New York · Remodeling licensing · official-source guide
New York licenses no remodeling contractors at the state level. Home improvement contractors must be licensed by New York City, Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Putnam or Rockland counties. In the city, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection issues the Home Improvement Contractor license, which requires a 30-question exam plus either Trust Fund enrollment or a $20,000 bond.
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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.
New York does not license remodeling contractors at the state level. There is no statewide remodeling license, no state classification ladder, and no state board that tests remodelers. Regulation sits in two other places instead. The first is a statewide consumer law that controls how you write a home improvement contract and how you hold the homeowner's money. The second is county and city licensing. The New York Attorney General names six jurisdictions where home improvement contractors must be licensed: New York City, Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties. Suffolk County's own home improvement fact sheet lists the same six. Outside those six, a remodeler usually needs no occupational license, although local building departments still issue the permits and some towns and villages add their own registration. That split drives how you run the business. A remodeler working Queens and then Nassau needs two separate licenses from two separate agencies, with different fees, different terms and different renewal dates. A remodeler working Albany or Buffalo needs neither license, but still owes the homeowner the written contract and the deposit protections the state law demands. A county license never excuses a state law violation, and the state law never substitutes for the county license. Treat them as two stacked obligations, because enforcement arrives from two different directions and the penalties do not cancel each other out.
Article 36-A of the General Business Law is the rule that follows every New York remodeler, licensed or not. The Attorney General explains that it covers the sale of home improvement goods and services and applies to most improvements costing more than $500 bought by homeowners, co-op owners and tenants. The contract must be in writing, legible and in plain English, and the homeowner must get a copy before any work starts. The contract has to carry your business name, address and telephone number. It has to carry the approximate start and completion dates, plus any contingency that would move the completion date. It has to describe the work and the materials specifically, including brands and model numbers where those identify what you are installing, along with the price. Any schedule of progress payments has to bear a reasonable relationship to the work done, the materials bought, or other project costs. The contract also has to contain a consumer notice stating three things: that the customer may cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing, that the contractor must escrow progress payments or post a bond, and that an unpaid contractor or subcontractor may have a Lien Law claim against the property. Read that list as a sales document checklist, not legal trivia. Every missing item is a defect a homeowner can point at later.
Sourcesag.ny.gov
New York treats a remodeling deposit as the homeowner's money until you have substantially finished the job. The Attorney General describes the mechanics plainly. Any contract payment you take before substantial completion must go into a trust or escrow account at a bank located in New York State within five business days. You then have ten business days to tell the customer where the money sits. You may withdraw it only under the payment schedule in the contract, on substantial completion, or, if the customer breaks the contract, to the extent of your reasonable costs. There is a second route. Instead of escrow, you may deliver a bond or a contract of indemnity to the customer guaranteeing that the money will be used properly or returned, and you have ten business days after receiving the money to deliver it. Contractors are legally required to disclose where the money will be held. Remodelers lose work over this, not because homeowners love escrow, but because the contractor who can explain the account on the first visit looks like the one who finishes. Fines for violating the payment protection provisions of the law run from $250 to $2,500 according to the Attorney General, which is separate from whatever the county licensing agency does to your license. Build the escrow disclosure into your estimate template rather than improvising it per job.
Sourcesag.ny.gov
If you perform or offer to perform home improvement work on private residences anywhere in the five boroughs, you need a Home Improvement Contractor license from the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, cited as NYC Administrative Code section 20-387 on the agency's own inspection checklist. The same checklist adds that every subcontractor you use must hold the license too, which means a general remodeler cannot hide an unlicensed tile or framing crew behind their own license. One more rule sits right next to it: you cannot do business under any name other than the name on the license. That kills the common habit of marketing under a catchier trade name while the license carries the corporate name. DCWP also requires the combined license and complaint sign to be posted where customers can see it, or shown to a consumer on request. The license is a company license, not a tradesperson credential, and the agency expects one qualifying individual to carry it for the business. The Department's address for insurance certificates is 42 Broadway, New York, NY 10004, and it must be named as certificate holder. A separate Home Improvement Salesperson license exists for people who sell the work. Treat the DCWP license as the single thing that makes residential remodeling legal in the city, then layer Department of Buildings permits on top of it for the work itself.
Sourceshome4.nyc.gov 1nyc.gov 2
DCWP publishes the document list, and it is long. You need a Sales Tax Identification Number or an application confirmation number, obtained through businessexpress.ny.gov. You need proof of business address from a short list that includes a utility bill dated within the last 90 days, a current lease or deed, a rent or mortgage bill, an insurance document showing the address, government correspondence, an active government license showing the address, or a bank or credit card statement dated within 90 days. Every individual listed on the application supplies proof of home address from a similar list. You provide workers compensation proof: a certificate from a private carrier or the New York State Insurance Fund naming the Department as certificate holder, or a Certificate of Attestation of Exemption from the New York State Workers Compensation Board. DCWP states that ACORD forms are not acceptable proof of New York State workers compensation coverage, which trips up contractors whose insurance agent sends the familiar form. Lead work drives another requirement: copies of EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting certification and EPA Lead-Based Paint Activities certification, or a signed Home Improvement Contractor Affirmation that one or both do not apply to the work you perform. Every sole proprietor, general partner, corporate officer, principal, director, member and any shareholder owning more than ten percent of stock must be fingerprinted through IdentoGO using service code 1585BH. You also sign a Contractual Compliance Agreement.
Sourcesnyc.gov
New York City is the rare New York jurisdiction that tests remodelers, and the test is short. DCWP states that the Home Improvement Exam consists of 30 questions and that you must answer at least 21 correctly to pass. Only one person connected to the business has to pass it: a sole proprietor, general partner, corporate officer, principal, director, member, or a shareholder owning ten percent or more of company stock. The scheduling sequence matters more than the content. You cannot schedule until DCWP has received and processed your completed application, documents and fees. After processing, your information takes 24 hours to appear in the ExamBuilder system, and from the moment it appears you have 60 days to take and pass. Test centers operate from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. seven days a week at multiple locations across the city, and ExamBuilder confirms which ones when you schedule. You book online at dcaschedule.exambuilder.com using your Application Number, or by phone at (646) 974-8244 with customer service available 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. seven days a week. Your license application fee covers up to two attempts. Fail twice and you pay $50 to retake, which buys two more attempts. DCWP publishes a Home Improvement Examination Guide in English, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish, Russian and Urdu.
Sourcesnyc.gov
The DCWP Home Improvement Contractor license runs on a fixed two-year cycle that expires on February 28 in odd years, so the price you pay depends on when in the cycle you apply rather than on a flat annual rate. DCWP publishes the schedule. Apply between March 1 and August 31 in an odd year and you pay $200 for a license valid at most 24 months. Apply between September 1 of an odd year and the end of February in an even year and you pay $150, valid at most 18 months. Apply between March 1 and August 31 in an even year and you pay $100, valid at most 12 months. Apply between September 1 in an even year and February 28 in an odd year and you choose: $50 for a license valid at most six months, or $250 for one valid at most 30 months. Everything expires on February 28 of the next odd year regardless. Payment takes credit card, eCheck, check or money order payable to DCWP, and credit card payments carry a nonrefundable two percent convenience fee. Plan the application date around the calendar. A remodeler who applies in September of an even year and takes the $250 option buys 30 months of licensed selling for less than two short cycles would cost, which is worth knowing before you file.
Sourcesnyc.gov
DCWP makes every Home Improvement Contractor licensee back the work with money, and gives you two ways to do it. Option one is enrollment in the Home Improvement Business Trust Fund, which costs $200 to join. DCWP notes that Trust Fund participants who stay in the fund do not have to pay again at renewal if the fund held more than $2 million as of July of the prior year. Option two is a $20,000 surety bond or third-party bond, properly signed, naming the Department as certificate holder, with a copy of the receipt showing the bond is paid in full and does not expire before the licensing period ends. Your corporate name, any doing-business-as name, and premises address must match exactly across every document. DCWP publishes a list of bonding companies without endorsing any of them. The Trust Fund is also a selling point you can state out loud. DCWP tells consumers that if a licensed home improvement contractor owes them money they may be eligible for reimbursement through the Trust Fund, and that homeowners who hire an unlicensed contractor are not eligible for Trust Fund repayment. That is a real advantage over the unlicensed competitor undercutting your bid, and it belongs in your pitch rather than buried in your paperwork.
Nassau County licenses contractors who perform remodeling on residential homes in the county, and the bar is higher than New York City's in one specific way: experience. The Department of Consumer Affairs requires five years of recent relevant verifiable experience, proof of good moral character and financial responsibility, proof that you really own the business, and an actual establishment at a definite location within New York State. A telephone answering service does not count as a location. You must be at least 18. Commercial-only contractors do not need the license, and neither do employees of contractors or plumbers, electricians, architects and professional engineers working solely in their own licensed field. The fee is $650 for a two-year license plus a one-time mandatory $50 contribution to the Home Improvement Restitution Fund, which compensates homeowners holding uncollectable judgments or arbitration awards against a licensed contractor, up to $10,000. You cannot start work and you cannot advertise until the license is actually issued. Renewal runs two years. A $110 late fee applies to any renewal filed 15 days after expiration, late renewal is allowed up to three months, and after that you meet with the Commissioner and Counsel. No renewal happens more than one calendar year after expiration. A supplementary license for each extra Nassau place of business costs $110, and a duplicate license costs $60.
Sourcesnassaucountyny.gov
Suffolk County licenses home improvement contractors through the Division of Consumer Affairs, and the county reads the term broadly. Its own list of covered work includes arborists, awnings, basements, cabinet makers, carpentry, dormers, driveways, excavating, extensions, flooring, garages, insulation, kitchens, masonry, painting, railings, roofing, siding, swimming pools, tile installers, tree services and waterproofing. Consumer Affairs licenses more than 15,000 vendors and says over half of the licenses it issues or renews each year are home improvement licenses. The county code sets an application fee of $200 with each home improvement contracting license application, and a license fee of $200 per annum, with licenses issued for periods of two years. A salesman identification card costs $50 per annum, with no fee for the application itself. A duplicate license costs $25. A supplementary license for each additional Suffolk place of business costs $50 per annum. Shelving an inactive license costs $50 for each annual period. Licenses are not assignable or transferable, and an endorsed assignment carries a $25 fee. The license must be conspicuously posted at the place of business. The Director may require a surety bond as evidence of financial responsibility, capped at $100,000, and may require certificates of public liability and property damage insurance at $500,000 per occurrence combined single limit. Contractors doing house raising work carry additional coverage with a riggers liability extension at a minimum of $500,000 per occurrence and a $2,000,000 aggregate.
Westchester County requires a county home improvement license, and the county code is blunt about what triggers it. No person may maintain, conduct, advertise, operate or engage in the home improvement business in Westchester, or hold themselves out as able to do so, without the license. The code also captures facilitators: someone who for a fee organizes, oversees or arranges for other contractors is in the home improvement business. As of January 1, 2026 the application fee is $750 for a two-year license, and each renewal is $750 for another two years. Expedited processing costs $100 and gets the application handled within seven business days once the card is charged. A renewal received later than 15 days before expiration draws a $50 penalty. A duplicate license costs $50. Vehicle decals cost $10 each. The county has 90 days after a complete application to grant or deny it. The document set includes a current liability insurance certificate naming the Westchester County Department of Consumer Protection at 148 Martine Avenue, Room 407, White Plains as certificate holder; New York workers compensation and disability certificates, or the CE-200 exemption affidavit; proof of address dated within 60 days; and a notarized Child Support Certification Form for each sole proprietor or partner. Working without the license is a Class A misdemeanor under section 863.320 of the county code.
Sourcesconsumer.westchestercountyny.gov 1consumer.westchestercountyny.gov 2consumer.westchestercountyny.gov 3
This is where remodelers quietly break the rules while trying to win work. New York City requires your DCWP license number in advertising, cited as 6 RCNY section 2-222(a) on the agency's inspection checklist, and the contract itself must carry the date, your name, your office address, your telephone number and your DCWP license number under 6 RCNY section 2-221(a)(1). The same checklist bars advertising claims about benefits that are not based on known and provable facts, and gives the example of claiming installed windows will cut energy bills by a percentage you cannot prove. Westchester County goes wider: its code makes it a violation to fail to disclose the license number on all advertising, stationery, proposals, change orders and invoices, and on all contracts with an owner. Westchester also issues a vehicle decal for each vehicle used in licensed activities, and those decals must be conspicuously displayed in or on the vehicle during the license term. Nassau County answers the advertising question directly: the home improvement law does regulate advertising, and substantial misrepresentation, false promises, or false, deceptive and misleading advertising are violations. Nassau also requires the license to be conspicuously displayed at the business with a copy in each vehicle, and prohibits advertising at all until the license is issued. Put the number in the website footer, on the truck, on the estimate and on the invoice.
Sourceshome4.nyc.gov 1consumer.westchestercountyny.gov 2nassaucountyny.gov 3
Every licensing jurisdiction adds contract mechanics on top of the state law, and the overlap is where remodelers get written up. New York City requires a written estimate on request under Administrative Code section 20-395, a written contract signed by both parties, and a copy given to the consumer when it is signed and before any work. Change orders must be written and signed by both, and must show the cost of the extra work, the new contract price, and the payment due date. DCWP warns that each missing contract requirement is assessed as a separate violation. You cannot perform any contracted work or change the property until the three-day cancellation period has run. You cannot arrange or help arrange financing for the work. You cannot use the consumer's payments for expenses unrelated to that home improvement, and you must keep contracts and related records for six years, longer when a guarantee runs longer. Before signing, you must give written notice of every permit the job needs, who will pull them, the steps, the estimated fees, and how the homeowner can check permit status. Nassau County requires a separate fully completed Notice of Cancellation in the language of the sales presentation, with the three-day right to cancel in bold face type of at least 10 points, and written notice by mail, text or email all count as cancellation.
The downside is criminal in three of the licensing jurisdictions, not merely administrative. Nassau County states that working without a license is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and up to one year in jail, plus seizure of vehicles and tools. Suffolk County's code says anyone who engages in a licensed business without a license, or continues after a license is suspended or revoked, is guilty of a misdemeanor subject to a fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisonment of not more than one year, or both, with each violation a separate offense. Suffolk's Director may also impose a civil penalty of up to $750 for a first violation and $1,500 for any later one, or suspend, revoke or deny a license. Westchester County makes unlicensed home improvement business a Class A misdemeanor under section 863.320. New York City publishes a Wall of Shame listing unlicensed home improvement contractors, updates it monthly, and tells homeowners to use its daily-updated Search Business tool to check. The commercial penalty is worse than the fine. DCWP tells consumers plainly that they are not eligible for Trust Fund repayment if they hire an unlicensed contractor, which turns your license into the reason a cautious homeowner picks you over a cheaper bid.
Sourcesnassaucountyny.gov 1suffolkcountyny.gov 2consumer.westchestercountyny.gov 3nyc.gov 4nyc.gov 5
Assume every serious New York remodeling prospect checks you before they call, because the agencies tell them to and the tools are free. New York City runs a public license search at the DCWP business portal, and its Check License Status page explains that the underlying licensee data is published to NYC Open Data weekly while the Search Business tool is updated daily. DCWP also tells consumers to call 311 and say Business Background Check to pull a complaint history. Suffolk County publishes a searchable list of contractors with valid licenses and gives Consumer Affairs at (631) 853-4600 as the phone route for license verification and open complaints. Westchester County's Department of Consumer Protection maintains a list of licensed contractors and a separate list of what it calls renegade renovators that consumers are told to avoid. Nassau County's Department of Consumer Affairs is the complaint-history source for that county, and DCWP's own consumer tips page points homeowners to Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester and the New York State Division of Consumer Protection for checks outside the city. Two practical consequences. Keep the license active and the business name identical across your license, your website and your contracts, because a mismatch reads as a failed lookup. And since complaint history is public in the same places, an unresolved complaint costs you the jobs you never hear about.
Sourcesnyc.gov 1a866-dcwpbp.nyc.gov 2suffolkcountyny.gov 3consumer.westchestercountyny.gov 4nyc.gov 5
No New York license replaces the coverage and filings that come with running a remodeling company. The New York State Workers Compensation Board states that an employer with employees working in New York State may be required to provide workers compensation, disability benefits and Paid Family Leave coverage. Licensing agencies collect the proof. DCWP requires a workers compensation certificate from a private carrier or the New York State Insurance Fund naming the Department as certificate holder, or a Certificate of Attestation of Exemption, and it rejects ACORD forms as proof of New York coverage. Westchester requires either New York workers compensation and disability certificates naming the county department, or the CE-200 exemption affidavit. Nassau requires certificates of liability and property damage plus workers compensation covering employees. Suffolk's code lets the Director require public liability and property damage certificates and a bond as evidence of financial responsibility. On the tax and entity side, DCWP's checklist points applicants to businessexpress.ny.gov for a Certificate of Authority to collect sales tax, requires the applicable Business Certificate for your legal structure, and requires corporations, limited partnerships, LLCs and LLPs to register and stay active with the New York State Division of Corporations. Sole proprietors trading under another name need an assumed name certificate. Partnerships need a partnership certificate. Get the entity, the sales tax number and the coverage in place before you file, because every license application asks for them.
Sourceswcb.ny.gov 1nyc.gov 2consumer.westchestercountyny.gov 3nassaucountyny.gov 4suffolkcountyny.gov 5
These are common details other guides publish about New York, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. New York has no state-level remodeling or general contractor license. The Attorney General names six jurisdictions where home improvement contractors must be licensed locally: New York City, Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties. Everywhere else in the state, a remodeler needs no occupational license, though the statewide home improvement contract law still applies.
The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Its inspection checklist cites Administrative Code section 20-387: anyone who performs or offers to perform home improvement work on private residences in the city needs a DCWP Home Improvement Contractor license. The agency also requires every subcontractor you use to hold the same license.
DCWP charges by position in a two-year cycle ending February 28 in odd years. Applying March through August of an odd year costs $200. September of an odd year through February costs $150. March through August of an even year costs $100. September of an even year through February offers $50 for six months or $250 for 30 months.
Yes. DCWP's Home Improvement Exam has 30 questions and you must answer 21 correctly. Only one qualifying person needs to pass: a sole proprietor, general partner, corporate officer, principal, director, member or shareholder holding ten percent or more of stock. Your application fee covers two attempts, and a third costs $50.
You need one of two things. Either enroll your business in the Home Improvement Business Trust Fund for $200, or file a properly signed $20,000 surety or third-party bond naming DCWP as certificate holder. DCWP notes Trust Fund members may skip the fee at renewal when the fund held more than $2 million the prior July.
Nassau County's Department of Consumer Affairs requires five years of recent relevant verifiable experience, plus proof of good moral character and financial responsibility, proof you own the business, and an actual establishment at a definite New York State location. An answering service does not qualify as a location. Applicants must be at least 18 years old.
Nassau charges $650 for a two-year license plus a one-time mandatory $50 contribution to its Home Improvement Restitution Fund. Westchester charges $750 for a two-year license as of January 1, 2026, with renewals also at $750. Westchester adds $100 for expedited handling, $50 for a late renewal, and $10 for each vehicle decal.
Yes, through the Division of Consumer Affairs, and its definition is wide: carpentry, kitchens, masonry, roofing, siding, flooring, basements, dormers, extensions, tile and more. County code sets a $200 application fee and a $200 per annum license fee, with licenses issued for two-year periods. A salesman identification card costs $50 per annum.
Yes in the licensing jurisdictions. New York City requires the DCWP license number in advertising under 6 RCNY section 2-222(a). Westchester's code requires it on all advertising, stationery, proposals, change orders, invoices and contracts. Nassau requires the license displayed at the business with a copy in each vehicle, and bars advertising before the license issues.
Until midnight of the third business day after signing, and the contract must say so. The Attorney General describes it as an unconditional right exercised in writing. New York City bars you from performing any contracted work or altering the property until that period expires. Nassau accepts cancellation notice by mail, text or email.
Into a trust or escrow account at a bank in New York State within five business days, with the customer told where the money is held within ten business days. The alternative is delivering a bond or contract of indemnity within ten business days. The Attorney General says violating these payment protections draws fines from $250 to $2,500.
Nassau calls it a Class A misdemeanor with a fine up to $5,000, up to a year in jail, and seizure of vehicles and tools. Suffolk's code sets the same $5,000 and one-year exposure. Westchester makes it a Class A misdemeanor. New York City also publishes an Unlicensed Home Improvement Contractors Wall of Shame monthly.
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