New Hampshire · Remodeling licensing · official-source guide
New Hampshire does not license remodeling or home improvement contractors. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification runs no contractor board, so no state registration, exam or recovery fund exists for remodelers. Electrical, plumbing and fuel gas work still require state licenses, and towns issue building permits. Written contracts over $5,000 must carry the RSA 359-G repair notice.
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New Hampshire has no state license for remodeling. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, built by RSA 310, lists every board it administers in RSA 310:2, II. That list names boards for electricians, home inspectors, architects, land surveyors, septic system evaluators, manufactured housing, installation standards and the mechanical trades. The word contractor appears nowhere in it. Title XXX of the Revised Statutes, which holds the occupations and professions chapters, runs from accountancy through veterinary medicine with no general contractor or home improvement chapter. Title XXXI, trade and commerce, creates no home improvement contractor registration either. A company that frames additions, guts kitchens, replaces siding or finishes basements in New Hampshire needs no state card to do the work and has no state exam to sit for. That cuts two ways. Getting started is fast. Proving you are the safe choice is harder, because a New Hampshire homeowner cannot look your company up on a state contractor roster the way a Massachusetts or Connecticut homeowner can. Everything that separates you from an uninsured truck with a magnet on the door has to come from documents you hand over: a certificate of insurance, a written contract carrying the notices New Hampshire requires, the permit your town issued, and the license numbers of the electricians and plumbers working under you. The state still regulates the trades inside your job, the contract you sign, the advertising you run and the permits you pull. Those are the rules that follow.
Several New England states make home improvement contractors register and pay into a fund that reimburses homeowners when a contractor takes a deposit and vanishes. New Hampshire does not. There is no home improvement contractor registration, no registration number to print on an estimate, and no guaranty or recovery fund for residential remodeling. The boards listed in RSA 310:2, II include none that would administer one. Title XXXI of the Revised Statutes, which collects the state consumer protection chapters, creates no construction recovery fund. The one recovery fund in that title, RSA 359-P, pays victims of an investment failure and has nothing to do with contractors. What stands in place of a fund is private litigation and the Attorney General. A homeowner with a deposit dispute has the Consumer Protection Act, RSA 358-A, and the construction defect procedure in RSA 359-G. Neither pays out of a state pool. Both point at the contractor directly, and both can reach the money you already banked. For a remodeler, that means your own paperwork is the consumer protection. Progress payments tied to finished stages, a written change order process, supplier lien waivers and a plain warranty give a New Hampshire homeowner the comfort a state fund supplies elsewhere. Say that out loud at the estimate. In a state with no roster and no fund, the contractor who explains how the deposit is handled beats the one who does not bring it up.
RSA 319-C:1 bars electrician installations except by a person licensed under that chapter. The Electricians Board sits inside the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. Under RSA 319-C:7, II the office issues a master or journeyman license to an applicant who completes 8,000 hours of service as an apprentice electrician, completes not less than 600 hours of education meeting board criteria, and passes the board approved examination. The board may credit school instruction or military field experience toward the apprentice hours. RSA 319-C:6-c ties continuing education to the National Electrical Code: each licensee must show proof of completion within 12 months from the January 1 following publication of the newest NFPA 70 edition, and a licensee who does not complete it holds an invalid license until the board is satisfied. A journeyman must be employed by a New Hampshire licensed master electrician or by an entity licensed under RSA 319-C:10. That entity license is what an electrical company holds, and it requires that an officer or employee directly in charge of the business affairs be a licensed master electrician. RSA 319-C:15 makes unlicensed electrical installation a misdemeanor for a natural person and a felony for any other person, which includes your corporation or LLC. The same section catches a contractor who, being in the electrical business, employs an unlicensed person other than an apprentice, and anyone who fraudulently represents himself as licensed. The only carve out is a homeowner wiring the single family residence he owns and occupies as a bona fide personal abode. A paid remodeler never fits that exception.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov
The old plumbers chapters are gone. RSA 329-A and RSA 330 are repealed, and plumbing and fuel gas work now run through the Mechanical Licensing Board established by RSA 153:27-a as a unit within the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. The governor and council appoint two licensed journeyman or master plumbers who are actively working in the trade, one licensed fuel gas fitter, one certified heating equipment installer or service person under RSA 153:16-b, and one public member. Terms run three years and no member serves more than two consecutive terms. RSA 153:29 tells you which cards exist. Each license names one or more of these endorsements: hearth system installation and service technician, fuel gas installation technician, fuel gas service technician, fuel gas piping installer, fuel gas trainee, domestic appliance technician, master plumber, journeyman plumber and apprentice plumber. No licensee may work outside the activity his specialty license covers, and the license must be available for inspection on request. RSA 153:28 sets field experience in statute for some endorsements: a fuel gas installation technician needs 1,000 hours within a 60 month period, of which up to 500 hours may come from heating oil work, and a fuel gas service technician needs 2,000 hours within 60 months, of which up to 750 may come from oil work. RSA 153:29-a lets a corporation, partnership or LLC hold a mechanical business entity license when an officer, member or designee holds the matching individual license. RSA 153:36 exempts a person doing fuel gas fitting in the single family stand alone structure he owns, occupies and uses as his primary residence, and that person still owes the technical standards and inspections.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2
New Hampshire adopts a statewide code by reference. RSA 155-A:1, IV defines the New Hampshire building code as the International Building Code 2024, the International Existing Building Code 2024, the International Plumbing Code 2024, the International Mechanical Code 2024, the International Energy Conservation Code 2018, the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code 2024 and the International Residential Code 2024, plus the National Electrical Code 2023, as reviewed by the state building code review board, including amendments approved as of October 10, 2025 and ratified by the legislature under RSA 155-A:10. For remodeling, the International Existing Building Code matters as much as the residential code, because it governs alteration levels, and the energy code drives the insulation and air sealing details a New Hampshire inspector will ask about on an addition or a gut renovation. RSA 155-A:1, III defines the local enforcement agency as the official a municipality has qualified and authorized to issue permits, make inspections and enforce state and local building law, where that municipality has adopted an enforcement mechanism under RSA 155-A:3. Plenty of smaller New Hampshire towns have not. Where there is no building official or other local enforcement mechanism, RSA 155-A:7 gives the state fire marshal authority to enforce the state building code. The code review board also has to publish a simplified residential energy code compliance form, and RSA 155-A requires every code enforcement authority in the state to accept that form when it is filled out correctly. That is a real time saver worth knowing by name when you quote an addition.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov
Because the state licenses no remodelers, the town counter is where your job actually gets approved, and the three largest New Hampshire cities run that counter differently. In Manchester, the Building Division sits inside the Department of Planning and Community Development and handles building code administration, plan review and permit approval, field inspections and record maintenance. Manchester publishes separate pages for permit applications, fees, plan review and inspections, and asks for a certificate of occupancy request five business days ahead on residential buildings and ten business days ahead on commercial projects and residential projects with more than three dwelling units. Every inspection on every associated permit, including permits from other departments, has to be signed off before the certificate issues. Nashua splits the work. The Department of Building Safety issues building and land use permits, while the Fire Marshal's Office runs its own contractor permit page and states plainly that other permits may be required by the Building Safety Department. That office now requires electronic submission of applications plus one set of paper plans, so build that into your schedule. Concord routes Code Administration permits through an online permit portal that covers building, zoning, miscellaneous and health and licensing permits, and separately lists mechanical, plumbing, electrical, demolition and change of occupancy permits. Concord also states that the city does not assess impact fees for non-residential construction. None of the three cities licenses a remodeling contractor. They permit and inspect the work, and they expect the trade licenses to be held by the people doing the trade work.
This is the New Hampshire rule most remodelers get wrong. RSA 361-B:1 defines a home solicitation sale as a sale of goods or services priced at $150 or more where the seller or someone acting for the seller solicits and closes the sale anywhere other than the seller's permanent place of business. A kitchen signed at the homeowner's table is a home solicitation sale. A cash or credit sale closed that way counts. RSA 361-B:2, I then requires you to hand the buyer a fully completed receipt and a copy of the contract at the time it is signed, showing your name and address and the date, and carrying, in immediate proximity to the buyer's signature line and in boldface type of at least 10 points, this statement: ANY BUYER MAY CANCEL THIS TRANSACTION ANY TIME PRIOR TO MIDNIGHT OF THE THIRD BUSINESS DAY AFTER THE DATE OF THIS TRANSACTION. The buyer may cancel by written notice mailed to you or by returning goods in person inside the cancellation window. A contract using the Federal Trade Commission door to door cancellation forms complies as long as it gives the consumer at least equal information. Two paragraphs decide money. Under RSA 361-B:2, I(b) you must return payments, trade in property and any note within 15 days of cancellation. Under RSA 361-B:2, I(b-1), if you performed services or physically altered the property during the cancellation period, the buyer gets every dollar back and you may not deduct the value of that work. Do not start demolition inside the first three business days.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov
RSA 359-G is the New Hampshire residential construction defect statute, and it names you. Section 359-G:2, IV defines contractor to include any person, firm, partnership, corporation or association engaged in the business of designing, developing or constructing a residence, the modification or repair of a new or existing residence, or the construction, alteration, addition or repair of an appurtenance to a residence. Remodeling is squarely inside that. Section 359-G:7, I says that upon entering a purchase agreement or contract for the construction or improvement of a residence where the contract amount exceeds $5,000, the contractor shall give the owner written notice of the contractor's right to resolve alleged construction defects before the homeowner may sue. The notice must be conspicuous and may sit inside the contract. Section 359-G:7, III prints the wording: New Hampshire law requires the homeowner to serve written notice of the alleged defects sixty days before filing, and gives the contractor the chance to offer repair or payment. The procedure behind the notice is worth knowing. Under RSA 359-G:4, I the homeowner must serve a detailed written notice of claim no later than 60 days before starting an action. You then have 30 days to serve a written response, which may propose an inspection or offer to repair or pay. Service of the notice tolls the limitations period for 60 days under RSA 359-G:4, XII, and a homeowner has 30 days to accept an offer before it is deemed rejected. If a homeowner files without following this, RSA 359-G:3 directs the court to stay the case.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov
RSA 358-A is the statute a dissatisfied New Hampshire homeowner reaches for, and it has teeth that do not depend on any license. The Attorney General may investigate and sue, and under RSA 358-A:4, II(b) a court may award the state civil penalties up to $10,000 for each violation. Ignoring an Attorney General demand under RSA 358-A:8 draws a fine of not more than $5,000. The private remedy is the one that usually lands. Under RSA 358-A:10 a person injured by an unlawful act or practice may sue for damages and injunctive relief, and if the plaintiff wins, recovery is actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater. If the court finds the act was a willful or knowing violation, it must award at least two times and as much as three times that amount. A single bathroom dispute can turn into a judgment several times the repair cost on a finding that the conduct was knowing. Two links back to the rest of this page matter. RSA 361-B:3, I makes any violation of the home solicitation sales chapter an unfair or deceptive act within the meaning of RSA 358-A:2, so a missing cancellation notice is not a technical slip. It is a Consumer Protection Act claim. And RSA 358-A:2, X lists the advertising address disclosure failure described in RSA 361-B:2-a as an enumerated unfair practice. Clean contracts and honest advertising are the cheapest insurance available against this chapter.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2
New Hampshire gives a remodeler no license number to display, so the advertising rules run the other way. They tell you what you may not say. RSA 310:13 makes it unlawful practice for anyone not licensed to advertise oneself as engaging in a profession licensed by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, to engage in activity requiring licensure, to hold oneself out as qualified, or to call oneself a licensed professional. The office may ask to see the license of anyone advertising that way, at the place of business. On a finding of unlawful practice a board may impose a fine up to the gain derived from the violation or up to $10,000 for each offense, whichever is greater, and each violation is a separate offense. The Attorney General or a county or municipal prosecutor may also seek an injunction. So a remodeling company may call itself a remodeling contractor, a design build firm or a kitchen and bath company. It may not advertise plumbing, electrical or fuel gas services it has no licensed person to perform, and RSA 319-C:15 makes fraudulently representing yourself as a licensed electrician a misdemeanor or, for a company, a felony. RSA 153:16-b, IV makes a false claim of heating equipment certification by advertising, signage or verbal representation a violation or a misdemeanor. RSA 361-B:2-a adds a disclosure duty. If your advertising, solicitations or promotional materials give a post office box, a mail drop street address or an answering service number, you must clearly and conspicuously disclose your legal business name, a complete street address from which business is actually conducted, and a phone number for customer inquiries and complaints.
The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification runs a public license lookup. Its page describes an application for license verification covering the professions the office regulates, which is where a homeowner confirms that the master electrician or master plumber on your crew is current. The lookup will not show a remodeling company, because the office issues no remodeling license to show. Use that gap instead of working around it. On a New Hampshire bid, list the licensed trades by name, the license holder's name, and the license type as RSA 153:29 or RSA 319-C spells it out, so the homeowner can type it in and see an active license for herself. RSA 153:29, IV requires a mechanical licensee to make the license available for inspection on request, so asking your plumber for a copy to attach is a normal request, not an insult. Tell homeowners what else to check, since there is no state contractor roster. Ask the town building department whether the permit was pulled in the contractor's name. Ask for a certificate of insurance sent directly by the agent rather than forwarded by the contractor. Confirm the business name is registered, which RSA 349 requires for a sole proprietor using any name other than his own and for every partnership, trust or association doing business in the state. A remodeler who volunteers all three before being asked removes the only real objection a careful New Hampshire buyer has left.
No remodeling license does not mean no filings. RSA 349:1, I requires every sole proprietor doing business in New Hampshire under a name other than the proprietor's own name, and every partnership, trust or association doing business in the state, to register the trade name. Corporations and LLCs registered under RSA 293-A or RSA 304-C are outside the chapter except when they trade under a different name. RSA 349:7 sets the Secretary of State fee at $50 for filing the registration and issuing the certificate, $50 for a renewal, and $10 for a notice of discontinuance, addition or withdrawal. RSA 349:9 makes failure to comply a violation for a natural person and a misdemeanor for any other person. Workers compensation is the exposure that actually closes New Hampshire remodeling companies. RSA 281-A:5 requires an employer subject to the workers compensation chapter to secure compensation to employees, including by insuring and keeping insured the payment of that compensation with a company licensed to write workers compensation insurance in the state and filing proof with the commissioner. New Hampshire does not grade that duty by the size of your crew the way some states do, so treat coverage as a condition of taking the first helper on payroll rather than a milestone. General liability is a different matter. Because New Hampshire issues no remodeling license, no statute sets a general liability minimum or a surety bond amount for a remodeler. Your limits come from the contract, the lender or the homeowner, which is why many New Hampshire remodelers quote their limits in the proposal.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2
New Hampshire has plenty of older housing stock, so these two chapters hit remodelers often. Asbestos is licensed work. RSA 141-E requires any contractor, employer or individual that engages in asbestos abatement activities, or in activities that disturb asbestos at asbestos disposal sites, to first obtain a license from the department, with narrow exceptions for owners abating within the confines of their own private property, for individuals exempted by rule, and for waiver holders. RSA 141-E:2, III-a makes the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services the licensing authority, and RSA 141-E:3 gives that commissioner the duties of licensing contractors, testing and certifying individuals and collecting fees. The penalties are real: RSA 141-E:15, II allows a fine of not more than $25,000 with each day of violation a separate offense, RSA 141-E:16 allows an administrative fine not to exceed $4,000 per offense, and RSA 141-E:17 sets a civil forfeiture of up to $25,000 for each day of a continuing violation. Plan removal through a licensed abatement contractor and price it that way. Lead has a newer trap. RSA 130-A:5-d provides that after July 1, 2024, newly constructed rental units inside buildings erected before January 1, 1978, and newly licensed day care facilities inside such buildings, require certification of lead safety before the space is used. Newly constructed rental units means units converted from a non residential use. Manchester applies this at the certificate of occupancy stage and says it reaches projects already underway. If your remodel turns old mill or commercial space into apartments, the lead safe certification belongs on the schedule, not at the end.
With no licensing board to complain to, a New Hampshire remodeler who is not paid relies on RSA 447, the chapter on liens for labor and materials. The timeline is short and it is not generous to people who wait. RSA 447:9 provides that the lien created by RSA 447:2 through 447:7 continues for 120 days after the services are performed or the materials, supplies or other things are furnished, unless payment is made first, and that the lien takes precedence over all prior claims except liens on account of taxes. One hundred twenty days runs from the work, not from the invoice or from the last unanswered phone call. Position matters too. A person who performs labor or furnishes material under a contract with an agent, contractor or subcontractor of the owner rather than with the owner directly gets the same lien only if that person gives written notice to the owner, or to the person having charge of the property, before performing the labor or furnishing the material. If you are a subcontractor on a New Hampshire remodel, that notice goes out at the start of the job, not when payment slips. RSA 447:6 lets the notice follow the work in some situations, but it limits the lien to amounts then due or later becoming due to the contractor, which is a weaker position. RSA 447:12-a gives an attachment under this chapter precedence and priority over a construction mortgage, which is why lenders on New Hampshire projects care about lien waivers.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov
The license terms your electricians and plumbers hold are set in one place. RSA 310:8, II makes licenses issued by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification valid for two years from the date of issuance, except apprentices, who are licensed for one year under board rules, and that term overrides any conflicting term in an individual board's statute. Renewal applications, the renewal fee and supporting documents are due on or before expiration. An expired license may not be practiced on until reinstated, and it lapses one year after expiration, at which point the holder must apply as a new applicant. The office must send renewal notice at least two months before expiration, and failure to receive it excuses nothing. Reciprocity runs through RSA 310:17. The office shall issue a license to a professional who shows an active license in good standing from another jurisdiction, under rules adopted by the executive director, provided that jurisdiction's requirements are substantially similar to New Hampshire's as determined by the executive director in consultation with the relevant board. A license by endorsement can require a criminal history records check where initial applicants face one, and the holder is fully subject to the New Hampshire board. Discipline has its own price list. Under RSA 310:10 a board may assess administrative fines not exceeding $3,000 per offense, or $300 for each day a violation continues, whichever is greater, and may charge the licensee the reasonable cost of investigation and prosecution up to $10,000. A Massachusetts or Maine electrician you plan to use on a New Hampshire job needs the New Hampshire license first.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov
These are common details other guides publish about New Hampshire, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification administers no contractor board, and RSA 310:2, II lists none. Title XXX of the Revised Statutes has no general contractor or home improvement chapter. You still need licensed trades for electrical, plumbing and fuel gas work, a town building permit, and a contract that carries the required notices.
No. Unlike several neighboring states, New Hampshire creates no home improvement contractor registration in Title XXX or Title XXXI of the Revised Statutes, and the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification administers no board that would run one. There is no registration number to print on your estimates, advertising or vehicles.
No. New Hampshire has no guaranty or recovery fund for residential remodeling, because it has no home improvement registration to fund one. A homeowner's remedies are private: the Consumer Protection Act in RSA 358-A and the construction defect procedure in RSA 359-G. Both run against the contractor, not against a state pool.
The Mechanical Licensing Board, established by RSA 153:27-a as a unit inside the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. RSA 329-A and RSA 330 are repealed. RSA 153:29 lists the endorsements, including master plumber, journeyman plumber, apprentice plumber, fuel gas installation technician, fuel gas service technician and fuel gas piping installer.
No. RSA 319-C:1 bars electrician installations by anyone not licensed under that chapter. RSA 319-C:15 makes it a misdemeanor for a natural person and a felony for a company, and it also catches a business that employs an unlicensed person other than an apprentice. The only exception covers an owner occupied single family home.
RSA 359-G:7, I requires conspicuous written notice of the contractor's right to resolve alleged construction defects whenever a contract for the construction or improvement of a residence exceeds $5,000. RSA 359-G:7, III prints the wording, which tells the homeowner to serve written notice of claimed defects sixty days before filing any action.
When the sale is a home solicitation sale under RSA 361-B:1: goods or services priced at $150 or more, solicited and closed somewhere other than your permanent place of business. RSA 361-B:2, I requires a boldface cancellation statement of at least 10 points next to the signature line giving until midnight of the third business day.
On a home solicitation sale, no. RSA 361-B:2, I(b-1) says that if you performed services or physically altered the property during the cancellation period, the buyer is entitled to a refund of all funds transferred and you may not deduct the value of that work. The alternative the buyer may demand is full restoration.
Anything accurate that does not claim a license you lack. RSA 310:13 makes it unlawful practice to advertise yourself as engaging in a profession the licensing office regulates, with fines up to $10,000 per offense or the gain derived. Remodeling contractor or design build firm is fine. Advertising plumbing or electrical service without the license is not.
Through the license lookup published by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, which offers an application for license verification. RSA 153:29, IV also requires a mechanical licensee to make the license available for inspection on request. List the license holder and license type on your bid so the homeowner can check it directly.
RSA 447:9 keeps the lien alive for 120 days after the services are performed or the materials are furnished, unless payment is made first, and gives it precedence over all prior claims except tax liens. Subcontractors must give the owner written notice before performing the labor or furnishing material to get the same lien.
Yes, before working here. RSA 310:17 lets the licensing office issue a license to someone holding an active license in good standing elsewhere, provided the other jurisdiction's requirements are substantially similar as determined by the executive director with the board. That is license by endorsement, and it may require a criminal history records check.
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