Arizona · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Arizona licenses the plumbing business, not the plumber. The Arizona Registrar of Contractors issues classification C-37 for commercial plumbing, R-37 for residential and CR-37 for both, to the company, with a named qualifying party carrying four years of experience and passing two exams at 70 percent. A.R.S. 32-1124(B) then puts the ROC number on estimates and advertising.
Verified against agency sources on 2026-09-11. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
The Arizona Registrar of Contractors licenses plumbing, and the thing it licenses is the business, not the plumber. A.R.S. 32-1151 makes it unlawful for any person, firm, partnership, corporation, association or other organization to engage in the business of, submit a bid or respond to a request for qualification or a request for proposals for construction services as, act or offer to act in the capacity of or purport to have the capacity of a contractor without having a contractor's license in good standing in that name. The same section says evidence of securing a permit from a governmental agency or the employment of a person on a construction project shall be accepted in any court as prima facie evidence of existence of a contract, so pulling a permit is itself evidence. The individual side is handled through a qualifying party. The Registrar describes the qualifying party as a regularly employed person with the necessary experience, knowledge and skills as defined under A.R.S. 32-1122(E), serving as the responsible managing employee, who may not take conflicting employment while doing it. Arizona issues no state journeyman plumber or master plumber license. There is no state grade ladder to climb. The credential is the entity's license, and the qualifying party is the person the state holds responsible for it. A.R.S. 32-1124 sets the mechanics of issuance. The registrar decides applications within 60 days, licenses are nontransferable, and every license displays the ROC prefix. The same section suspends a license automatically when the licensed entity dissolves, when a sole owner dies, when partners are added or removed, when the entity loses authority to do business in Arizona, or when the license was obtained with a check that did not clear.
Arizona sorts contracting into coded classifications and plumbing has several. C-37 Plumbing covers installation, alteration, and repair of all plumbing when performed solely within property lines. C-77 Plumbing Including Solar adds solar to that same commercial scope. C-78 covers solar plumbing, liquid systems only. On the residential side, R-37 Plumbing, Including Solar covers install and repair of water and gas piping systems and fire protection as it relates to water sprinkler systems, and R-37R carries subclassifications for Plumbing, Gas Piping, Sewers Drains and Pipe Laying, and Solar Plumbing Liquid Systems Only, with the Registrar noting that several of those subclassifications no longer accept new licenses. Outside property lines the work changes class: A-12 Sewers, Drains and Pipe Laying covers any project involving sewer access holes and the laying of pipe for storm drains, water and gas lines. The dual classifications combine scopes in one license. CR-37 Plumbing combines the commercial and residential plumbing scopes. CR-77 Plumbing Including Solar combines the solar inclusive versions. CR-80 Sewers, Drains and Pipe Laying combines the A-12 and R-37R sewer scopes. Prefixes carry meaning on their own: A is commercial engineering, B is general building, C is commercial specialty, R is residential and CR is dual. The practical reading is to match the code to the pipe and to the property line. Work inside the property line is C-37, R-37 or CR-37. Work outside it, on mains, storm drains and sewer access holes, is A-12 or CR-80. Solar water heating is C-77, C-78 or CR-77.
Sourcesroc.az.gov
The choice between the commercial, residential and dual plumbing classifications is a pricing decision as much as a scope decision, because Arizona charges differently for each. A specialty commercial license such as C-37 costs $100 application plus $480 license, $580 total, with no Recovery Fund assessment. A specialty residential license such as R-37 costs $80 application plus $270 license plus a $370 Recovery Fund assessment, $720 total. A specialty dual license such as CR-37 costs $100 application plus $380 license plus the $370 Recovery Fund assessment, $850 total. The residential and dual tiers pay into the Residential Contractors Recovery Fund and the commercial only tier does not, which is why a purely commercial plumbing shop pays less to the state and offers homeowners no Recovery Fund protection. Bond amounts follow the same split under A.R.S. 32-1152, where specialty residential bonds run lower than specialty commercial bonds, and a dual licensed contractor combines the amounts from both classifications. Scope drives the rest. C-37 stops at plumbing within property lines, so a plumbing company that also lays sewer and water mains outside the property line is looking at A-12 or CR-80 alongside it. Solar water heating is its own code rather than an extension of C-37. One more consideration is who your customers are. Residential customers can reach the Recovery Fund only if the contractor holds a residential or dual classification, so a plumbing company selling to homeowners under a commercial only license is giving up a selling point the Registrar itself promotes.
A.R.S. 32-1122 sets one experience standard across classifications: a minimum of four years practical or management trade experience, at least two of which must have been within the last ten years. Technical training may substitute for up to two years of that requirement, which means formal schooling can cut the field requirement in half but cannot replace it. The recency clause is the one that catches people. An owner who ran a plumbing crew for a decade and then spent fifteen years selling does not meet the two of the last ten years test on old field time alone. The qualifying party also has to be a regularly employed person of the licensee, described by the Registrar as the responsible managing employee, and cannot hold conflicting employment while serving. That is a genuine constraint for a plumbing company that wants to rent a qualifier rather than employ one. The application also requires an attestation that the applicant has complied with the statutes and rules governing workers compensation insurance, with the policy number or self insurance documentation where the law requires coverage. Nothing in the statute asks for a journeyman certificate, an apprenticeship completion, or a plumbing specific school credential, because Arizona does not issue individual plumbing licenses to begin with. Because the license belongs to the entity and the qualifying party has to be a regularly employed person of that entity, the company must keep someone qualified in the role for as long as the license is active. A plumbing company that treats the qualifier as a formality finds out otherwise when that person leaves, which makes succession for the role a licensing task rather than an HR one.
Sourcesazleg.gov 1roc.az.gov 2
Arizona makes the qualifying party pass two separate exams. The first is the AZ Statutes and Rules Training Course and Exam, the SRE, which the Registrar states is a computer based training program and exam that is only offered online through Gmetrix. The second is the trade exam for the classification, taken online or at a testing center through PSI Services. Both have the same bar: the qualifying party must pass the required examinations by at least 70 percent and submit the exam results. The trade exam can be waived in one narrow case, where the qualifying party has been the qualifying party within the preceding five years for a license in good standing in the same classification. National exam substitution exists in Arizona but not for plumbing. The Registrar allows the NASCLA Commercial General Building Exam in place of the ROC trade exam for B-1 and B-2 general contractors at $106 plus the $25 application fee, and the NASCLA Electrical Examination Program in place of the trade exam for CR-11, C-11 and R-11 electrical at $116. No plumbing classification appears on that substitution list, so a C-37, R-37 or CR-37 qualifying party sits the Arizona trade exam through PSI. Gmetrix support is 801-323-5800 and PSI is 855-744-0310. Exam results have a shelf life. A.R.S. 32-1122 requires the written examination to have been taken not more than two years before application, so a qualifying party who tested and then delayed the application can be pushed back into the test center.
Sourcesroc.az.gov 1roc.az.gov 2
The Registrar publishes its fees as flat amounts by classification tier, and the license period is two years. New license totals: general commercial $200 application plus $580 license, $780. Specialty commercial $100 plus $480, $580. General residential $180 application plus $320 license plus $370 Recovery Fund, $870. Specialty residential $80 plus $270 plus $370, $720. General dual $200 plus $480 plus $370, $1,050. Specialty dual $100 plus $380 plus $370, $850. Renewal totals for the next two year term: general commercial $580, specialty commercial $480, general residential $320 license plus $270 Recovery Fund, $590, specialty residential $270 plus $270, $540, general dual $480 plus $270, $750, specialty dual $380 plus $270, $650. A plumbing company taking CR-37 therefore budgets $850 to get licensed and $650 every two years to stay licensed, before bond premium and before the exams. The Registrar's application fee for adding a NASCLA based classification is quoted separately at $25, on top of the $106 or $116 national exam fee. Exam charges sit outside these tables entirely, since Gmetrix bills the statutes and rules exam and PSI bills the trade exam. Commercial only classifications pay no Recovery Fund assessment at issue or at renewal, which is the clearest single cost difference between the commercial and residential paths. Two costs sit outside these tables and both are recurring. The surety bond premium is set by the surety against the amount A.R.S. 32-1152 requires for your classification and volume. Workers compensation coverage is attested to at application and has to stay in force.
Sourcesroc.az.gov 1roc.az.gov 2
Arizona does not publish one bond number for plumbing. A.R.S. 32-1152 requires a surety bond in a form acceptable to the registrar, or a cash deposit, before an original license issues, and it says amounts are fixed by the registrar within statutory schedules after giving due consideration to the volume of work and the classification contemplated by the applicant. The schedules split the same way the fees do. General commercial contractors run from $5,000 at under $150,000 of volume up to the $50,000 to $100,000 range at or above $10 million of volume. Specialty commercial contractors run from $2,500 at under $150,000 of volume up to the $37,500 to $50,000 range at or above $10 million. General residential contractors run from a $5,000 minimum to a $15,000 maximum. Specialty residential contractors run from a $1,000 minimum to a $7,500 maximum. A dual licensed contractor combines the amounts from its commercial and residential classifications. That structure means a plumbing company's bond grows with its reported volume rather than staying fixed, and it means a CR-37 holder carries more bond than a C-37 or R-37 holder doing the same revenue. A.R.S. 32-1152.01 allows alternatives to the cash deposit. The bond is a claim instrument, not insurance for the contractor. The Registrar's public search publishes bond type, bond number, effective and cancellation dates, the surety's name, amounts already paid and the amount still available to claim, so a customer can see how much of your bond is left before signing.
Sourcesazleg.gov 1roc.az.gov 2
Residential and dual licensees pay a $370 Recovery Fund assessment at licensure and $270 at each renewal, and commercial only licensees pay neither. What the money buys the homeowner is a claim route when a licensed residential contractor leaves damage behind. The Registrar tells consumers that an eligible homeowner may be eligible to apply to the Registrar's Residential Contractors Recovery Fund, with coverage of up to $30,000 to have the work corrected or completed, and publishes a Recovery Fund line at (602) 542-1525 or 877-MY AZROC. The fund is the reason the Registrar's consumer warning about unlicensed work is as blunt as it is: you, as the property owner, have no recourse through AZ ROC if you hire an unlicensed entity. For a residential plumbing contractor that is a selling point rather than an overhead line. A licensed CR-37 or R-37 plumbing company gives a homeowner a state backed remedy that an unlicensed competitor cannot match, and the Registrar itself makes that argument on its consumer pages. The Registrar also notes that many complaints about unlicensed entities are received where the home or business owner believed they had contracted with a licensed, bonded and insured contractor, but they had not. The fund is also a reason to keep the license in active status through the whole job rather than through the contract date only, since eligibility runs off a licensed residential contractor. The Registrar's consumer guidance tells homeowners to only sign a contract with a contractor whose license is in active status at the time of the contract.
Sourcesroc.az.gov 1roc.az.gov 2
Arizona has a small jobs exemption and it comes with an advertising condition that plumbing contractors should know because their unlicensed competitors routinely break it. A.R.S. 32-1121(A)(14) exempts any person other than a licensed contractor engaging in any work or operation on one undertaking or project by one or more contracts for which the aggregate contract price, including labor, materials and all other items, is less than $1,000. The statute carves out certain plug in fixtures and appliances from the price calculation, and it specifically excludes anything using natural gas, propane or other petroleum or gaseous fuel to operate. That exclusion matters for plumbing: gas fired equipment does not get the appliance carve out. The exemption is also conditional. It does not apply to a person who uses any form of advertising to the public in which the person's unlicensed status is not disclosed by including the words not a licensed contractor in the advertisement. So an unlicensed handyman advertising water heater swaps without that phrase has lost the exemption regardless of the ticket size, and A.R.S. 32-1165 then applies. Licensed plumbing contractors can use that rule directly when a customer compares a quote against an unlicensed bid. The aggregate language matters as much as the dollar figure. The exemption applies to one undertaking or project by one or more contracts, so splitting a $2,400 repipe into three tickets does not create three exempt jobs. The price includes labor, materials and all other items.
Sourcesazleg.gov 1azleg.gov 2
Arizona prosecutes two separate acts. Contracting without a license violates A.R.S. 32-1151. Advertising without a license violates A.R.S. 32-1165, which makes it a class 1 misdemeanor for any person to advertise that the person is able to perform any service or contract for compensation subject to regulation by the registrar unless the person first obtains a license. The advertisement alone is the offense, with no job and no customer required. Penalties run through A.R.S. 32-1164, which makes acting without a license a class 1 misdemeanor and sets minimum fines rather than maximums: not less than one thousand dollars for a first offense and not less than two thousand dollars for a subsequent offense. The same section attaches tax conditions to probation. A defendant placed on probation must pay in full all transaction privilege tax or use tax amounts due to the state arising from the offense, and the equivalent amounts owed to the county and to the city or town where the offense took place. That last piece is the part contractors underestimate, because it converts an unlicensed job into a documented tax liability across three jurisdictions. The Registrar also maintains a public posting list of licensing actions. For a licensed plumbing contractor the practical use of these statutes is competitive rather than defensive. An unlicensed competitor advertising plumbing services has already committed the A.R.S. 32-1165 offense before quoting anything, and the Registrar takes complaints about unlicensed entities directly.
Arizona requires the license number in four specific places, and this is the rule the Registrar named in the question every contractor asks. Under A.R.S. 32-1124(B) the license number must be posted in a conspicuous place on premises where any work is being performed, on all written bids and estimates submitted by the licensee, on all published advertising, letterheads and other documents used by the licensee to correspond with the licensee's customers or potential customers in the conduct of business regulated by this chapter, and on all broadcast, internet or billboard advertising, unless that broadcast, internet or billboard advertising includes a website's uniform resource locator that directly links to a website that prominently displays the licensee's name and license number. Licenses issued by the Registrar display the ROC prefix. The website substitute is the 2021 change, effective September 29, 2021, and the Registrar describes it in its own announcement: licensed contractors no longer need to include their license numbers on vehicle, radio, internet or billboard advertising if the advertisement includes a web address and the license number is prominently displayed on the website. The Registrar's announcement also states what still holds: the license number stays required on all bids, contracts, estimates and customer correspondence documents. The same statute keeps the consequences proportionate. A posting violation is grounds for disciplinary action at the registrar's discretion, but it cannot prevent a contract award and does not void a contract, so the exposure is licensing exposure rather than a lost job or an unenforceable agreement.
The website substitute only works if the site actually carries the information, and the Registrar has published guidance on what that means. Its announcement of the 2021 change says the advertisement must include a web address that links to the home page, and that the contractor's name and ROC license number must be prominently displayed on that home page, described as clearly visible, appropriately sized, not in the footer and not hidden behind graphics. The Registrar issued a formal policy on the point, listed on its statutes, rules and policies page as policy 2021.02, Online Advertising and Prominent Display of License Number, dated September 29, 2021. Three practical consequences follow for a plumbing contractor. A truck wrap or a paid search ad can drop the number only if it points to a site that carries name and number up front. A number sitting in a footer or baked into a logo image is the specific failure mode the Registrar calls out. And written estimates, bids and customer correspondence get no website substitute at all under A.R.S. 32-1124(B), so the number belongs on every estimate template regardless of what the website does. Posting violations are grounds for disciplinary action under the same statute, though they cannot void a contract or block a contract award. Treat this as a template problem rather than a one time fix. The four places in A.R.S. 32-1124(B) map to four artifacts a plumbing company reprints constantly: the jobsite sign, the estimate template, the letterhead and email footer used for customer correspondence, and the website home page the truck and search ads point at.
The Registrar's fee schedule states that license fees are for a two year license, so plumbing licenses renew on a two year cycle at $480 for specialty commercial, $540 for specialty residential and $650 for specialty dual including the Recovery Fund assessment. Reciprocity in Arizona does not run through the Registrar's own agreements. It runs through the state's universal recognition statute, which the Registrar publishes on its own home page: pursuant to A.R.S. 32-4302, a person shall be granted an occupational or professional license or certificate if the person has been licensed or certified in another state for at least twelve months, the license or certificate is in the same discipline and at the same practice level as the license or certificate for which the person is applying in this state, and the person meets other conditions prescribed by that section. Note the shape of that. It is written around a person holding a license in another state, and it requires the same discipline and the same practice level, so a plumber arriving from a state that licenses individuals by grade has to map that grade onto an Arizona classification. The only trade exam waiver the Registrar publishes separately is the in state one for a qualifying party who held the same classification within the preceding five years. Universal recognition also does not move a business license across a state line by itself. An out of state plumbing company still needs an Arizona entity license under A.R.S. 32-1151, with a qualifying party, the bond under A.R.S. 32-1152 and the workers compensation attestation.
Arizona has no state journeyman license, but its largest city does. The City of Phoenix Planning and Development Department runs a Journeyman and Apprentice Licensing program, and states that all work performed on plumbing and mechanical systems where a permit is required must be performed by a licensed journeyman or by an apprentice. Journeyman applicants must provide evidence of at least four years of experience related to the test being requested, accepted as union cards or notarized employer letters, and an examination is required before applying. Apprentices need no prior experience and no examination, but do need employment confirmation on company letterhead, signed by a company official and notarized. Terms differ: a journeyman license is valid for three years and an apprentice license is valid for one year. City fees are modest next to the state ones. A journeyman license covering plumber and gas fitter is $50.00, mechanical and gas fitter is $50.00, and all three trades together is $100.00. Apprentice fees run $20.00 for gas fitter, $20.00 for plumber and gas fitter, $20.00 for mechanical and gas fitter, and $40.00 for plumbing, mechanical and gas fitter. A plumbing company working Phoenix needs the ROC license for the entity and Phoenix cards for the people. The city license is tied to the person and to employment. Apprentice applicants document employment on notarized company letterhead, so a plumbing company hiring in Phoenix generates paperwork for each new apprentice and renews those cards annually while journeyman cards run three years.
Sourcesphoenix.gov 1phoenix.gov 2
Tucson does not run a Phoenix style trade license, and it leans on the state statute instead. The city's permit guidance states that all work improvements to commercial properties and all residential rental properties require a licensed contractor per A.R.S. 32-1121, which is the same exemption statute that carries the $1,000 threshold and the not a licensed contractor disclosure. Tucson adds a local business requirement on top: licensed contractors must also provide the permit counter with a City of Tucson business license. That is the pattern across Arizona cities. The trade credential comes from the Registrar, the right to do business in the city comes from the city's own license, and the permit counter checks both. For a plumbing contractor expanding across metro areas, the practical work is keeping a current ROC license, a business license in each city worked, and, in Phoenix, current journeyman or apprentice cards for the crew. A.R.S. 32-1151 makes securing a permit prima facie evidence of a contract, which means the permit counter is also where an unlicensed entity creates its own evidence. Checking the local business license requirement before bidding out of area is cheaper than discovering it at the counter on install day. Tucson Water adds its own layer in Section 1445, Private Plumbing, which states that all work on private plumbing shall be done by persons licensed and bonded to perform the work, asks contractors to show at least 5 years experience with similar work and to provide proof of credentials to Tucson Water at least two weeks before starting, and requires a permit for each address receiving private plumbing.
The Registrar runs a public Contractor Search and pushes consumers to it with one line: anyone can pretend to be a contractor, check the license. Its consumer guide describes what the search returns, and the list is more detailed than most state lookups. License status shows as active, inactive, suspended, expired, revoked, voluntary cancellation or withdrawn. Classification shows the license class, which tells a homeowner whether the plumbing company in front of them actually holds C-37, R-37 or CR-37 for the work being sold. Complaint history shows any complaint cases within the prior two years, including the type of closed case, disciplined or resolved and settled, the complaint identification number and the outcome. Bond detail shows bond type and number, effective and cancellation dates, the bond company name, paid amounts, available claim amounts and bond status. The guide's instruction to consumers is to only sign a contract with a contractor whose license is in active status at the time of the contract. Two things follow for a plumbing contractor. Keep status active through the renewal date rather than trusting a grace period. And put the ROC number where a customer can copy it, since A.R.S. 32-1124(B) already requires it on every written estimate. The Registrar adds one more instruction that plumbing companies should design around: verify the person you are negotiating your project with is an authorized representative. Sales staff introducing themselves without naming the licensed entity create the exact confusion the Registrar warns homeowners about.
These are common details other guides publish about Arizona, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Companies. A.R.S. 32-1151 requires the license in the name of the person, firm, partnership, corporation, association or other organization doing the contracting. A named qualifying party carries the experience and passes the exams, but Arizona issues no state journeyman or master plumber license.
C-37 Plumbing for commercial, R-37 Plumbing Including Solar for residential, or CR-37 Plumbing for both. C-77 and CR-77 add solar, C-78 is solar liquid systems only, and A-12 or CR-80 cover sewers, drains and pipe laying outside property lines.
The regularly employed person the Registrar holds responsible for the license, described as the responsible managing employee with the necessary experience, knowledge and skills under A.R.S. 32-1122(E). The qualifying party may not take conflicting employment while serving in that role.
A.R.S. 32-1122 requires four years of practical or management trade experience, at least two of which must have been within the last ten years. Technical training may substitute for up to two of those four years. The recency test rules out field time that is all more than ten years old.
Two. The AZ Statutes and Rules Training Course and Exam, offered online only through Gmetrix, and the trade exam for the classification through PSI Services. Both require at least 70 percent. No NASCLA substitute exists for plumbing, only for B-1 and B-2 general and for electrical.
A specialty commercial license such as C-37 totals $580. A specialty residential license such as R-37 totals $720 including the $370 Recovery Fund assessment. A specialty dual license such as CR-37 totals $850. Licenses run two years, and specialty dual renewal is $650.
It depends on classification and reported volume under A.R.S. 32-1152. Specialty commercial runs from $2,500 at under $150,000 of volume upward. Specialty residential runs from a $1,000 minimum to a $7,500 maximum. A dual license combines the commercial and residential amounts.
A.R.S. 32-1124(B) requires it in a conspicuous place on the job site, on all written bids and estimates, on published advertising, letterheads and customer correspondence, and on broadcast, internet and billboard advertising unless that ad links to a website prominently displaying your name and license number.
Only if the vehicle advertising carries a web address linking to a site whose home page prominently displays your name and ROC number. The Registrar describes prominent as clearly visible, appropriately sized, not in the footer and not hidden behind graphics. Bids, contracts and estimates still need the number.
A.R.S. 32-1164 makes it a class 1 misdemeanor with fines of not less than one thousand dollars for a first offense and not less than two thousand dollars after that. Probation requires paying transaction privilege or use tax owed to the state, county and city.
A.R.S. 32-1121(A)(14) exempts projects under $1,000 in aggregate contract price, but the exemption fails if the person advertises without including the words not a licensed contractor. The statute also excludes equipment that runs on natural gas, propane or other gaseous fuel from its appliance carve out.
The Registrar publishes A.R.S. 32-4302 universal recognition rather than trade agreements: a license held in another state for at least twelve months, in the same discipline and at the same practice level, with the other conditions in that section met. The only exam waiver is an in state five year rule.
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