South Dakota · Remodeling licensing · official-source guide
South Dakota issues no state remodeling license. The Department of Revenue requires every construction business to hold a contractor's excise tax license and pay 2 percent of gross receipts. The license that gates permit work is municipal: Sioux Falls requires a Residential Building Contractor's License, earned by exam, backed by a $20,000 bond and $300,000 general liability.
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South Dakota does not license remodelers at state level. The Department of Labor and Regulation publishes the list of occupational and professional boards it runs, and that list contains no general contractor board and no home improvement contractor registry. The only two construction trades with their own state commissions are electrical and plumbing. Everything a remodeler actually needs splits across two other places. The Department of Revenue issues the contractor's excise tax license that every business doing construction services in the state must hold. The city that issues your building permit issues the license that decides whether you may pull that permit at all. That arrangement puts the real gate at city hall. Sioux Falls writes its own contractor licensing ordinance, runs its own monthly exams, and issues separate licenses for residential building work and for roofing and repair work. A remodeler who holds nothing but an excise tax number can file tax returns but cannot legally take a permit for a basement finish inside Sioux Falls city limits. So the answer to the usual question depends on where the job sits. Outside an incorporated city with its own licensing ordinance, no license governs the carpentry side of a remodel. Inside Sioux Falls, a city license governs almost every remodel that touches structure, shingles, siding, windows or doors. The electrical and plumbing portions of the same remodel are licensed by the state commissions regardless of which city the house is in.
Sourcesdlr.sd.gov 1dor.sd.gov 2siouxfalls.gov 3siouxfalls.gov 4
Every person entering into a contract for construction services, or doing work that builds, installs or repairs a fixture to real property, must hold a South Dakota contractor's tax license from the Department of Revenue. This is a tax registration, not a competency license. Nobody tests you and nobody checks your experience. You still have to have it before you contract. The tax rate is 2 percent of gross receipts on construction projects. Because the tax is owed on gross receipts, and gross receipts include tax you collected from the homeowner, the Department publishes a bid factor of 2.041 percent for use when you prepare a bid or a bill. Using 2 percent on the bid leaves you short of the 2 percent you owe on the larger total. Returns are due by the 20th of the month. Paper filers must also pay by the 20th. Electronic payments are due by the 25th. Subcontracting changes who pays. On projects that are not for a qualified utility, the prime contractor must issue a prime contractor's exemption certificate to every subcontractor on each project. The certificate must show the prime's excise tax license number, the project location, and a description of the project. Blanket certificates to a subcontractor are not allowed. A subcontractor with no certificate on file for a project is treated as a prime contractor and owes the excise tax itself. The Department recommends getting the certificate before work starts.
Sourcesdor.sd.gov
Sioux Falls requires a Residential Building Contractor's License of every contractor working on residential one and two family dwellings and townhomes inside the city. The trigger is the building permit. Any work on a residential home that would require a building permit requires the license. The city names sheds, decks, shingles, sheetrock replacement, replacing exterior doors or windows, basement finishing and new construction as examples. This is the license that covers remodeling. The city states plainly that handyman work is not exempt. If the job needs a permit, the person doing it needs the license. Work that needs no building permit, which the city illustrates with floor coverings such as tile or carpet, painting, and cabinets, does not require it. The license is not held by a company in the abstract. A Construction Supervisor, meaning the individual who sat and passed the city exam, is named on it, and the application requires that the designated license holder be an owner, a partner, or a W2 employee of the company. A one-person remodeling business and a twenty-crew company both need somebody who tested. Homeowners are not required to hold the license, but they still have to get building permits and any applicable homeowner permits, and they carry responsibility for code compliance and for getting the required inspections. Commercial work is different. Sioux Falls does not license general contractors on commercial projects, though every project still goes through plan review and permitting. Apartment buildings count as commercial for construction purposes even though people live in them.
You cannot apply for the Sioux Falls residential license until you have taken and passed the Construction Supervisor Examination. The exam is timed and open book, and it is drawn from the City of Sioux Falls Residential Code Handbook. You receive the handbook when you apply for the exam, and the city also sells it for $10.00. The examination fee is $75.00, due at application. The exam runs once per month. Open book does not mean easy, and the city says so in its own words. The exam has 50 questions, and you need 80 percent or higher to pass, so no more than 10 answers may be wrong. The city states that most testers pass but that some fail every month, and it recommends studying the handbook rather than relying on looking things up during the test. The questions are multiple choice and tied to the handbook. There is no license covering one task only. The city does not issue licenses for siding alone, shingling alone, window replacement alone or decks alone under this license. The Residential Building Contractor's license covers all types of general construction on residential structures. An Inactive Construction Supervisor License is available to anyone who has passed the exam. It does not let you work as a contractor. It keeps a current license on file with the city so that you can reinstate the Residential Building Contractor's license later without testing again. That matters for a remodeler who takes a season off or moves in house for a builder.
Sourcessiouxfalls.gov
Once the Construction Supervisor has passed, the company has 90 days from the date of the examination to file the license application with three things attached. The first is a $20,000 compliance bond. The second is a certificate of liability insurance showing a minimum of $300,000 general liability. The third is the license fee. The bond is worth reading closely, because it is the consumer remedy South Dakota otherwise lacks. The city requires a bond of $20,000 naming the contractor as principal and the City of Sioux Falls as obligee, and the city states it is held for the benefit of the City and of consumers dealing with the contractor. It secures faithful and lawful completion of all work the contractor takes on inside the city. It must be written by a corporate surety authorized to do business in South Dakota. The bond must describe you as a Residential Building Contractor or a Residential Roofing and Repair Contractor. The city says General Contractor is not an acceptable bond description. The business name on the bond, on the insurance certificate and on the license application must all match. The city names itself as certificate holder on the insurance. The license fee is $300. The license expires March 1 of every third year. The fee prorates if you come in later in the cycle, at $200 in the second year and $100 in the third. The application also requires your South Dakota contractor's excise tax number, so the state registration comes first.
Sioux Falls carves out a second, narrower license for the exterior work that fills a lot of remodeling calendars. The Residential Roofing and Repair Contractor License covers shingling, siding, and window and door replacement with no structural changes, on residential single and two family dwellings and townhomes inside the city. If a job goes past those three categories, or if it changes structure, the broader Residential Building Contractor license is required instead. The path mirrors the building contractor path. You take and pass the Residential Roofing and Repair Contractor Examination first. It is timed and open book, based on the City of Sioux Falls Residential Roofing and Repair Handbook, which you receive when you apply for the exam and which the city also sells for $10.00. The examination fee is $75.00 and the exam is offered once per month. After passing, you apply with a $20,000 compliance bond, a minimum of $300,000 general liability insurance, and the license fee, all within 90 days of the examination date. The same information sheet that covers the building contractor license covers this one, and the same $300 fee and March 1 third year expiration apply. An Inactive Roofing and Repair Contractor License exists on the same terms as the inactive supervisor license. It does not permit work. It preserves your tested status so you can reinstate without taking the examination again. For a remodeler who sells both roofs and additions, the broader building contractor license is the one that covers both. The narrow license does not cover structural work.
Sioux Falls licenses mechanical work separately, and a remodel that moves ductwork or adds a furnace runs into it. A Mechanical Contractor's License is required of every contractor doing mechanical or HVAC work inside city limits. Homeowners living in and owning a single family dwelling do not need the license, but they must get mechanical homeowner permits and they own code compliance and the required inspections. The qualifying exam here is the Master Mechanic examination, and it is the one city construction exam with a stated experience prerequisite. The applicant must show evidence of four years experience when submitting the examination application. The test is timed with closed book and open book portions, built on the International Mechanical Code, the International Fuel Gas Code, the SMACNA HVAC standards and the ACCA manuals. The examination fee is $75.00 and the exam is offered once per month. On approval you apply for the license with a $10,000 compliance bond and the license fee, within 90 days of the examination. That bond is half the amount required of a residential building contractor. You receive the City Mechanical Ordinance folder at application, and the city sells it separately for $6.00. An Inactive Master Mechanic License is available on the same reinstatement logic as the other inactive licenses. Sioux Falls also issues separate licenses for fireplace work and for refrigeration and coolant work, plus irrigation and sign work. A remodeler adding a gas fireplace or a sprinkler zone should check the specific license rather than assume the building contractor license reaches it.
The South Dakota Electrical Commission licenses every electrician in the state, inspects wiring installations, and investigates wiring complaints. A remodel that adds circuits needs a licensed electrician regardless of which city the house sits in. The hour requirements are long. Four years as a licensed apprentice electrician, totaling 8,000 hours under the employment and supervision of an electrical contractor, qualifies you to write the journeyman exam. Another two years as a licensed journeyman, totaling 4,000 additional hours including a minimum of 2,000 hours of commercial work, qualifies you to write the electrical contractor exam. The commission states that experience hours only count if they were worked under a license. The financial requirement is set by statute and the commission publishes it. An applicant must deposit an undertaking in the sum of ten thousand dollars with the commission, plus public liability insurance of not less than one hundred thousand dollars per occurrence and three hundred thousand dollars aggregate for bodily injury, and property damage insurance of not less than twenty-five thousand dollars per occurrence or a combined single limit of three hundred thousand dollars. Coverage must stay in force with certificates on file at the commission. There is also a fund, which is the closest thing South Dakota has to a construction recovery fund. A fifty dollar deposit is made when the undertaking is executed and again biennially at renewal. The commission accumulates those deposits to correct or complete installations a contractor refuses or cannot finish. Disbursement is capped at ten thousand dollars per occurrence, and the renewal deposit is waived when the fund exceeds fifty thousand dollars.
The South Dakota Plumbing Commission licenses plumbers, sewer and water installers, appliance installers, manufactured and mobile home installers, underground irrigation installers, water conditioning installers and on-site wastewater installers. It inspects plumbing installations and investigates plumbing complaints. A bathroom remodel that moves a drain line is inside its reach. The plumbing contractor's license requires six years of experience as a plumbing contractor, plumber or plumber's apprentice, with at least two of those years as a plumbing contractor or plumber, and at least 1,900 hours in each of those six years. The plumber's license requires four years as an apprentice plumber at 1,900 hours per year, with military plumbing credited at one year for every two years served up to five years of credit. There is a middle rung that matters on residential remodels. An apprentice plumber who has two years and 3,800 hours of experience learning and assisting in plumbing installation, alteration and repair under a plumbing contractor may work unsupervised during the third and fourth years, only on single family dwellings, and only after passing a state administered examination. Renewal is annual, not biennial. State law expires plumbing licenses on December 31 each year. A lapsed license requires a reinstatement form and the applicable fee. The commission conditions renewal on continuing education: plumbing contractors, plumbers and third year apprentice plumbers licensed by exam must show completion of continuing education for the prior year before a renewal is processed. Applications for every license type go in with the application fee before the license fee is quoted.
Sourcesdlr.sd.gov 1dlr.sd.gov 2
South Dakota has no home improvement contract statute, but it has a door to door sales law that catches a large share of remodeling sales. A door to door sale is any sale, lease or rental of goods or services with a purchase price of twenty five dollars or more, under single or multiple contracts, where the seller or a representative personally solicits the sale and the buyer's agreement or offer to purchase is made somewhere other than the seller's place of business. Sales that followed an invitation from the buyer are included. Signing a remodeling contract at the homeowner's kitchen table is therefore usually a door to door sale, and three duties attach. You must hand the buyer a fully completed receipt or copy of the contract at the time it is signed, showing the transaction date and your name and address. Immediately next to the signature space, in bold face type of at least ten points, it must carry the statement that the buyer may cancel the transaction at any time prior to midnight of the third business day after the date of the transaction. You must also tell the buyer orally about the right to cancel, and you must not misrepresent that right in any way. A separate section requires a detachable duplicate form captioned NOTICE OF CANCELLATION, in ten point bold face type, attached to the contract or receipt. If the buyer cancels, payments, trade-ins and negotiable instruments are returned within ten business days and any security interest is canceled.
The door to door rules have listed exceptions, and remodelers sit near several of them. A transaction made pursuant to prior negotiations during a visit by the buyer to a retail business establishment with a fixed permanent location, where the goods or services are offered on a continuing basis, is excluded. So is a transaction conducted and consummated entirely by mail or telephone with no other contact before performance. So is a transaction where federal law already gives the buyer a right of rescission. Two exceptions get misread in remodeling. The first is the emergency exception. It applies only when the buyer initiated contact, the work is needed for a bona fide immediate personal emergency, and the buyer gives you a separate dated and signed statement in the buyer's own handwriting describing the situation and expressly waiving the right to cancel within three business days. A printed waiver line you typed does not satisfy that. The second concerns service calls. Where the buyer initiated contact and specifically asked you to visit to repair or maintain the buyer's personal property, that visit is excluded. But if during the visit you sell additional services or goods beyond replacement parts necessarily used in the repair, the sale of those additional items is not covered by the exclusion. Upselling a remodel off a repair call puts you back under the cancellation rules. South Dakota's consumer protection office also states that a seller is prohibited from putting any language on the contract or receipt that nullifies the three day right to cancel.
There is no state unlicensed contracting statute for remodeling, because there is no state remodeling license. The penalties that reach a remodeler come from two other directions. The first is consumer protection law. Failing to furnish the required receipt or contract with the cancellation statement, failing to tell the buyer orally about the right to cancel, misrepresenting that right, or failing to supply the NOTICE OF CANCELLATION form is defined by statute as a deceptive act or practice. Deceptive acts and practices carry graduated criminal exposure: each act under one thousand dollars is a Class 1 misdemeanor, each act over one thousand dollars but under one hundred thousand dollars is a Class 6 felony, and each act over one hundred thousand dollars is a Class 5 felony. In an injunction action brought by the attorney general, where the court finds a person intentionally used an unlawful act or practice, the attorney general may recover a civil penalty of up to two thousand dollars per violation on behalf of the state. The second is the city. In Sioux Falls, working without the required license on permit work means you cannot hold the permit, and your bond and insurance filings are what keep the license alive. The city states that a license must stay active through current bond, insurance and continuing education. Licenses renew every three years, and once a license expires it cannot be renewed after 12 months from expiration without re-examination. Letting a bond lapse is therefore not a paperwork problem. It is a path back to the exam room.
Three clocks run at different speeds, and a remodeler who subcontracts mechanical and electrical work should know all three. The Sioux Falls residential building contractor and roofing and repair licenses expire March 1 of every third year. License holders must provide at least one hour of continuing education during each license cycle. The course instructor signs the city's Continuing Education Certificate and that certificate is submitted for approval. If a license expires, it cannot be renewed after 12 months from expiration without re-examination. Electrical licenses renew biennially. The Electrical Commission requires 16 hours of continuing education, including a minimum of 8 code hours, due by the time the renewal is submitted or by June 30, whichever is sooner. Only 8 of those hours may come from pre-approved online courses. Renewal requires copies of the continuing education completion certificates for the two year window. Plumbing licenses expire annually on December 31 by state law, and renewal is conditioned on proof of continuing education for the prior year. Reciprocity exists for electrical and does not exist for the city license. The Electrical Commission maintains reciprocal agreements with Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming, with the condition that you earned the license there by examination and have held it in active status for at least one year. Sioux Falls is blunt in the other direction: the city does not reciprocate any licenses, and an out of state contractor license does not substitute for taking and passing the city examination.
Sourcessiouxfalls.gov 1dlr.sd.gov 2dlr.sd.gov 3dlr.sd.gov 4dlr.sd.gov 5
South Dakota gives homeowners three public places to look, and a remodeler should know what each one shows. Sioux Falls publishes a Currently Licensed Contractors list covering all contractors licensed with the city across a range of services. Building Services updates it regularly, and the city describes it as a resource for residents who want to hire licensed contractors and for contractors picking subcontractors. If you work in Sioux Falls and you are not on that list, a homeowner checking it will not find you. The Plumbing Commission publishes lists of licensees under its consumer information page, covering licensed plumbers, specialty licensees and small onsite wastewater installers. The Secretary of State runs a free business information search where anyone can look up an entity by name or by business ID and see whether it is active. The state consumer protection office tells homeowners to check for qualifications including licensing, to get written estimates from several firms, to ask for copies of insurance certificates, and to confirm that subcontractors carry current insurance and licenses too. It warns in print that a good advertisement is not proof a contractor does quality work. On wording, South Dakota does not confer a state remodeling title you can advertise, so there is nothing to claim beyond what you actually hold. Sioux Falls is explicit that General Contractor is not acceptable as a description on the compliance bond. Name the license you hold, Residential Building Contractor or Residential Roofing and Repair Contractor, and name the state excise tax license separately.
Sourcessiouxfalls.gov 1dlr.sd.gov 2sosenterprise.sd.gov 3consumer.sd.gov 4siouxfalls.gov 5
The insurance picture in South Dakota is unusual, and it changes how a remodeler should answer a homeowner who asks. There is no law in South Dakota requiring any employer to carry workers compensation insurance. The Department of Labor and Regulation says so directly, recommends coverage anyway, and warns that an uninsured employer may be sued in civil court by an injured worker. For employers who choose coverage, the program pays medical and disability benefits for work related injuries and diseases. So when a homeowner asks whether you carry workers compensation, the honest answer in this state is about your choice, not about compliance. The state consumer protection office tells homeowners to ask for it and warns that without it they could be liable for accidents on their property, which means carrying it is a sales argument here rather than a formality. General liability is required where a license requires it. Sioux Falls requires a minimum of $300,000 general liability for the residential building and roofing and repair licenses, with the insured business name matching the license application and the bond, and the city listed as certificate holder. Renewal certificates must be forwarded to Planning and Development Services as they come due. Two more registrations belong on the list. The Department of Revenue contractor's excise tax number is required before the Sioux Falls license application can be processed. And a remodeler who runs the business out of a Sioux Falls home must obtain a home occupation permit from the City Zoning office.
Sourcesdlr.sd.gov 1consumer.sd.gov 2siouxfalls.gov 3siouxfalls.gov 4
These are common details other guides publish about South Dakota, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The Department of Labor and Regulation's list of occupational boards includes no general contractor board and no home improvement registry. Only electrical and plumbing have state commissions. The one statewide requirement for construction businesses is the Department of Revenue contractor's excise tax license, which is a tax registration rather than a competency license.
A Residential Building Contractor's License from the City of Sioux Falls. The trigger is the building permit: any work on a residential one or two family dwelling or townhome that would require a permit requires the license. The city lists basement finishing, sheetrock replacement, decks, shingles and exterior door and window replacement as examples.
No. The city states that handyman work needing a building permit requires the Residential Building Contractor's License. Work needing no building permit is outside it, and the city gives floor coverings such as tile or carpet, painting and cabinets as examples. If you are unsure whether a job needs a permit, ask Building Services before quoting.
It is the Construction Supervisor Examination: a timed, open book test drawn from the city's Residential Code Handbook, offered once a month. The fee is $75.00 at application, and the handbook also sells for $10.00. There are 50 questions and you need 80 percent, so no more than 10 wrong answers.
A $20,000 compliance bond and a minimum of $300,000 general liability insurance, filed with the license application within 90 days of passing the exam. The bond names the city as obligee and is held for the benefit of the city and of consumers dealing with the contractor. The business name must match across bond, insurance and application.
The license fee is $300, and the license expires March 1 of every third year. The fee prorates to $200 if you apply in the second year of the cycle and $100 in the third. License holders must provide at least one hour of continuing education during each license cycle, certified by the course instructor on the city's form.
The rate is 2 percent of gross receipts. Because gross receipts include tax you collected from the customer, the Department of Revenue publishes a bid factor of 2.041 percent for bids and bills so the collected amount covers what you owe. Returns are due by the 20th of the month, with electronic payments due by the 25th.
On projects that are not for a qualified utility, the prime contractor must issue a prime contractor's exemption certificate to each subcontractor for each project, showing the prime's license number, the project location and a description. Blanket certificates are not allowed. A subcontractor without a certificate on file is treated as a prime and owes the tax.
Usually yes. South Dakota's door to door rules cover sales of twenty five dollars or more solicited in person away from your place of business. The buyer may cancel before midnight of the third business day. You must deliver the signed contract copy, the bold face cancellation statement and a detachable NOTICE OF CANCELLATION form.
No. The Department of Labor and Regulation states there is no law in South Dakota requiring any employer to carry workers compensation, while recommending it and warning that an uninsured employer may be sued in civil court by an injured worker. State consumer guidance tells homeowners to ask for it, so carrying it is worth saying out loud.
Not for the city license. Sioux Falls states it does not reciprocate any licenses and that you must take and pass its examination before applying. Electrical is different: the Electrical Commission maintains reciprocal agreements with several states, provided you earned the license there by examination and held it active for at least one year.
Sioux Falls publishes a Currently Licensed Contractors list maintained by Building Services for residents hiring contractors. The Plumbing Commission publishes lists of licensees on its consumer information page. The Secretary of State runs a free business information search by entity name or business ID. State consumer guidance points homeowners at licensing checks directly.
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