Tennessee · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
The Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors licenses landscaping work under classification BC-29. A state contractor's license is required before bidding or contracting any landscaping project of $25,000 or more as a prime contractor. Below that amount, or when working as a subcontractor to a licensed contractor, no state contractor license applies, but local business licenses still do.
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Tennessee licenses landscaping at state level, through the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors inside the Department of Commerce and Insurance. The Board was established in 1931 and its authority over contractors, home improvement contractors, limited licensed electricians and limited licensed plumbers sits in Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 62, Chapter 6. Landscaping is not an afterthought in that scheme. It has its own classification code. The Board's own contractor license application package names Landscaping as classification BC-29 and lists it beside Residential Building, Commercial Building, Electrical, Plumbing and Masonry as an example of the license types the Board issues. So a landscaping company in Tennessee is licensed by the same board that licenses the general contractor building the house, under the same statute, using the same application. The trigger is money, not plant material. The Board states the rule in one line in its application package: a contractor's license is required prior to bidding projects of $25,000 or more. That requirement bites before you sign anything. The Board defines contracting to include offering a price, bidding, and negotiating a price, so the license has to be in hand before the estimate goes out, not before the crew shows up. There is no county option and no local substitute. The license is issued by the state, in Nashville, in the exact legal name of the business entity that filed the financial statement. Cities and counties add permits, inspections and business licenses on top of it, but none of them issues the license itself. If your landscaping company bids design, installation or hardscaping work at or above that figure and contracts directly with the property owner, this board is your regulator.
The Tennessee rule turns on two questions: how much the project is worth, and who you are contracting with. The Board for Licensing Contractors requires a contractor's license before bidding, offering to engage, or negotiating a price for projects of $25,000 or more when you act as a prime contractor, meaning you contract directly with the owner of the project. Construction management is covered at the same figure. The second question is where landscaping gets its own treatment. The Board's application package is explicit that a contractor's license is not required for all subcontractors. Subcontractors who bid directly to a contractor rather than to the owner, for work such as painting, excavation and landscaping, are not required to hold a contractor's license. The exceptions listed are mechanical, plumbing, HVAC, electrical and roofing over $25,000, and masonry over $100,000. Landscaping is not on that exception list. So a landscaping firm working as a true subcontractor under a licensed general contractor does not need the state license for that work. The trap is spelled out in the same document. Bidding to a homeowner who is acting as their own general contractor makes you a prime. Many residential landscaping and hardscaping jobs are sold exactly that way, direct to the homeowner, with no general contractor in the middle. That makes the landscaping company the prime contractor, and the $25,000 figure applies. The Board also warns that a project cannot be split into multiple contracts or phases to get under a limit. Phasing a large installation into three smaller invoices to dodge the threshold is treated as circumventing the license law, not as clever scheduling.
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Every Tennessee contractor license carries a classification, and the classification controls what work you may legally bid. Landscaping is BC-29, one of the building subcategories the Board lists. The Board's application package describes those subcategories as running from Acoustical Treatments, BC-1, through Irrigation, BC-33, and names Landscaping as BC-29, Demolition as BC-31, Roofing as BC-21 and Scaffolding as BC-34 among them. That detail matters to a landscaping company that also installs sprinkler systems, because irrigation is its own numbered subcategory rather than part of the landscaping code. The Board allows a licensee to hold up to five of these building subcategories without sitting a trade exam, and states that passing the full BC building exam would cover all of them. A landscaping contractor who wants landscaping and irrigation on one license is therefore asking for two subcategories, well inside that allowance. Hardscaping pushes on the same question from a different direction. Masonry is treated separately: the Board requires the LMC masonry trade exam for masonry work of $100,000 or more, whether performed as a prime or as a subcontractor, and ties that to building subcategory BC-9. A retaining wall and patio package that crosses that figure in materials, equipment and labor is masonry work in the Board's eyes, not landscaping. The practical move is to request the classifications that match the work you actually sell, before you bid it. The Board treats bidding outside your classification the same way it treats bidding without a license at all, and the full subcategory list lives in Board Rule 0680-01-.16 and the Board's published classification outline.
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Tennessee does not just hand you a license. It hands you a license with a dollar ceiling on it. The Board calls this the monetary limit, and the application package defines it as the total dollar amount per individual contract or project, with a ten percent tolerance. The limit is calculated from your financial statement and your experience. The Board's stated formula is ten times the lesser of your working capital and your net worth, plus evidence that you have worked on projects of that size, whether for yourself or while employed by other contractors. Working capital is current assets minus current liabilities. Net worth is total assets minus total liabilities. The Board's own worked example is a $150,000 limit requiring working capital and net worth of at least $15,000, and a contractor showing $10,000 working capital against $200,000 net worth qualifying only for $100,000, because the lesser figure governs. A line of credit may be submitted to raise working capital, or a supplemental financial statement with a guaranty indemnity may be used. For an unlimited license the Board requires $300,000 in both working capital and net worth, experience, and an audited financial statement, and states an audit is not required at renewal to retain that limit. Exceeding your monetary limit is a violation. The Board states that contractors or their subcontractors exceeding the limit is cause to reject the bid, and that the contractor is then prohibited from rebidding or participating on the project. For a landscaping company, this means the limit is a sales constraint, not paperwork. If you want to bid a $400,000 campus installation, the balance sheet has to support it first.
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A CPA-prepared financial statement has long been the price of entry for a Tennessee contractor license. The Board's application package requires one, prepared by a properly licensed CPA under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, and states that a compiled statement and an income tax basis statement are not acceptable for a new license. A reviewed opinion supports a monetary limit of $3,000,000 or less. An audited opinion is required above that. The license is then issued in the exact name that appears on the financial statement, which has to match the business name on the charter, articles of organization, certificate of insurance and any guaranty or bond. Two changes matter for anyone applying now. The Board announced that beginning July 1, 2026, contractors may use a new Contractors' Surety Bond as an alternative to submitting a CPA-reviewed or CPA-audited financial statement, and that the bond must be in an amount equal to at least fifty percent of the monetary limit requested. Applicants choosing that route must use the Board-approved Contractors' Surety Bond form. The Board also notes that the rules governing financial statement requirements were updated as of November 18, 2025, and points to Rule 0680-01-.32. For a landscaping company that owns trucks, skid steers and trailers rather than cash, the bond option is the more interesting of the two, because it converts an accounting exercise into a bonding decision. Renewal is easier than application. The Board states that contractors with a monetary limit of $1,500,000 or less may submit a self-prepared or compiled financial statement at renewal, and that review or audit is not required to renew at higher limits.
Tennessee tests business competence harder than it tests landscaping technique. The Board's application package states that all contractor license applicants must supply a Tennessee Business and Law exam score. That exam is open book and based on the NASCLA reference manual, Contractors Guide to Business, Law and Project Management. Trade exams are a separate question, and this is where landscaping contractors get a break. The Board lists classifications that do not require an exam, based instead on equipment and experience, and states plainly that a contractor who performs only landscaping, or roofing, or painting, or excavation needs no trade exam. The building subcategories from BC-1 through BC-33, which include Landscaping at BC-29 and Irrigation at BC-33, carry no trade exam for up to five subcategories. The one landscaping- adjacent exception is masonry, where the LMC trade exam is required for masonry work of $100,000 or more. The exam itself is taken by a Qualifying Agent, the person who passes the exam or supplies the experience for a non-tested classification. The Qualifying Agent may be an owner, an officer, or a full time employee holding a Power of Attorney, and the license belongs to the entity rather than to that person unless they are also the owner. The Board states it prefers three years of experience and also looks at equipment and financial information. The exam vendor is changing. The Board announced that beginning July 1, 2026, Prov serves as its trade exam provider, replacing PSI, with candidates already scheduled with PSI able to keep those appointments. The Board's application package lists the per-exam cost as $57.00.
Tennessee contractor fees are published by the Board and they are modest compared with the financial statement work behind them. For a contractor license the Board lists $250 for an initial application, reinstatement or ownership change, and $200 for renewal. Late renewal carries a penalty of $20 per month for up to twelve months. A mode of operation change is $100. Retirement of a license costs $25 per year of renewal for up to seven years, and every seven years a $200 reset fee is required to keep the license in retirement. A duplicate license is $25. The Home Improvement license, which is a separate credential, is priced the same at the front end: $250 initial, reinstatement or ownership change, $200 renewal, a $10 per month late penalty for up to three months, and a $10 duplicate fee. The limited licensed electrician license is $50 initial, $50 renewal, $80 reinstatement. The limited licensed plumber license is $75 initial or reinstatement and $50 renewal. Every fee the Board lists is non-refundable, which the Board states at the top of its fee page. The term is two years. The Board's application package confirms the $250.00 application fee buys a two year license, and that upon Board approval the license is issued for two years showing the license name, identification number, classification, expiration date and monetary limit. Budget the exam cost and the CPA engagement separately, because neither is a Board fee. For a landscaping company the real cost of entry is the financial statement or the surety bond, not the application.
The Board requires a certificate of insurance before it will process a contractor license application, and it is specific about the form. The certificate must show policy numbers and expiration dates, and the Board for Licensing Contractors must be listed as the certificate holder, with the Board's Nashville address. The Board asks applicants to submit the certificate with the application rather than having the insurer send it separately, and requires the insured name to match the name on the financial statement. General liability minimums are tied to the monetary limit, in three tiers. A monetary limit up to $500,000 requires $100,000 of coverage. A limit of $501,001 to $1,500,000 requires $500,000. A limit exceeding $1,500,001 up to unlimited requires $1,000,000. Workers' compensation is required for all contractors applying for a license unless the contractor has no employees and the owner has met the criteria to be exempt or has registered as a Construction Services Provider with the Tennessee Secretary of State. For a landscaping company with seasonal crews, that exemption is narrower than it sounds, and the Board points applicants to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development guidance on employee versus independent contractor status. Bonding is a separate matter. The Board states that bonding is not required to obtain a contractor's license, but may be required for bidding or for obtaining local government permits and inspections. A bond in the Board's format may also be used as an indemnity where the financial statement is mostly cash with little or no fixed assets, or to support a larger monetary limit. All applicants must also submit one letter of reference from a past client, employer or code official who has inspected the work.
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A Tennessee contractor license runs two years and there is no grace period. The Board states that plainly: renewal should be submitted thirty days before the expiration date to avoid contracting on an expired license, which would be considered unlicensed activity, and there is no grace period to operate while expired. The Board's example is blunt. If the license expires on July 31, a permit would be denied on August 1. Renewal notices go out ninety days before expiration and carry the individual or organization number needed to renew online. At renewal the Board requires a financial statement, proof of insurance, answers to the renewal questions and disclosures, and the $200 fee. Corporations and limited liability companies must also keep their status active with the Tennessee Secretary of State. Renewal rights last twelve months past expiration, with a late fee of $20 per month, after which the license cannot be renewed and must be obtained again through the reinstatement process, which is the full new application process. Trade exams are waived on reinstatement, and the Business and Law exam does not have to be retaken. If a license has been expired more than two years, the Qualifying Agent may write to the Board requesting waiver of retaking the trade exams, and only the Board, not staff, can grant that. A landscaping company with a seasonal business can also park the license rather than lose it. The Board allows a licensee to retain renewal rights by placing the license in retirement for $50, or to retire it for up to seven years at $25 per year. The Board states that insurance and a financial statement are not required while a license sits in retirement.
Tennessee does not let an out of state license stand in for a Tennessee one. The Board's application package puts a note in the opening instructions: there is no reciprocal agreement that allows working without first obtaining a Tennessee license. What reciprocity does exist is narrow and specific. The Board describes its agreements as trade exam waivers only. A contractor coming from another state still completes the entire Tennessee license process, including the Business and Law exam, the financial statement, the insurance certificate, the reference letter, the Qualifying Agent designation and Board approval, before contracting in Tennessee. The Board lists trade exam waiver agreements with licensing agencies in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina, and notes that the waivers are limited by trade within each state: Alabama for general, electrical, residential and HVAC; Arkansas for commercial and residential building only; Georgia for commercial and electrical; North Carolina for residential, commercial and electrical; Ohio for electrical, plumbing and HVAC; and South Carolina for general. The Board also states it accepts the NASCLA national commercial trade exam. For a landscaping contractor crossing a state line, the trade exam waiver is close to irrelevant, because the Board does not require a trade exam for landscaping in the first place. What actually controls the timeline is Board review. The Board states that applications are reviewed by an assigned Board member as they are submitted, with approvals ratified at the next regularly scheduled meeting, and that the Board meets in January, March, May, July, September and November. An early review is available through the Board's hardship process when an emergency license is needed.
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Tennessee attaches the penalty to the bid, not to the shovel. The Board states that a contractor who contracts, bids, offers to engage or obtains a permit without a license carrying the proper classification and monetary limit is in violation of T.C.A. 62-6-120. The consequences the Board describes are commercial rather than merely administrative. The Board states that the license may be denied or held up to six months, which makes the contractor ineligible to be awarded the project, and that the contractor could not participate in any rebidding of that project. In other words, the sanction is losing the job twice: once when the bid is rejected and again when the rebid happens without you. The Board also states that an applicant in this position would be required to interview with the Board to obtain a license, which lengthens the timeline considerably given that the Board meets every other month. Separately, the Board's instructions describe contracting without a license as a violation of the law punishable by monetary penalties, and note that the law prohibits participating on the project or any rebidding of it. Exceeding the monetary limit on an existing license draws the same bid rejection and rebidding prohibition. Working on an expired license is treated as unlicensed activity, with no grace period. For a landscaping company the practical risk is concentrated in one place: the residential job sold direct to a homeowner that grows past $25,000 after change orders. If the license was not in place when the price was quoted, the Board's rule was already broken. Getting classification and monetary limit right before quoting is cheaper than any of the alternatives.
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Landscape design and landscape architecture are not the same credential in Tennessee, and the distinction is statutory. The State Board of Examiners for Architects, Engineers, and Land Surveyors, inside the Department of Commerce and Insurance, was created to regulate architecture, engineering, land surveying, landscape architecture and interior design. Its published mission covers the licensure or registration of landscape architects and landscape architectural firms, and it points to Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 62, Chapter 2 and Chapter 18, Part 1 for the requirements. That means two things for a landscaping contractor. Landscape architectural firms are registered as firms, not only as individuals. And calling yourself a landscape architect, or your company a landscape architecture firm, is a licensing claim rather than a marketing choice. A landscaping contractor holding a BC-29 classification from the Board for Licensing Contractors is licensed to build. That is a different license from the one that authorizes the title. The Board publishes its fees for the credential. A landscape architect application by exam is $30, not including the exam fee. Application by comity, the route for someone already licensed elsewhere, is $55, and reapplying is also $55. The biennial registration and renewal fee is $140, with a late renewal penalty of $10 per month or fraction of a month, and a decorative duplicate certificate is $25. Continuing education is on an honor system the Board describes in detail. A landscape architect seeking renewal for the first time after initial registration must obtain twelve hours of continuing education in the following two years, seven of which must address health, safety and welfare issues and technical competencies. Every two years after that, twenty-four hours are required, thirteen in those subjects. Records must be kept four years, and the Board audits five percent of registrants.
If your landscaping crews spray for hire, a second regulator applies. The Tennessee Department of Agriculture requires a pesticide charter for each office conducting commercial pest control services, and the department states these rules apply to anyone engaged in commercial pest control or supervising pesticide applications that require certification. Charters and licenses are not transferable between individuals or entities. The license category that fits lawn and ornamental work is HLT, Horticultural Lawn and Turf, which the department lists alongside WDO for wood destroying organisms, GRC for general pest and rodent control, WEC for weed right-of-way, AQW for aquatic weed and others. The department publishes per-year fees of $200 for a charter, $25 per license category per licensee, $25 for solicitor or technician registration, and $250 for the pest control consultant category, with fees pro-rated by quarter. Charters renew every two years and expire on June 30 of odd-numbered years. Bond and insurance are conditions of the charter. The department requires a $50,000 surety bond for any structural license category, meaning WDO, GRC, FUM or BDC, and a $10,000 bond otherwise, which is the figure an HLT-only landscaping company faces. Liability insurance minimums are $250,000 per single occurrence and $500,000 aggregate. Errors and omissions coverage of $100,000 per occurrence and $300,000 aggregate is required only for WDO license holders. The charter application must list the name and department license number for each license holder working under it, and a roster of every solicitor and technician authorized to solicit pest control business or sign contracts on the charter's behalf. Changes must be reported within thirty days.
Certification is separate from the charter and separate from the license category. The Department of Agriculture runs commercial applicator certification on a three year cycle that starts July 1 and ends June 30 of the third year, and states that failure to earn the required continuing education units by the end of the cycle means retesting for any category the applicator wants to recertify in. Certification exams are $25 for each attempt, taken online through the department's testing portal or in person on selected dates through the University of Tennessee Pesticide Safety and Education Program. Continuing education requirements vary by category and are published as a table. To take two examples relevant to grounds work, category C03 requires eighteen units for a full three year cycle, and category C09, limited herbicide application, requires twelve. Applicators certified partway through a cycle owe two thirds or one third of the full amount depending on when they passed. Units earned before passing the exam do not count, and units do not carry over between cycles. Recordkeeping is strict. Commercial applicators must keep a record of each custom application and each restricted use pesticide application, including the applicator's name and certification number, the trade name as it appears on the product label, the address of the application, the date, the target area and target pest, total amount applied, percentage use dilution, application rate, and the name of the property owner or tenant. Records must be kept at least two years. The department may inspect locations, equipment, pesticides and records. Violations can bring stop work orders, license or certification revocation, civil penalties or criminal charges. Reciprocity with other states exists but is granted case by case.
Irrigation sits in two places in Tennessee. On the contractor license it is a building subcategory, Irrigation, numbered BC-33, which a landscaping company can add alongside Landscaping at BC-29 without a trade exam, within the five subcategory allowance. On the water side it is a drinking water protection issue. Tennessee's Cross-Connection Control Program, run through the Department of Environment and Conservation's Fleming Training Center in Murfreesboro, provides the training and certification for individuals who test backflow prevention assemblies and for the public water systems that run local cross-connection control programs. The department names irrigation personnel explicitly among those its Basic Workshop is intended for, alongside plumbers, water system personnel and fire protection system personnel. That course is three days, in person, course number 101, with a fee of $335. It covers how backflow occurs, proper installation and selection of backflow prevention devices, recordkeeping, and testing of reduced-pressure backflow prevention assemblies and double-check valve assemblies. Students who pass the written and practical examinations receive a Certificate of Competency in Testing and Evaluating Backflow Preventers. The department states that Tennessee backflow prevention assembly tester certifications must be renewed every three years. The one day Renewal Workshop, course number 102, costs $170 and requires a current Tennessee certificate; passing its practical examination renews the certificate. A one day Repair Workshop, course number 103, costs $125. For a landscaping company installing irrigation, the sequence is practical rather than theoretical. The connection to the potable supply is where the regulator looks, and the local water system administers the cross-connection control program that governs testing and reporting on your installed assemblies.
Three local obligations sit under the state license. The first is the Tennessee business license. The Department of Revenue states that a separate $15 business license registration fee must be paid to the county or municipal clerk for each new business, that an in-state location with gross receipts over $3,000 but under $100,000 must obtain a minimal activity license from that clerk, and that a standard business license is required at $100,000 or more. The department also states you are not allowed to operate until the required license is obtained and posted at the business location. The second is the Home Improvement license, a separate Board credential required of those without a contractor's license in nine counties: Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford and Shelby, for remodeling projects from $3,000 to less than $25,000. The third is local permits and inspections, which the Board notes may require bonding even though bonding is not required for the state license. On display and verification, the Board's bidding rule is the one that bites. Under T.C.A. 62-6-119, for projects of $25,000 or more the prime contractor must list the licensed name exactly as licensed, the license identification number, the classification and the expiration date, and must list the same information for listed electrical, plumbing, mechanical, HVAC and masonry subcontractors. On the pesticide side, the Department of Agriculture requires business name and certification number to be displayed on company vehicles in the same manner as charter numbers. Customers verify a contractor license at the state's public search at verify.tn.gov, and commercial pesticide certification status through the department's commercial applicator lookup.
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These are common details other guides publish about Tennessee, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes, above a dollar figure. The Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors issues a Landscaping classification, BC-29, and its application package states a contractor's license is required prior to bidding projects of $25,000 or more. Below that, and when you work as a subcontractor to a licensed contractor, the state contractor license does not apply to landscaping.
BC-29. The Board for Licensing Contractors lists Landscaping as BC-29 in its contractor license application package, as one of the building subcategories that run from Acoustical Treatments at BC-1 through Irrigation at BC-33. The Board allows up to five of those subcategories on one license without a trade exam.
No. The Board states that a contractor performing only landscaping, or roofing, or painting, or excavation does not take a trade exam; the classification is based on equipment and experience. The Tennessee Business and Law exam is still required of every contractor license applicant. Masonry over $100,000 does require the LMC trade exam.
Selling direct to the property owner makes you a prime contractor, and the Board states that bidding to a homeowner acting as their own general contractor makes you a prime. At $25,000 or more you need the license before quoting. The Board also requires the LMC masonry exam for masonry work of $100,000 or more.
No. The Board states that a project cannot be split into multiple contracts or phases to circumvent the license law. Exceeding your monetary limit is cause to reject the bid and prohibits rebidding or participating on that project, so phasing to dodge the figure costs you the job rather than saving it.
The Board lists $250 for an initial application, reinstatement or ownership change, and $200 for renewal, with the license issued for two years. Late renewal runs $20 per month for up to twelve months. The Board's application package lists each exam at $57.00. All Board fees are non-refundable.
That was the only route, and now there are two. A CPA reviewed statement supports a monetary limit of $3,000,000 or less and an audit is required above that. The Board also announced that from July 1, 2026 a Contractors' Surety Bond equal to at least fifty percent of the requested monetary limit may be used instead.
A certificate of insurance naming the Board for Licensing Contractors as certificate holder. General liability minimums track the monetary limit: $100,000 up to a $500,000 limit, $500,000 from $501,001 to $1,500,000, and $1,000,000 above $1,500,001. Workers' compensation is required unless you have no employees and meet the exemption or registration criteria.
Only if it is registered as one. The State Board of Examiners for Architects, Engineers, and Land Surveyors regulates landscape architecture and registers landscape architects and landscape architectural firms under Title 62, Chapter 2. A BC-29 contractor classification licenses you to build, not to use the title.
If you apply pesticides commercially, yes. The Department of Agriculture requires a pesticide charter for each office conducting commercial pest control services, plus a license category. Horticultural Lawn and Turf, HLT, is the category for lawn and ornamental work. A $10,000 surety bond applies to non-structural categories, with $250,000 and $500,000 liability minimums.
Irrigation is contractor subcategory BC-33 on the license side. For testing, the Department of Environment and Conservation's Fleming Training Center certifies backflow prevention assembly testers and names irrigation personnel among those its three day Basic Workshop is for. That course is $335, and the certification must be renewed every three years.
Through the state's public license search at verify.tn.gov, run by the Department of Commerce and Insurance. For pesticide work, the Department of Agriculture publishes a commercial applicator certification lookup. On bids of $25,000 or more, state law already requires the prime contractor to list the licensed name, license number, classification and expiration date.
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