicator certification if you spray, and whatever insurance your general contractors, lenders, and municipalities demand in contract rather than in statute.
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The penalties are statutory and modest on paper. Administrative rule 20:53:04:08 cross-references violation of South Dakota Codified Law chapter 36-25 as a Class 2 misdemeanor, and rule 20:53:12:03 adds that a licensee who keeps performing or offering licensed services sixty days or more after expiration is subject to disciplinary proceedings. On the design side, South Dakota Codified Law 36-18A-65 makes unlicensed practice of landscape architecture, misuse of the landscape architect title, and use of words, letters, or figures implying licensure each a Class 2 misdemeanor. The tax penalty is the heaviest of the three. The Department of Revenue states that anyone operating a taxable business in South Dakota without a tax license is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, with a penalty on conviction of up to $1000 and up to one year in jail, and that a person who keeps operating after the department notifies them that a license is required could be found guilty of a Class VI felony, with a fine up to $4000 and up to two years in the state penitentiary. On advertising, neither the Plumbing Commission's pages nor its rules in chapter 20:53 require a license number on vehicles, estimates, signage, or a website. The restrictions that do exist are title restrictions. Do not call yourself a landscape architect, a plumber, or a plumbing contractor unless you hold that license. The Board of Technical Professions can discipline a licensee for untruthful or improbable statements in advertisements and for misleading or untruthful representations in advertisements or published materials. For verification, the Plumbing Commission posts lists of licensees on its consumer information page, including a South Dakota specialty licensees list that covers underground irrigation, and it accepts consumer complaints about a plumber's work through a complaint form.
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These are common details other guides publish about South Dakota, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. There is no state landscaping contractor license and no state general contractor registration. What the state does license are the pieces inside the job: underground irrigation through the South Dakota Plumbing Commission, landscape architecture through the Board of Technical Professions, and pesticide application through the state pesticide rules. Everything else runs on permits, city inspection programs, and tax registration.
Yes. Administrative rule 20:53:08:02 states that persons engaged in underground irrigation installation must have a special underground irrigation license from the Plumbing Commission. The rule covers connecting the system to the local source of potable water plus maintenance, operation, adjustment, repair, removal, and renovation. A plumbing contractor, plumber, or plumber apprentice license already covers the work.
The contractor license is for the person who engages in the business or trade of installing underground irrigation system plumbing and connecting it to potable water. The installer license is for someone whose principal occupation is working as an employee of, or under the direction of, an underground irrigation contractor. If you sell the job, you need the contractor license.
One year of experience as an underground irrigation installer, per the commission's licensing page. Administrative rule 20:53:08:04 adds a second route: a combination of three years of experience as an underground irrigation apprentice or installer. Experience must be proved by affidavits, verified by a licensed plumbing or specialty contractor you worked under, and cannot be self-certified.
Administrative rule 20:53:08:08 sets the passing grade at 80 percent for the underground irrigation contractor exam and 70 percent for the installer exam. Questions are based on the code and you may use the code to answer them. An installer who scores 80 percent or above does not have to write the contractor exam later, but still owes the contractor fees and experience.
Administrative rules chapter 20:53:12 sets a fifty dollar application fee for a contractor or installer license, a one hundred dollar exam or reexam fee for either, and an initial and annual license fee of two hundred dollars for an underground irrigation contractor license or one hundred five dollars for an installer license. A temporary license is fifty dollars.
No. South Dakota Codified Law 36-18A-8 bars using any title or description that may falsely convey the impression of licensure, and 36-18A-65 makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor to use the landscape architect title, or words implying it, without a license. A business entity offering the service also needs a certificate of authorization from the Board of Technical Professions.
Administrative rule 12:56:04:04 requires commercial applicators using pesticides on ornamental trees, shrubs, and flowers, and on turf, to be certified for ornamental and turf pest control. Initial certification comes from a written exam with a score of at least 70 percent, and certification is maintained every two years by exam or by attending a department certification course.
Both, depending on the line item. The Department of Revenue puts landscape designing, mowing, spraying, fertilizing, planting, pruning, stump grinding, and laying sod under sales tax, and puts brick laying for retaining walls, patios and walkways, lawn sprinkler system installation, heated or flowing water features, and shelter belt clearing under contractor's excise tax.
No. The Department of Labor and Regulation states that no law in South Dakota requires any employer to carry workers compensation insurance, while recommending it and warning that an uninsured employer may be sued in civil court by an injured worker. General contractors, lenders, and municipalities often require coverage by contract even though the state does not.
Administrative rule 20:53:04:08 cross-references a violation of South Dakota Codified Law chapter 36-25 as a Class 2 misdemeanor. A separate exposure is the tax license: the Department of Revenue states that operating a taxable business without one is a Class 1 misdemeanor carrying up to $1000 and up to one year in jail, and continuing after notice can be a Class VI felony.
The Plumbing Commission posts lists of licensees on its consumer information page, including a South Dakota specialty licensees list that covers underground irrigation, and the commission also takes consumer complaints about a plumber's work. Written license verification is available from the commission for a twenty dollar fee per request under administrative rule 20:53:12:04.
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