Indiana · Remodeling licensing · official-source guide
Indiana does not license remodeling contractors. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency lists no general contractor, remodeler or home improvement category, so authority sits with city and county building departments such as Evansville and South Bend. Two statewide rules still bind you: home improvement contracts above $150 must be written, and the state building code applies.
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Verify a licenseVerified against agency sources on 2026-10-05. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Indiana issues no statewide license for residential remodeling. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency publishes the full list of professions the state licenses, and that list runs from Accountancy to Veterinary Medicine with no general contractor, remodeling contractor or home improvement contractor category anywhere in it. Plumbing is on the list. So are Architects, Engineering, Home Inspectors and Manufactured Home Installers. A company that frames, drywalls, tiles, roofs or builds an addition holds no state credential for that work. The Indiana Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division says the same thing to homeowners in plainer words. Its contractor guidance tells them that licensing requirements vary from community to community, and that the way to check a remodeler is to call the city or county building department. That one sentence is the shape of Indiana regulation. Authority sits with cities and counties. For a remodeling company the practical result is that your license status is a map question rather than a state question. You can hold a full classification in Evansville and be entirely unlicensed in a county twenty miles away that never created a program. Two obligations do follow you everywhere in Indiana. Home improvement contracts above a set dollar amount have to be in writing, and the building code is written by the state and enforced locally through permits. Both are covered below. Plan your service area around the permit offices you have already registered with. Each new jurisdiction can mean another bond, another exam and another annual fee, and that cost belongs in your pricing before you advertise into the next county.
Indiana law requires home improvement contracts exceeding $150 to be in writing. The Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division states that threshold in both of its homeowner publications on hiring contractors, and it is the single piece of Indiana compliance no remodeler can opt out of regardless of which county the job sits in. Read the threshold the way a court would. It is not $150 of profit and not $150 of labor. It is the contract. A gutter repair, a storm door swap, one bathroom vanity set will clear $150 in most Indiana markets, which means nearly every job you sell needs signed paper before a tool leaves the truck. Change orders carry the same exposure, so write those too and have them signed on the day the scope changes. The rule protects the remodeler as much as the homeowner. An Indiana homeowner disputing a job with no written contract argues about what was promised, and that argument has no floor. A homeowner holding a signed scope argues only about whether the scope was met, which is a narrower fight that your photos, inspection records and material invoices can usually settle. Build the document into the sale rather than treating it as paperwork that follows a handshake. If you sell from a tablet, have the contract ready to sign at the table. If you sell on paper, carry a pad with the required items already printed. Indiana publishes no mandatory state form for home improvement work, so nothing stops you from using your own. The content is what carries the weight, and the required content is listed next.
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The Consumer Protection Division tells homeowners to check a home improvement contract for seven specific items before signing: the price of the job, the payment schedule, a detailed description of the work and materials including colors, brand names and patterns, estimated start and completion dates, the contractor's name and address, a name and telephone number for the person to contact if problems arise, and the contractor's signature. Treat that as your template. The two items remodelers most often leave off are the material detail and the contact name. Colors, brand names and patterns sound like trivia until a homeowner says the shingle is the wrong gray or the quartz is the wrong slab, and then the specification is the whole case. Naming a real person with a direct phone number also removes the complaint that nobody could be reached once the crew left. The same guidance tells homeowners not to pay for an entire project before work begins, and not to pay more than one third of the total cost as a down payment, with remaining payments tied to completion of specified amounts of work. If your draw schedule asks for more than that up front, expect pushback from informed Indiana customers and from anyone who read the state's material first. Tie your draws to milestones you can photograph. Homeowners are also told to get any labor or material warranty in writing, to confirm subcontractors and suppliers have been paid before releasing final payment because a mechanic's lien can otherwise be filed against the home, and to keep contracts, change orders and warranties on file. Supply lien waivers with your final invoice and you remove the last reason to hold your money.
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Indiana gives a buyer three days to cancel a sale that occurs in their home or anywhere away from the seller's permanent place of business. The Attorney General's contracts and purchases fact sheet lists that category first among the state's three day cancellation periods, alongside health spa contracts, credit repair contracts, timeshares and camping clubs. Remodeling is sold at kitchen tables, so this applies to most residential jobs you close in a customer's house rather than in your showroom. The state is blunt that the general belief in a universal three day cooling off period is wrong. Under Indiana law a sale is usually final immediately, and the right to cancel exists only where a statute creates it. In home sales are one of the places it exists, which means your in home close carries a cancellation right that the same job signed at your office does not. Mechanically, the buyer must cancel in the manner set out in the notice of cancellation rights, and the state says an explanation of those rights should have been given at the time of the sale. Cancellation is normally done in writing, delivered in person or by mail. A phone call is not binding on the seller. Once a buyer cancels, the seller must return any payment made within 10 business days, and the buyer has to return merchandise obtained in the transaction, though not necessarily at the moment the notice is given. Two things follow for a remodeler. Hand over a written cancellation notice at every in home signing. Do not order custom material or schedule a crew inside the cancellation window unless the customer has waived nothing and you are willing to eat the deposit.
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The absence of a remodeling license does not mean a remodel is unregulated labor. Several of the trades you subcontract are licensed by the state, and hiring an unlicensed one puts your permit and your reputation on the line rather than theirs. Plumbing is the clearest case. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency administers the Plumbing Commission, which sits under Title 25, Article 28.5 of the Indiana statutes, with the agency's rules under Title 860 of the administrative code. Plumbing examinations are delivered by PROV, and the commission directs candidates to PROV's Indiana plumbing examination bulletin for current test content. If your bathroom or kitchen remodel moves supply or waste lines, the plumbing goes to a licensed plumber and shows on the state lookup. Architects, Engineering, Surveyors, Home Inspectors, Interior Design Registry and Manufactured Home Installers are also on the agency's profession list. A structural change that needs stamped drawings goes to a licensed design professional, not to your framer. What is missing from the list matters as much. There is no state electrician license and no state heating and cooling license in Indiana. Those trades are licensed city by city and county by county, the same as general remodeling. So on a single gut remodel you can be dealing with a state licensed plumber, a city licensed electrician, a city licensed heating contractor and a remodeling company with no license requirement at all, depending entirely on the jurisdiction. Keep a current copy of each subcontractor's credential in the job file, because the building department will ask for it at the permit counter and not after.
Evansville runs one of the most detailed contractor licensing programs in Indiana, administered by the Building Commission for both the city and Vanderburgh County. It is worth studying even if you work elsewhere, because it shows what a full local program asks for. The fee schedule names a Residential Remodeling Contractor license at $180 new and $90 renewal. A Residential Contractor license, which covers one and two family dwellings broadly, runs $210 new, $150 renewal, or $400 for a two year renewal at the Building Contractor level. Building Contractor is $360 new and $210 renewal, with a $400 two year renewal. Unlimited Roofing Contractor matches Building Contractor at $360 new and $210 renewal. Limited Roofing Contractor, Moving Contractor and Wrecking Contractor are $210 new and $150 renewal. Many of the trade categories a remodeler touches sit at $180 new and $90 renewal: Siding and Guttering Contractor, Dry Wall Contractor, Brick and Masonry Contractor, Tile and Marble Contractor, Building Insulation Contractor, Glass and Glazing Contractor, Wood Framing Contractor, Unlimited Concrete Contractor, Concrete Footing and Flatwork Contractor, Excavating Contractor and Waterproofing Contractor. A Tradesman Master License is $300 new and $125 renewal. Registering a state issued license with the commission costs $60 for a contractor. The commission notes that subcontractor licenses are not required if you are licensed as a Building General Contractor for commercial work or as a Residential General Contractor for residential work. For a remodeler that is the planning decision: carry one general classification, or buy the handful of trade licenses that match what your own crews actually install. Checks and cash only, per the license clerk's instructions.
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Evansville sets its liability insurance floor by classification, and the numbers are specific enough to quote to your agent. For a Masters License, a Commercial General Contractor's License or an Unlimited Roofing License, the applicant must deliver proof of general liability insurance of not less than $1,000,000 to the Building Commission before the license is granted. A Residential General Contractor, Limited Roofing Contractor, Wrecking Contractor or Sign Erector Class B must deliver proof of general liability insurance of not less than $500,000. All other subcontractor licenses require not less than $300,000. The coverage has to indemnify and hold harmless persons sustaining loss or damage resulting from work done under the license, so a policy that excludes your main trade will not pass. Every applicant for a Master's, Contractor or Subcontractor license must also deliver a surety bond of $25,000, established in the applicant's name, on a form the Building Commission provides to the insurance company. The commission publishes the required bond form, and it will not accept a carrier's own wording in place of it. Worker's compensation insurance proof is required alongside the bond. At renewal the commission asks for the certificate of insurance, worker's compensation documentation where applicable, the $25,000 surety or performance bond, a continuing education certificate, and payment by check, money order or cash. Card payments are not accepted. Renewal checks go to the Vanderburgh County Building Commission with the license number written on them. Budget the bond premium and the higher liability limit into your Evansville pricing. A remodeler moving from a no license county into Evansville often finds the insurance step, not the exam, is what delays the first permit.
Evansville does not hand out contractor licenses on application alone. The Building Commission requires contractors and tradesmen to pass a written examination and to provide verification of experience, then to furnish proof of insurance, bond and worker's compensation coverage. Study guides are published for each classification, which tells you the exam is tied to the code and scope of the specific license you are seeking. Exam scores go to the Licensing and Disciplinary Board, which reviews them on the fourth Thursday of the month for final approval of the license. Plan your timing around that meeting. An exam passed late in the month still waits for the board, and the applicant must have the license fee ready in check or cash form when approval comes through. Continuing education is required to keep a license current. The renewal checklist asks for a continuing education certificate or a list showing the contractor's name, at three hours per year. That is a modest requirement by national standards, but it is a hard gate: no certificate, no renewal, and a lapsed license means no permit. There is a homeowner exception, and remodelers should know its edges because it shapes which jobs you lose to owners. A permit may be issued to a property owner or immediate family to work on the owner's current residence, or on a new or remodeled one or two family residence the owner lives in for at least two years after the work. Immediate family is defined by the commission. If an owner subcontracts footing, foundation, framing or roofing outside that family, those installers must be licensed and named at permit application.
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South Bend and St. Joseph County share one Building Department, and its rule is broader than Evansville's. All contractors, including subcontractors, must be registered or licensed with the Building Department in order to perform work in St. Joseph County and the City of South Bend. The only stated exception is that a residential owner occupant of a dwelling may perform their own work. There is no small job carve out. A Building Contractor registration there covers structural work plus alarm systems, fire suppression, irrigation, metal fabrication, refrigeration, water softeners, lead abatement and radon. New applicants complete the pre licensing registration form, deliver an original signed surety bond of $5,000 that carries a bond number, runs a one year term with beginning and ending dates, names the City of South Bend and St. Joseph County as obligee, and indicates Building Contractor on its face. Proof of worker's compensation is required, along with proper registration with the State of Indiana where applicable, and a $125 annual registration fee. Renewals need an original continuation certificate for the bond and the same $125 annual fee. The department is explicit that it cannot have a lapse in bond coverage: if a registration has been expired more than a year, the applicant must produce the current continuation certificate, all previous continuation certificates, and all missed annual registration fees. Let it slide and the arrears follow you. On the permit side, the department applies the 2020 Indiana Residential Code with state amendments, requires new home applications to include a basement plan showing at least one emergency egress window or door for a common space, and set a minimum permit fee of $60 as of January 1, 2026. The department also publishes a way to report an unregistered contractor.
Indianapolis and Marion County operate a contractor licensing program through the consolidated city county government, and the city publishes its contractor license information and a licensed contractor lookup on its own site. We are not printing Indianapolis bond amounts, classification names or fee figures on this page, because the city's licensing pages did not return text we could read and confirm end to end. Call the licensing office and get the current classification list before you bid work in Marion County, and ask specifically whether your scope needs a contractor license or only a permit. Fort Wayne and Allen County likewise maintain building department rules and regulations covering contractor registration. Those documents exist and are referenced publicly, but the county's document server refused our requests, so no Fort Wayne or Allen County figures appear here either. The same caution applies to Carmel, Fishers, Hammond and Gary. This is the real operating cost of remodeling in Indiana. There is no single registry to join and no statewide reciprocity to rely on, so expansion is a sequence of separate applications. Treat each new jurisdiction as a project: find the building department, ask for the contractor licensing packet, ask what bond form they accept, ask whether they recognize an exam you already passed, and ask what the renewal month is. The Attorney General tells homeowners to check with the city or county building department to find out the licensing requirements for their area and whether a contractor is properly licensed, bonded and insured. Customers who follow that advice will call the same office you did. Be on its list before you advertise into the market.
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Indiana writes the building code at state level and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security reviews plans for one category of building. A Class 1 structure is any structure used or occupied by the public, by employees, or by three or more tenants, along with site improvements affecting persons with disabilities and storage or dispensing equipment for flammable and combustible liquids or gases. All Class 1 structures must be filed with the state. A one or two family dwelling is not a Class 1 structure, so a kitchen, bath, basement or addition remodel on a house is not filed with the state. The same remodel inside an apartment building with three or more tenants, a storefront or any employee occupied space is. Remodelers who do both residential and light commercial work need to know which side of that line each job falls on before they promise a start date. Filing starts an automatic 10 business day clock. Within those days the department responds with a notice of Construction Design Release, a notice of incomplete filing, or notice that the project has been selected for review. Uploading extra documents before that response restarts the 10 day period, so file a complete set the first time. A project selected for review gets either a release or a request for corrections within 20 business days, and each round of corrections runs on a further 10 business day window until a release issues. A partial design release filing fee is currently $250. Two sentences from the department are worth memorizing. All work must comply with applicable codes whether or not it has to be filed. And all work, including work exempted from state filing, may still require local permits.
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A remodeling company in Indiana carries tax and insurance obligations that have nothing to do with licensing and that building departments check anyway. If your business sells goods or tangible personal property you must register to collect a seven percent sales tax, which the Department of Revenue handles through the state's InBiz portal. Registration produces a Registered Retail Merchant Certificate, and you need one certificate on display for each retail location. The certificate renews automatically when a business has no outstanding liabilities and no missing returns, is revoked when liabilities or unfiled returns go unresolved, and can be reinstated seven days after the account is cleared or a payment plan is established. Remodelers who sell materials separately from installed labor should get a written determination on their own mix rather than guessing. Worker's compensation is administered by the Worker's Compensation Board of Indiana. The board publishes the First Report of Injury filing process, a way to confirm worker's compensation coverage, and the Worker's Compensation Notice posters in English and Spanish that are required to be posted. Print both and put them where your crews read notices, not in a binder in the truck. Local licensing ties the two together. South Bend requires proof of worker's compensation to register as a building contractor, and asks applicants to be properly registered with the State of Indiana through InBiz. Evansville asks for worker's compensation documentation at application and again at renewal. So the entity registration, the certificate and the comp policy are not back office paperwork in Indiana. They are the documents that decide whether the permit counter will deal with you.
Indiana has no statewide remodeling license, so there is no state license number to print on a truck or a website, and we found no statewide rule requiring one in advertising. That makes the local definitions the thing to read closely, because several of them are written around advertising rather than around tools. Evansville defines a Residential General Contractor as a person engaged in the business of, or holding themselves out to the public as engaged in the business of, wrecking, constructing, installing, repairing, remodeling or servicing any structural or nonstructural portions of one or two family dwellings and residential or agricultural buildings, including residential roof coverings and site work. Building General Contractor carries the same holding themselves out language for multi family, commercial and industrial buildings. Read that clause again. Holding yourself out is the trigger. In a jurisdiction with that wording, running ads as a remodeler, putting remodeling on a service page, or wrapping a van with the word is itself the regulated act, whether or not you have a signed job yet. The safe sequence is license first, advertise second, in every market you enter. Where you do hold a local license, put the number on written estimates, on the contract and on the website footer, and name the issuing department next to it. It costs nothing, it answers the question the Attorney General has already told homeowners to ask, and in a state with no central registry it is the fastest proof a customer can check. Evansville even licenses Residential Remodeling Contractor as its own classification, so in that market the word on your ad maps directly to a license you can name.
Indiana maintains a public license lookup at the state's eVerification site. It searches the boards the Professional Licensing Agency administers, and the profession menu includes the Plumbing Commission, Architect Board, Engineer Board, Home Inspectors Board, Manufactured Home Installers, Land Surveyor Board and the rest. Searches accept partial names with a wildcard, and there is a separate facility search. A remodeling company will not appear there, because the state licenses no such thing. Your plumber will. Your structural engineer will. So when a homeowner says they checked the state and could not find you, that is the explanation, and it is worth putting on your site before a customer draws the wrong conclusion. Local records are where a remodeler's credential actually lives. The Attorney General directs homeowners to their city or county building department to learn the licensing requirements for the area and to confirm that a contractor is properly licensed, bonded and insured, and to the Consumer Protection Division for complaint history. South Bend publishes a way to report an unregistered contractor. Evansville's Licensing and Disciplinary Board handles license discipline. On recovery funds, Indiana is not a state where a homeowner can claim against a contractor guaranty pool. Nothing on the Professional Licensing Agency's profession list is a contractor recovery program, and we found no state fund to point homeowners to. The remedies are the written contract, the bond where a city requires one, the mechanic's lien rules, a complaint to the Consumer Protection Division, and court. That raises the value of a clean bond and a clear contract, which are the two things a cautious Indiana homeowner can verify in an afternoon.
These are common details other guides publish about Indiana, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency lists every profession the state licenses, and there is no general contractor, remodeler or home improvement contractor category on it. Licensing sits with cities and counties instead, which is why the same company can be fully licensed in Evansville and need nothing at all one county over.
Yes, above a dollar threshold. The Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division states that Indiana law requires home improvement contracts exceeding $150 to be in writing. In practice almost every remodeling job clears that figure, so treat a signed written contract as mandatory on every residential job, and put change orders in writing too.
The Consumer Protection Division lists seven: the job price, the payment schedule, a detailed description of work and materials including colors, brand names and patterns, estimated start and completion dates, the contractor's name and address, a contact name and telephone number for problems, and the contractor's signature.
Yes. Indiana provides a three day cancellation period for sales occurring in the buyer's home or away from the seller's permanent place of business. Cancellation follows the notice of cancellation rights given at the sale, normally in writing. A phone call does not bind the seller, and refunds are due within 10 business days.
The Evansville Building Commission fee schedule lists Residential Remodeling Contractor at $180 new and $90 renewal. A broader Residential Contractor license is $210 new and $150 renewal. Registering a state issued license with the commission is $60 for a contractor. Payment is by check, money order or cash, since cards are not accepted.
Every applicant for a Master's, Contractor or Subcontractor license must deliver a surety bond of $25,000 to the Building Commission, established in the applicant's name on a form the commission supplies to the insurance company. The same bond, or a continuation certificate, is required again at renewal, along with proof of worker's compensation.
Limits follow the classification. A Masters, Commercial General Contractor or Unlimited Roofing license needs general liability coverage of not less than $1,000,000. A Residential General Contractor, Limited Roofing Contractor, Wrecking Contractor or Sign Erector Class B needs $500,000. All other subcontractor licenses need not less than $300,000 before the license issues.
Yes. The St. Joseph County and City of South Bend Building Department requires all contractors, including subcontractors, to be registered or licensed with the department before performing work in either jurisdiction. The one stated exception is a residential owner occupant doing work on their own dwelling. The department also publishes a way to report unregistered contractors.
A $125 annual registration fee, paid at application and again at each renewal. New applicants also file an original signed surety bond of $5,000 naming the City of South Bend and St. Joseph County as obligee for a one year term, plus proof of worker's compensation and state registration where applicable.
Only for Class 1 structures, meaning buildings used by the public, by employees, or by three or more tenants. A house remodel is not filed with the state. Filing starts a 10 business day clock that ends in a Construction Design Release, an incomplete notice, or selection for review. Local permits may still apply.
At the state eVerification lookup, which covers the boards the Professional Licensing Agency administers, including the Plumbing Commission, Architect Board and Home Inspectors Board. A remodeling company will not appear there, because Indiana issues no such license. Local contractor records sit with the city or county building department instead.
We found no state contractor recovery or guaranty fund, and nothing resembling one appears on the Professional Licensing Agency's profession list. A homeowner's remedies are the written contract, any city required surety bond, the mechanic's lien rules, a complaint to the Consumer Protection Division, and court.
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