Hawaii · Plumbing licensing · official-source guide
Hawaii licenses plumbing twice over. The Contractors License Board licenses the contracting business under classification C-37, Plumbing contractor. A separate Board of Electricians and Plumbers licenses the individual worker as a journey worker plumber or master plumber under HRS chapter 448E. Both boards sit in the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. Advertising without your license number in it is a misdemeanour.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-09-11. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Hawaii is one of the states where getting this wrong is expensive, because plumbing is licensed at two levels by two different boards inside the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs. The Contractors License Board licenses the business that contracts for plumbing work. Its classification for that work is C-37, Plumbing contractor. Anyone who offers to, holds out as able to, or contracts to perform residential, commercial or public works construction, alterations or improvements must hold a contractor license. The Board of Electricians and Plumbers licenses the individual who does the work. HRS 448E-1 defines a journey worker plumber as a person licensed by that board to direct and supervise the performance of plumbing work and to perform plumbing work, and a master plumber as a person licensed by that board to direct and supervise, to perform, and who provides overall supervision and general direction and is responsible for proper installation. The board's own consumer bulletin puts the distinction plainly: licensed contractors are people or companies that employ tradespeople, and licensed electricians and plumbers are individual tradespeople with the training and experience to do the actual work. HRS 444-9.5 then ties the two together on the job site. At least half of all individuals performing plumbing work employed on a construction job site by a plumbing contractor must be licensed under chapter 448E. The board may waive that in a county with insufficient licensed workers. So a Hawaii plumbing company needs a C-37 license for the entity, a qualified responsible managing employee behind it, and a crew that is at least half chapter 448E licensed. Holding one of the three is not compliance.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2data.capitol.hawaii.gov 3cca.hawaii.gov 4data.capitol.hawaii.gov 5
The scope of C-37 is set out in Exhibit A to HAR chapter 16-77, and it is broader than the name suggests. C-37, Plumbing contractor, is the work to install, repair or alter complete plumbing systems. That includes supply water piping; hot water piping, including heat pump water heaters and hot water supply boilers with a heat input of 200,000 BTU/h or less; waste water piping; fuel gas piping; waste water treatment systems; and other fluid piping systems. It covers the equipment, backflow prevention assemblies, instrumentation, non-electric controls and fixtures for those systems, and the venting for waste water and fuel gas piping. It reaches into work that other states split off. The classification includes piping for vacuum, air and medical gas systems; spas and swimming pools; lawn sprinkler and irrigation systems; sewer lines and related sewage disposal work within property lines; fire protection sprinkler systems when supervised by licensed mechanical engineers or licensed fire protection contractors; and solar hot water heating systems, plus the trenching, backfilling, patching and surface restoration connected with all of it. Medical gas piping being inside C-37 is a real advantage when bidding clinic and lab work. Two boundaries matter. The hot water supply boiler limit is 200,000 BTU/h or less. Sewer work is within property lines only. Seven narrower classifications sit under the C-37 heading. C-37a, sewer and drain line, covers the run from house to city sewer with connections, and septic tanks and package sewage treatment plants. C-37b covers irrigation and lawn sprinkler systems, including control wiring at twenty-four volts or less. C-37c covers vacuum and air systems. C-37d covers water chlorination and sanitation. C-37e covers treatment and pumping facilities. C-37f covers fuel dispensing, including tanks and pumps at service stations. Picking the right one is not cosmetic. HAR 16-77 states that no licensee may act, assume to act or advertise as a contractor in any classification other than those held, and HRS 444-23(a) fines a licensee contracting outside the appropriate scope $500 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second, and not less than $1,500 or more than $2,000 thereafter.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2data.capitol.hawaii.gov 3
Hawaii does not issue a contractor license to a company on the strength of the company alone. It licenses through a qualified individual. The board publishes three separate application tracks: Contractor Entity, Contractor Sole Owner, and Contractor Responsible Managing Employee. The board's FAQ states that if applying as an entity, you must also complete the responsible managing employee application. The RME is the person whose qualifications the license actually rests on. HAR 16-77-18(c) states the rule directly: contracting entities shall qualify through an RME who meets the experience requirements. Those requirements are in the same rule, discussed in the next section. Residency is part of it. The board's FAQ states that the principal RME is in residence in Hawaii during the time the license of the contracting entity is in effect, or during the period a project is under construction. An out-of-state firm cannot nominate an RME who never comes to the islands. HAR 16-77-87 adds a place of business requirement that catches mainland contractors. No license shall be issued or renewed to any contracting entity, except RMEs, that does not maintain a permanent place of business within the State where it may be served notice and legal process, and where its license is prominently displayed. Permanent place of business means a physical address, not a post office box. HAR 16-77-89 allows out-of-state licensees to use an attorney's office or similar office, provided an individual there can be served with notice and legal process and will handle correspondence. HAR 16-77-88 requires notice to the board of any change of address within ten business days.
The experience test for a Hawaii contractor license is in HAR 16-77-18, and it is written around supervision rather than tool time. Every individual applicant or RME shall have had, within the past ten years immediately preceding the filing of an application, not less than four years of supervisory experience as a foreman, supervising employee or contractor in the particular classification in which the applicant intends to engage as a contractor. Three parts of that sentence matter. The four years must be supervisory, at foreman level or above. They must be in the particular classification applied for, so C-37 experience supports a C-37 application and not a C-37b one, or the reverse. And they must fall inside the ten years immediately before filing, which means old experience goes stale. HAR 16-77-18(b) gives the board room to accept self-employed or unlicensed experience at its discretion. That is useful for applicants whose supervisory years were run through their own unlicensed operation on the mainland, but it is discretionary rather than a right. HAR 16-77-19 lets the board approve certain technical training or business administration training as acceptable experience, but in no case shall the training count as more than one year. HAR 16-77-20 lets the board accept reasonably equivalent knowledge, training or experience. HAR 16-77-15 sets the board's own clock: it shall act upon the license application within one hundred and twenty days after the applications committee determines the application is proper. The board also states that applications are considered abandoned if applicants fail to complete licensure within one year, or fail to take and pass the examination within six months of becoming eligible.
Hawaii sets a higher pass mark than most states, and the number is in the rules rather than in a candidate bulletin. HAR 16-77-44 states that a grade of seventy-five per cent shall be a passing grade. That is the bar. The examination has two parts. HAR 16-77-40, Examination part II, requires all applicants for a contractor's license to take and successfully pass a written examination designed to test the applicant's specialized knowledge in the particular classification in which the applicant desires to be licensed. Part I is the general paper that precedes it. The board contracts the testing out. Its examination page names PSI Services LLC as the administrator of the contractor examinations as of January 2023, and directs candidates to the candidate bulletin for details. There is a time limit on passing that is easy to miss. The board states that applicants must pass the examinations within six months, and that applicants who do not pass within six months must re-apply by filing a new application. The board's own application materials describe the same six month window and a one year outer limit for completing licensure. HAR 16-77-41 provides the one route around the examination, and it is narrow. An examination shall not be required when the applicant has previously qualified by written examination within four years prior to application, or within four years from the date the applicant was last licensed in good standing or in inactive status, provided the applicant applies for a license in the same classification in which the applicant previously qualified. Note what that does not say. It is not reciprocity. It is a four year look-back for people who already sat a Hawaii examination in the same classification.
This is the shortest section on the page because the board's answer is one sentence long. Asked whether it recognises licenses from other states, the Contractors License Board answers no, and states that all applicants must meet the same licensing and examination requirements. There is no plumbing carve-out, no agreement list and no endorsement route. A master plumber with thirty years and a contractor license in another state files the same application, documents the same four years of supervisory experience inside the last ten, and sits the same examination as a first-time applicant. The only relief in the rules is HAR 16-77-41, and it does not help someone arriving from the mainland. It waives the examination for an applicant who previously qualified by written examination within four years prior to application, or within four years of last being licensed in good standing or inactive, and only where the application is for the same classification in which the applicant previously qualified. That is a look-back for prior Hawaii examinees, not recognition of another state's test. What can be carried across state lines is experience rather than credentials. HAR 16-77-18 requires four years of supervisory experience as a foreman, supervising employee or contractor in the classification, within the past ten years. It does not require that the experience was gained in Hawaii, and HAR 16-77-18(b) lets the board accept self-employed or unlicensed experience at its discretion. Plan the move accordingly. Mainland time counts toward the qualification. The examination, the Hawaii place of business, the RME residency expectation and the insurance and bonding all still have to be satisfied here.
Hawaii attaches continuing insurance obligations to the license itself, and the consequence of letting them lapse is unusually severe. The board's entity application sets minimum limits of liability at Bodily Injury Liability $100,000 each person and $300,000 each occurrence, and Property Damage Liability $50,000 each occurrence. A workers compensation certificate is required from an authorized insurer, with a statement that the board will be notified of any changes or cancellation. HRS 444-11.1 makes both continuous conditions of holding the license. A licensed contractor shall have and maintain in full force and effect workers compensation insurance, unless authorized to self-insure or excluded under chapter 386; liability insurance for comprehensive personal injury and property damage liability; and a bond when required by the board. Then comes the sentence that matters. Failure, refusal or neglect to maintain any of those in full force and effect shall cause the automatic forfeiture of the license, effective as of the date of expiration or cancellation of the coverage. Forfeiture is automatic and backdated to the lapse, not triggered by a board hearing. The board shall not restore a forfeited license until satisfactory proof of continuous coverage is submitted. Failure to restore within sixty days results in forfeiture of all fees and requires the person to apply as a new applicant. The board may assess a fee not to exceed $1,000, impose a bond, or restrict the license as a condition of restoration. On bonding, HRS 444-16.5 lets the board require a specialty contractor, which includes C-37, to put up a bond of not less than $5,000. HAR 16-77-76 requires a licensee to maintain any bond the board imposes for at least one year before requesting a waiver, and lets the board waive it on evidence of financial integrity.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1data.capitol.hawaii.gov 2cca.hawaii.gov 3
The Contractors License Board charges at three points, and asks for something most state boards do not. The entity application states a $50 non-refundable application fee for each application filed, and an entity license fee of $260. A half-period renewal is listed at $95, and a service charge of $25 applies to dishonored payments. Renewal runs on a fixed biennial cycle rather than an anniversary. For the 2026 to 2028 period the board lists active entity and sole proprietor renewal at $338.00, active RME renewal at $208.00, and inactive status at $160.00 for all types. The financial statement is the requirement that surprises applicants. The board requires a current financial statement, not more than a year old, that is compiled, reviewed or audited and accompanied by an independent accountant's report. That is an accountant engagement, not a printout from your bookkeeping software, and it needs lead time before the filing date. Insurance certificates are filed through their own channel. The board directs contractors to submit them at the PVL insurance portal rather than with the paper application, and all filings and renewals run through the MyPVL portal. Two deadlines govern the application once it is in. The board acts within one hundred and twenty days of the applications committee finding the application proper. The applicant must pass the examinations within six months of eligibility and complete licensure within one year, or file again. The board also publishes applications for additional classifications, inactivation, reactivation, status change, bond waiver and conversion, and an owner-builder exemption from chapter 444.
The Board of Electricians and Plumbers issues the licenses your crew has to hold, and the requirements are in HRS 448E-5. For a journey worker plumber, an applicant shall provide satisfactory evidence of experience of at least five years full-time or its equivalent, but not less than ten thousand hours, as a journey worker's or master plumber's helper. The board's own application materials state the same test as five years but not less than 10,000 hours of plumbing work in compliance with the Uniform Plumbing Code. For a master plumber, an applicant shall have been registered with the board as a journey worker plumber for at least two years, or shall have equivalent experience in the trade. The board's application materials describe it as being registered as a licensed journey worker plumber in this or another state for at least two years. That last phrase is worth noting, because it is the one place in Hawaii plumbing licensing where another state's credential does work for you. It applies to the master plumber step, not to the contractor license. HRS 448E-5.5 requires every applicant to be examined. The examination is based on the Uniform Plumbing Code. The board publishes an experience verification form for plumbers, form EP-02, and a license verification form, EP-04, for applicants documenting an out-of-state license. The license type codes the board uses are PJ for journey worker plumber and PM for master plumber, alongside the electrician codes. Apprentices are handled differently. HRS 448E-9(b) states that an apprentice or trainee learning the trade need not hold a license if acting under the supervision of an appropriately licensed person.
Sourcesdata.capitol.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2cca.hawaii.gov 3
Individual plumber licenses run on a three year cycle, and Hawaii does require continuing education to renew one. The application fee is $40. License issuance is prorated across the triennium at $306 in the first year, $204 in the second and $102 in the third. A Compliance Resolution Fund fee is charged on the same sliding basis at $50, $100 or $150. A $25 charge applies to dishonored payments. Renewal is by June 30 every three years, with the board listing 2027, 2030 and 2033 as renewal years and a renewal window for 2027 running May 10 to June 30. Active status renewal is $306.00 and inactive status is $12.00. HRS 448E-8.5 sets the continued competency requirement, and for plumbers it is specific. Prior to each license renewal, all licensed plumbers shall either furnish the board with proof of attendance at an educational course related to current updates of the Uniform Plumbing Code conducted or approved by the community colleges, or successfully complete an examination prescribed by the board on current updates to the Uniform Plumbing Code. The board contracts a professional testing agency for that examination, and the licensee pays the testing agency directly. There is one exemption. A licensee issued a new license within one year of the renewal date is not required to take the course or the examination to renew. The two options are worth weighing rather than defaulting. A community college code update course is the common route. The examination exists for licensees who cannot get to a class, and it is a pass-or-fail alternative rather than an additional hurdle.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2data.capitol.hawaii.gov 3
Two requirements in HRS 444-9.5 apply on the job site rather than in the office, and both are enforced by inspection. At least half of all individuals performing plumbing work employed on a construction job site by a plumbing contractor shall be licensed in accordance with chapter 448E. The board may waive this requirement in any county when there are insufficient licensed plumbing workers in that county to comply. The second requirement decides whether the first one is met. All individuals employed on a construction job site by a plumbing contractor who are licensed under chapter 448E shall visibly display their license on their person while on the construction job site. Only individuals displaying their license at the time of a site inspection shall be counted as a licensee to determine compliance. Read those two sentences together and the practical rule is blunt. A licensed plumber who left his license in the truck does not count toward the ratio. A crew that is genuinely half licensed can still fail an inspection on display alone. The board's consumer bulletin tells homeowners to look for this, advising that on job sites they will be able to identify licensed electricians and plumbers by the license they are required to wear. For a contractor this is a supervision habit rather than a paperwork task. Issue badge holders, make wearing them a condition of being on site, and check them the same way you check personal protective equipment. The cost of failing the ratio at inspection is a citation against the company license, not against the individual who forgot. HAR 16-77-87 separately requires the entity's own license to be prominently displayed at its permanent place of business.
Sourcesdata.capitol.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2cca.hawaii.gov 3
Hawaii regulates contractor advertising harder than almost any state, and the duties fall on the publisher and the phone company as well as on you. HRS 444-9.2(a) makes it a misdemeanor for any person, including a person exempt under section 444-2, to advertise with or without any limiting qualifications as a contractor unless that person holds a valid license for the goods and services advertised. The statute defines advertise broadly: issuing any card, sign or device to any person; causing, permitting or allowing any sign or marking on or in any building, vehicle or structure; advertising in any newspaper or magazine; any listing or advertising in any directory under a classification or heading that includes the word contractor; or commercials broadcast by airwave transmission. Vehicle lettering is inside that definition. HRS 444-9.2(b) requires the number. A contractor may advertise in a print or broadcast medium only if the contractor includes in the advertisement or listing the contractor's applicable and current license number, and provides proof of the number's validity to the publisher or producer. The publisher or producer shall refuse to publish or broadcast an advertisement for a contractor who does not comply. A publisher who obtains a signed statement from the contractor confirming the license, the number and awareness of the penalties gets a rebuttable presumption of compliance. HRS 444-9.2(c) is the provision contractors remember. On entry of a final board order or a court judgment finding that a contractor has advertised in violation of 444-9 or 444-9.2(a), the public utility furnishing telephone service to the contractor shall disconnect the telephone number contained in the advertisement or listing. HAR 16-77-83 adds the identification rule. A contracting entity advertising through any media shall be identified as a licensed contractor by listing the name under which the licensee is licensed, or the trade name filed with the board, and the licensee's license number. Media includes newspapers, magazines, radio, television, the Internet and directories. HRS 448E-9 applies the same logic to individuals: no person shall advertise or hold themselves out as a plumber without a license, and a court judgment triggers telephone disconnection.
Sourcesdata.capitol.hawaii.gov 1cca.hawaii.gov 2data.capitol.hawaii.gov 3
Hawaii puts seven disclosures on residential contractors before the contract is signed, and the license number is one of them. HAR 16-77-79 states that contractors engaging in home construction or home improvements shall, prior to obtaining a binding contract from the homeowner and prior to applying for a building permit, make the following disclosures. Disclose all information pertaining to the contract and its performance the absence of which might mislead the homeowner to the homeowner's detriment, including the lien rights of labor, suppliers and subcontractors. Disclose the scope of work to be performed. Disclose the approximate percentage of work to be subcontracted. Disclose whether the contractor is bonded and whether the owner has a right to demand bonding on the work, and if not bonded, disclose the extent of the financial security available to assure performance. Disclose the contractor's license number and contractor classifications. Disclose all warranties, if any. Provide an estimate of the cost of work to be performed. Two of those are easy to overlook. The classification disclosure means writing C-37 on the document, not just the license number, which also tells the customer what you are and are not licensed to do. The subcontracting percentage is a number, and a residential estimate that omits it is incomplete under the rule. The timing is strict. These are pre-contract and pre-permit disclosures. Adding them to a contract the homeowner has already signed does not satisfy the rule. The rule defines homeowner as the owner or lessee of residential real property. The straightforward compliance step is to build the seven items into the estimate template rather than treating them as a separate disclosure sheet. The license number and classification then travel on every document the customer sees.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov
The fines in HRS 444-23 are among the steepest in the country and several are calculated off the contract price rather than as flat sums. Contracting outside your classification is fined $500 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second, and not less than $1,500 or more than $2,000 for any subsequent offense. Unlicensed contracting under section 444-9 is fined $2,500 or forty per cent of the total contract price, whichever is greater, for a first offense; $3,500 or forty per cent for a second; and $5,000 or forty per cent for any subsequent offense. Where the person is or was a defendant or respondent in a separate citation or lawsuit filed with or by the department, all tools, implements, documents, materials or other property used in the violating activity is subject to forfeiture under HRS 444-23.5 and turned over to the department. Aiding or abetting an unlicensed person under 444-9.3, or the conduct in 444-17(17), is fined up to $25,000 or up to the full amount of the contract price for each offense, whichever is greater. HRS 444-9.3 makes aiding or abetting, conspiring with an unlicensed person, or allowing one's license to be used by an unlicensed person, a misdemeanor as well. Any other violation of chapter 444 carries not less than $100 and not more than $5,000 for each violation. Enforcement runs through citations. HRS 444-10.5 lets an investigator issue a citation to a person acting as a contractor without a license, containing an order to cease and desist and an assessment of civil penalties under 444-23. The cited person has twenty days to request a hearing. For individuals, HRS 448E-10(b) fines any person who violates chapter 448E not less than $100 and not more than $5,000 for each violation.
Honolulu holds roughly two thirds of the state's population, and its permitting rules run off the state licensing chapters rather than a separate city plumbing license. The Department of Planning and Permitting states in its building permit FAQ that all electrical and plumbing work must be performed by contractors licensed by the State of Hawaii per HRS chapter 444 and chapter 448E. There is no City and County of Honolulu plumbing competency card sitting on top of the state credential. The owner-builder question is where homeowners and contractors both get caught, and the answer is in state law. HRS 444-2.5 exempts owners or lessees who build or improve residential or farm buildings for their own use, or for use by their grandparents, parents, siblings or children, and who do not offer them for sale or lease. To use it, the owner must register for the exemption under HRS 444-9.1. Then comes the limb that matters here. HRS 444-2.5(a)(2) states that the exemption shall not apply to electrical or plumbing work that must be performed only by persons or entities licensed under chapter 444, unless the owner or lessee is licensed for such work under chapter 448E. The obligations that follow reinforce it. An exempted owner must supervise the construction activity, hire appropriately licensed subcontractors, and ensure that any electrical or plumbing work is performed by persons and entities appropriately licensed under chapter 444 or chapter 448E. They must deduct federal taxes and provide workers compensation for unlicensed workers, who count as their employees, and must keep the permit application, the issued permit and all contracts available for immediate inspection by the department. The plain reading for a contractor: an owner-builder permit does not let a homeowner do their own plumbing in Hawaii.
Hawaii gives consumers two separate public tools, and a contractor should assume customers use both. The first is the license search. The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs directs the public to its search at pvl.ehawaii.gov, describing it as the way to find out if a business or individual has a current professional or vocational license to do the work desired. Because both boards sit within the same division, the same search reaches the C-37 contractor record and the individual plumber record. The second is the complaint history. The department points consumers to a RICO complaints history tool to find out if a business or individual has been sanctioned, has a record of disciplinary action, or has a pending complaint with the Regulated Industries Complaints Office. That is a separate check from the license search, and a clean license does not mean a clean complaint file. The board's consumer bulletin adds a third check that happens on site rather than online, telling homeowners to look for the license that licensed electricians and plumbers are required to wear. For a contractor, the useful move is to make all three easy. Put the C-37 number and classification on the estimate, which HAR 16-77-79 requires anyway. Put the number in every advertisement and listing, which HRS 444-9.2 and HAR 16-77-83 require. Keep crew licenses worn and visible, which HRS 444-9.5 requires and which a customer can see without asking. A Hawaii customer who checks will find a current entity license, an RME behind it, a complaint record, and a crew wearing licenses. Every one of those is regulated, so every one of them is verifiable, and a competitor operating without them is visible by comparison.
Sourcescca.hawaii.gov 1pvl.ehawaii.gov 2cca.hawaii.gov 3cca.hawaii.gov 4data.capitol.hawaii.gov 5
These are common details other guides publish about Hawaii, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes, and twice. The Contractors License Board licenses the contracting business under classification C-37, Plumbing contractor. The separate Board of Electricians and Plumbers licenses the individual worker as a journey worker plumber or master plumber under HRS chapter 448E. Both boards sit inside the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.
Both, separately. The C-37 contractor license attaches to the entity and is qualified through a responsible managing employee. The journey worker plumber and master plumber licenses attach to individuals. A Hawaii plumbing company needs the entity license, a qualified RME, and a crew that is at least half chapter 448E licensed.
HAR 16-77-18 requires not less than four years of supervisory experience as a foreman, supervising employee or contractor in the classification applied for, gained within the ten years immediately preceding the application. The board may accept self-employed or unlicensed experience at its discretion, and may count training as no more than one year.
Seventy-five per cent. HAR 16-77-44 states that a grade of seventy-five per cent shall be a passing grade. The board names PSI Services LLC as administrator of the contractor examinations as of January 2023, and applicants must pass within six months of eligibility or file a new application.
No. The Contractors License Board states that all applicants must meet the same licensing and examination requirements. The only examination waiver, HAR 16-77-41, applies to applicants who previously qualified by written examination in the same Hawaii classification within four years, which is a look-back rather than recognition of another state's license.
The board's entity application sets Bodily Injury Liability at $100,000 each person and $300,000 each occurrence, and Property Damage Liability at $50,000 each occurrence, plus workers compensation. HRS 444-11.1 requires both to be maintained continuously, and a lapse causes automatic forfeiture of the license backdated to the lapse.
Only when the board requires it. HRS 444-16.5 allows the board to require a specialty contractor, which includes C-37, to put up a bond of not less than $5,000. HAR 16-77-76 requires a licensee to maintain any imposed bond for at least one year before requesting a waiver on evidence of financial integrity.
HRS 448E-5 requires a journey worker plumber applicant to show at least five years full-time or equivalent, but not less than ten thousand hours, as a journey worker's or master plumber's helper. A master plumber applicant must have been registered as a journey worker plumber for at least two years, or show equivalent experience.
Yes, for the individual license. HRS 448E-8.5 requires all licensed plumbers, before each renewal, either to furnish proof of attendance at a course on current Uniform Plumbing Code updates conducted or approved by the community colleges, or to pass a board-prescribed examination on those updates. A licensee licensed within the past year is exempt.
The current license number. HRS 444-9.2(b) permits print or broadcast advertising only if the contractor includes the applicable and current license number and proves its validity to the publisher, who must otherwise refuse the ad. HAR 16-77-83 requires the licensed or filed trade name plus the number across newspapers, magazines, radio, television, the Internet and directories.
HRS 444-9.2(a) makes it a misdemeanor. On a final board order or court judgment finding a violation of 444-9 or 444-9.2(a), HRS 444-9.2(c) requires the public utility furnishing telephone service to disconnect the telephone number contained in the advertisement or listing. HRS 448E-9 applies the same disconnection to unlicensed individuals.
HRS 444-23(c) sets $2,500 or forty per cent of the total contract price, whichever is greater, for a first offense, $3,500 or forty per cent for a second, and $5,000 or forty per cent for any subsequent offense. Tools and materials used may be forfeited under HRS 444-23.5.
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