Kansas · Roofing licensing · official-source guide
The Kansas Attorney General licenses roofing contractors through the Kansas Roofing Registration Act, K.S.A. 50-6,121 et seq. Anyone doing commercial or residential roofing work for a fee must hold a roofing contractor registration certificate before soliciting or performing work, carry at least $500,000 in liability insurance, and pay a fee the attorney general sets at up to $500 a year.
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Kansas does not run a trade-skill exam for roofers the way it does for some other occupations. Instead, roofing work is controlled through the Kansas Roofing Registration Act, codified at K.S.A. 50-6,121 through 50-6,143. The act is administered by the Office of the Kansas Attorney General, which processes applications, collects fees into the roofing contractor registration fund, investigates complaints and maintains the public list of valid registration certificates. The act took effect in 2013 and was expanded in later sessions to add the insurance assignment provisions that now apply to storm damage repair contracts. Because the attorney general, not a construction licensing board, runs the program, the emphasis is on financial responsibility and consumer protection rather than tested trade skill. A roofing contractor registration certificate is required before a person or business may engage in the business of, or act in the capacity of, a roofing contractor anywhere in Kansas, and before that person may bring or maintain a lawsuit in a Kansas court related to roofing work. The certificate does not replace any other licensure a trade or profession may already require, and it does not by itself authorize work that a city or county building code separately regulates through permits. A contractor who plans to solicit or perform roofing work in Kansas, including a business based in another state, should treat registration as a precondition to bidding, signing a contract, pulling a permit or advertising roofing services anywhere in the state, since the statute applies uniformly across Kansas rather than varying city by city the way some other trades do.
The act defines a roofing contractor broadly. It covers any person, including a subcontractor or a nonresident contractor, who in the ordinary course of business engages in commercial or residential roofing services for a fee, or who offers to engage in or solicits roofing related services such as construction, installation, renovation, repair, maintenance, alteration or waterproofing of a roof. The definition reaches beyond installation crews to anyone who solicits or bids roofing work, including a nonresident contractor who travels into Kansas after a hailstorm to sign contracts. It excludes three groups by definition rather than by exemption: a person who only demolishes a structure or cleans up construction waste and debris containing roofing material, a person working under the direct supervision of a registered roofing contractor as that contractor's employee or day laborer, and an exempt general contractor. An exempt general contractor is a general contractor as defined in K.S.A. 12-1540(d), a statute tied to city licensing, who on request demonstrates to the attorney general that the contractor is in compliance with all state, municipal and county requirements to do business where the roofing work occurs. In practice this means a properly licensed general contractor who meets that showing can supervise roofing work without a separate roofing registration, while a business or individual whose primary offering is roofing services still needs the certificate. A nonresident contractor is separately defined as a contractor that has not maintained a Kansas place of business in the preceding year, claims residency in another state, or has not filed a Kansas resident income tax return in the preceding year, and that definition matters because nonresident contractors face additional service of process requirements described later in this page.
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The act lists specific exemptions in K.S.A. 50-6,129. It does not apply to the actual owner of commercial, residential or farm property who physically performs, or whose own employees perform, roofing work on that owner's own building without hiring a registered roofing contractor. It exempts government employees and representatives of the United States, the state of Kansas, or any county, municipality or political subdivision acting in that role. It exempts a supplier who furnishes fabricated or finished roofing material or merchandise but does not install or attach it to the property. It exempts employees of manufactured or modular home manufacturers, dealers and installers acting within the scope of those separate licenses, and it exempts a person registered as a home inspector under the state's home inspector registration law while performing inspection functions. The most commonly relevant exemption for small jobs is the de minimis exemption: a person is exempt if every roofing project that person undertakes in a fiscal year, counting labor, materials and everything else, is quoted, bid, billed and paid at less than $2,000 in the aggregate. That small-job exemption disappears the moment the person advertises, or puts out a sign or card, that might lead the public to believe the person is a roofing contractor or is qualified to work as one, so a handyman who markets roofing repair cannot rely on it even if individual jobs stay small. Separately, any government body that awards public contracts must require roofing contractor registration from anyone submitting a bid or entering a public roofing contract, so the exemptions do not extend to public works bidding.
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Unlike a skill-based trade license, the Kansas Roofing Registration Act does not set a minimum number of years of experience, a required apprenticeship, or a written or practical exam as a condition of registration. The application under K.S.A. 50-6,125 asks the applicant to submit, under oath, a statement of the applicant's experience and qualifications as a roofing contractor, if any, but the statute does not set a floor the attorney general must enforce before issuing a certificate. The applicant must be at least 18 years old. Beyond the experience statement, the substantive conditions the attorney general checks are financial and administrative: current liability insurance, workers compensation coverage or a lawful exemption from it, a current Kansas tax clearance certificate, and truthful disclosure of whether the applicant has held a roofing registration or license in another state and whether that registration faced discipline. The attorney general must refuse to register an applicant who submits false, misleading or incomplete information, who refuses to provide requested information, who refuses to pay the required fees, whose Kansas registration was previously suspended or revoked, whose out-of-state registration is currently suspended or revoked, or who fails to provide the tax clearance certificate. For a contractor coming from a skilled trade with an exam-based license, this structure means the Kansas roofing certificate functions closer to a business registration backed by insurance and tax compliance than to a tested occupational license, which is also why the statute calls the credential a registration certificate rather than a license throughout.
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To apply, K.S.A. 50-6,125 requires an application under oath containing the applicant's name, physical address, business name and address, information on any other person authorized to act for the business entity, and a phone number. The applicant must attach a copy of the roofing contractor's certificate of liability insurance showing coverage of not less than $500,000, and the insurer issuing that policy must agree to notify the attorney general if the policy is later canceled or lapses. The applicant must also provide proof satisfactory to the attorney general of workers compensation coverage under the Kansas Workers Compensation Act, or an affidavit of exemption or self-insurance authorized under that act. The application must state that the applicant desires the certificate, will comply with the act, and will comply with all federal and state laws and local ordinances, and it must disclose whether the applicant has been registered or licensed as a roofing contractor in another state and the standing of that credential. A nonresident applicant must appoint the Kansas secretary of state as agent for service of process, addressed further under nonresident contractors below. The attorney general is authorized to require any other information reasonably needed to process the registration and to create the forms used for the application. Applicants also must provide a current tax clearance certificate or letter from the Kansas Department of Revenue with the application; failure to do so is an independent, mandatory ground for the attorney general to refuse registration, separate from the insurance and disclosure requirements.
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K.S.A. 50-6,128 sets the fee structure. At the time of applying for a roofing contractor registration certificate, the applicant pays a fee to the attorney general that the attorney general sets by rule, and that fee cannot exceed $500 for the annual registration certificate. The statute lets the attorney general prorate the fee for an initial registration issued partway through the fiscal year unless the registration is prorated at the time of initial registration, and it directs that all money collected be deposited into a dedicated roofing contractor registration fund in the state treasury, used only to administer the act rather than for general state purposes. Interest earned on the fund's average daily balance is transferred back into it monthly based on the pooled money investment fund's return rate, so the program is meant to be self-supporting from registrant fees rather than subsidized by general tax revenue. Separate from the annual registration fee, K.S.A. 50-6,131 sets a fee, capped at $25, for filing a change of the contractor's registered name, address or legal service agent, which every registrant must report to the attorney general within 10 days of the change. The act does not specify a separate application-review fee beyond the capped annual amount, and it does not authorize the attorney general to charge more than the statutory ceilings for either the initial or the change-of-information filing, though the exact dollar fee currently charged within those ceilings is set by attorney general rule rather than fixed in the statute itself.
Insurance is the substantive backbone of the Kansas roofing registration system. K.S.A. 50-6,125 requires every applicant to file a copy of a certificate of liability insurance with coverage of not less than $500,000 as part of the application, and that coverage must stay in force for the registration to remain valid; the insurer must notify the attorney general if the policy is canceled or lapses for any reason. The same section requires proof of workers compensation coverage that satisfies the Kansas Workers Compensation Act, unless the applicant qualifies for an exemption or is self-insured under that act, in which case an affidavit documenting the exemption or self-insured status substitutes for a policy. Both the liability certificate and the workers compensation proof, or exemption affidavit, must be resubmitted with every annual renewal application under K.S.A. 50-6,132, so coverage cannot lapse silently between renewal cycles without the attorney general finding out. The statute also lets the attorney general adopt rules and regulations addressing the acquisition of insurance, indemnity coverage or surety bonds in amounts the attorney general determines, meaning the $500,000 liability floor in the statute itself could be supplemented by administrative rule, and a separate surety bond requirement could exist in regulation. This page states only the $500,000 statutory liability minimum because that figure is fixed directly in the statute; any additional bond amount set only by administrative regulation was not independently confirmed from a regulation text and is listed in the gaps below rather than stated as fact here. A contractor operating without insurance that turns out inadequate for a job-site injury faces separate liability under the act's violation provisions.
K.S.A. 50-6,130 gives the attorney general 60 calendar days from the date of application to either issue or deny the roofing contractor registration certificate, and no certificate issues until the attorney general has received all required documentation and fees. An original registration certificate is valid through the end of the fiscal year in which it is issued, and the Kansas fiscal year ends June 30, except that an initial certificate issued in May or June is instead valid through June 30 of the following year, which effectively gives late-spring applicants a longer first term. To keep working past that date, K.S.A. 50-6,132 requires the registrant to file a renewal application with the attorney general by June 30 and pay the renewal fee. The renewal application repeats the under-oath disclosures about felony convictions and any adjudicated violations of the act since the last certificate issued, and it must again include a current certificate of liability insurance, proof of workers compensation coverage or exemption, and a current tax clearance certificate or letter from the Kansas Department of Revenue. The attorney general must refuse to renew for any of the same reasons that justify refusing an original application, including false or incomplete information or failure to pay fees. Because renewal is annual and tied to a fixed fiscal-year deadline rather than to the contractor's original issue date, every registrant in Kansas renews on the same June 30 cycle regardless of when during the year the certificate was first issued.
The Kansas Roofing Registration Act does not include a continuing education requirement. K.S.A. 50-6,132, the section that governs annual renewal, lists exactly what a registrant must submit to renew: the renewal application itself filed by June 30, the renewal fee, under-oath statements about felony convictions and adjudicated violations of the act, a current certificate of liability insurance, proof of workers compensation coverage or a lawful exemption, and, where applicable, a current tax clearance certificate or letter from the Kansas Department of Revenue. Nowhere in that list, or elsewhere in K.S.A. 50-6,121 through 50-6,143, does the act require completion of hours of coursework, a code-update class, or a competency exam as a condition of keeping the certificate current. This distinguishes the roofing registration from several other Kansas construction-adjacent credentials, such as electrical or HVAC licensure programs administered by other boards, which do attach continuing education obligations to renewal. For a roofing contractor licensed to work in a state that does require continuing education hours, Kansas registration adds no separate coursework burden on top of that home-state requirement; the Kansas side of compliance is essentially a paperwork and insurance renewal rather than a training renewal. Because this is an absence of a requirement rather than an affirmative rule, a contractor should still confirm current attorney general rules and regulations have not added a training component since this page was verified, since the statute expressly lets the attorney general adopt additional rules under K.S.A. 50-6,124.
Kansas does not offer a reciprocity agreement that lets a roofer licensed or registered in another state skip Kansas registration. The act defines a nonresident contractor as any contractor who has not maintained a Kansas place of business as a roofing contractor in the preceding year, who claims residency in another state, or who has not filed a Kansas resident income tax return in the preceding year, and that contractor must register the same way a Kansas-based contractor does, submitting the same insurance, workers compensation and tax clearance documentation. The one structural difference is service of process: under K.S.A. 50-6,134, a nonresident applicant appoints the Kansas secretary of state as the applicant's agent for service of any lawsuit arising from construction projects the contractor performs in Kansas, so a Kansas court can obtain jurisdiction over an out-of-state roofing business even if that business has no local office. A foreign corporation, limited liability company, limited liability partnership or limited partnership that is already authorized to do business in Kansas and has a current registered agent on file with the secretary of state does not need to make a separate appointment for this purpose. The application itself asks whether the applicant has held a roofing registration or license in another state and whether that credential faced discipline or is in good standing, and the attorney general must refuse registration to a nonresident applicant whose out-of-state roofing registration or license is currently suspended or revoked. This matters most for storm-response contractors who move between states chasing hail and wind damage, since each new state's registration or license is a separate, independent requirement rather than something portable from a home-state credential.
K.S.A. 50-6,123 makes it unlawful for any person to engage in the business of, or act in the capacity of, a roofing contractor in Kansas without a valid registration certificate, and it separately bars that person from bringing or maintaining any claim, lawsuit or proceeding in a Kansas court related to the person's business or capacity as a roofing contractor without a valid certificate. That second provision matters in practice because it means an unregistered contractor who is not paid for completed work may not be able to sue the homeowner in Kansas courts to collect. Anyone who fails to obtain a valid certificate before acting as a roofing contractor, or who keeps working while the certificate is suspended or revoked, is liable for a civil penalty under K.S.A. 50-636, the general civil penalty section of the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, in an amount the court sets at not more than $10,000 for each violation. That civil penalty is in addition to, not instead of, any other relief a court may grant or any other penalty prescribed by law, and the statute preserves whatever other remedies a consumer has under separate principles of law or equity. The attorney general, or a county or district attorney, may bring the enforcement action, and an aggrieved homeowner does not have to be a party to that action for the state to pursue it. Because every violation can be penalized separately, a contractor who solicits and performs several unregistered jobs faces exposure that multiplies with each project rather than a single flat fine, and the exposure is entirely separate from any building-permit violation a city or county might pursue for the same unpermitted work.
K.S.A. 50-6,133 lists the specific acts that constitute a violation once a person is acting as a roofing contractor. These include abandoning a roofing contract without legal grounds after receiving a deposit or other payment, diverting funds or property entrusted to the contractor, engaging in fraudulent or deceptive acts or misrepresenting products, services or qualifications, making a false or misleading statement on a registration application or renewal or while soliciting a roofing contract, violating a court judgment or order issued for a prior violation of the act, working without a valid certificate or while the certificate is denied, suspended or revoked, performing roofing services without obtaining a required state or local permit, failing to comply with applicable tax laws, damaging or injuring a person or property while the contractor's liability insurance or workers compensation coverage was inadequate to cover it, or failing to comply with any other provision of the act or its regulations. Any person may file a verified written complaint with the attorney general alleging one or more of these violations, using a form the attorney general approves, and a complainant is not required to file with the attorney general before seeking other legal remedies. Once a complaint is received, the attorney general may investigate it directly or refer it to a county or district attorney, and the attorney general has authority to investigate and examine a registrant's operations, books and records, to control access to documents under examination, and to charge the reasonable costs of investigation, examination and administration of the act to the applicant or registrant involved. Every violation of the act is also independently treated as a deceptive or unconscionable act or practice under the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, which opens the door to that act's separate remedies as well.
Kansas ties its consumer-facing transparency rule directly to the registration number rather than to a separate advertising code. K.S.A. 50-6,135 requires a roofing contractor to display the roofing contractor registration certificate number on every commercial vehicle used for roofing services, and on every business sign, card, piece of correspondence and contract used to solicit or conduct roofing services in Kansas. This reaches trucks, yard signs, business cards, proposal letters, written estimates and signed contracts alike, so a registration number that only appears on the final contract, without appearing on the truck or the advertising that generated the lead, does not satisfy the statute. The same section requires the contractor to supply the registration number to the official issuing any building permit for roofing work, and that official must write the number onto the permit itself; an exempt property owner performing work on their own home must likewise supply the registration number of any roofing subcontractor before the permit is issued. K.S.A. 50-6,127 separately requires that a contractor's registration number be valid and in good standing at the time the contractor solicits a project and throughout the job's performance, not merely at the moment of signing. The act does not spell out a standalone dollar fine for omitting the number from an ad; instead, failing to comply with this display requirement is treated as a violation under K.S.A. 50-6,133, which is enforceable as a deceptive act under the Kansas Consumer Protection Act and can carry the same civil penalty of up to $10,000 per violation described for unregistered work. Whether the statute prohibits specific advertising wording, such as calling the certificate a license, was not confirmed from the statute text and is listed as a gap below.
Because so much Kansas roofing work follows hail and wind storms, the legislature added K.S.A. 50-6,143 to govern what happens when a homeowner assigns insurance claim rights to the roofing contractor doing the repair. The statute defines a residential contractor broadly to include anyone who repairs or replaces a roof system, performs other exterior repair or reconstruction, performs interior or exterior repair and cleanup, arranges or manages that work, or acts as the owner's representative, agent or assignee, on residential real estate housing one to four families. A post-loss assignment of insurance rights or benefits to that contractor may authorize the contractor to be named a copayee on the insurance payment, but the assignment document must carry a specific capitalized notice, set in 14-point type, stating that the assignment is voluntary, that the homeowner is giving up certain policy rights, that the contractor can then pursue those rights or remedies, and that the insurer may only pay to repair or replace damage caused by a covered peril subject to the policy terms. The contractor must send a copy of the signed assignment to the insurer within three business days of signing, and the assignment must give the homeowner the right to cancel it within five business days after signing, in addition to any other legal right to cancel. An assignment cannot impair a mortgage lender's interest listed on the policy, and it cannot block the insurer from communicating directly with the homeowner or the mortgage lender. Critically, an assignment is void outright if the contractor violates any part of this section, or if the contractor is not currently in compliance with the Kansas Roofing Registration Act, tying the storm-repair insurance rules directly back to roofing registration status. Any violation is itself a deceptive act under the Kansas Consumer Protection Act.
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Kansas separately licenses public adjusters, the professionals who negotiate an insurance claim on a policyholder's behalf for a fee, through the Kansas Insurance Department rather than through the Kansas Roofing Registration Act. The roofing act itself, K.S.A. 50-6,121 through 50-6,143, does not contain a standalone clause stating in so many words that a roofing contractor is prohibited from acting as a public adjuster, and that specific prohibition was not confirmed against a primary source for this page, so it is listed as a gap rather than stated as fact. What the roofing act does confirm, through the assignment of benefits rules in K.S.A. 50-6,143 described above, is that a Kansas roofing contractor who takes an assignment of a homeowner's insurance claim rights steps into a role that overlaps with claim negotiation, and that role carries its own statutory notice, cancellation and insurer-notification obligations separate from whatever the Kansas Insurance Department requires of a licensed public adjuster. A contractor who negotiates directly with an insurer on a homeowner's behalf, appraises damage for claim purposes, or advises a homeowner on how to interpret policy coverage, rather than simply estimating and performing the repair, should independently confirm with the Kansas Insurance Department whether that specific activity requires a public adjuster license, since that determination turns on the separate Kansas insurance code rather than on the roofing registration statute covered by this page. Contractors who only give repair estimates and perform the roofing work itself, without negotiating claim value or coverage on the homeowner's behalf, are the population the roofing registration act is built around, and that role is fully covered by the registration and assignment rules described elsewhere on this page.
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K.S.A. 50-6,136 requires the attorney general to verify a roofing contractor registration certificate number to city, county and state enforcement officials, and to the public, on request, and directs the attorney general to maintain a public system listing valid registration certificates so a homeowner can confirm a contractor's number before signing a contract. The statute notes that the existence of a listing is not an endorsement of the contractor or a determination of that contractor's qualifications, reputation or facts by the attorney general or the state; it confirms registration status only. K.S.A. 50-6,137 separately makes clear the roofing act supplements, rather than replaces, whatever other licensure a city, county or other agency independently requires for construction trades, so registration under this act does not excuse a contractor from a city's separate building permit process. Kansas's largest cities each run their own permit and licensing operation for construction work: Wichita's city government maintains a Licenses and Permits program through its business licensing office, and Overland Park's city government runs its own permits, licenses and inspections process through its building and construction department; both confirmed government pages describe permit and licensing programs that construction contractors, including roofers, work through for building permits in those cities. This page did not independently verify a specific per-city contractor registration fee, bond amount or roofing-specific city license requirement for Wichita, Overland Park, Kansas City, Kansas, or Topeka beyond the fact that each city operates its own permitting office, so any city-specific dollar figures should be confirmed directly with that city's building or licensing department before bidding work there, and that gap is listed below rather than stated as a sourced number here.
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These are common details other guides publish about Kansas, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Kansas Attorney General requires a roofing contractor registration certificate under the Kansas Roofing Registration Act, K.S.A. 50-6,121 et seq., before a person or business may solicit or perform commercial or residential roofing work in the state.
Any person or business that engages in commercial or residential roofing services for a fee, or solicits or offers such services, including nonresident contractors. Property owners doing their own work, certain government employees, material suppliers, and small jobs under $2,000 a year are exempt unless the person advertises as a roofer.
No. The act asks applicants to state their experience and qualifications under oath but does not require a written or practical exam or a minimum number of years of experience. The core requirements are insurance, workers compensation coverage, tax clearance and a truthful application.
The attorney general sets the fee by rule, and the statute caps the annual registration fee at $500. A separate fee, capped at $25, applies to filing a change of the contractor's registered name, address or legal service agent.
The statute requires a certificate of liability insurance with coverage of not less than $500,000, filed with the application and kept current for renewal. The insurer must notify the attorney general if that policy is later canceled or lapses.
The statute authorizes the attorney general to adopt rules requiring insurance, indemnity coverage or surety bonds in amounts the attorney general sets, but a specific bond dollar amount is not fixed in the statute itself and was not independently confirmed for this page, so no bond figure is published here.
A certificate is valid through the end of the fiscal year it is issued in, which ends June 30, except a certificate issued in May or June runs through the following June 30. Renewal applications, the renewal fee, current insurance proof and a tax clearance certificate are due by June 30 each year.
Yes, but a nonresident contractor must register the same as a Kansas-based contractor, meet the same insurance and tax clearance requirements, and appoint the Kansas secretary of state as agent for service of process. There is no reciprocity that waives Kansas registration for an out-of-state credential.
The contractor is liable for a civil penalty under K.S.A. 50-636 of up to $10,000 per violation, enforceable by the attorney general or a county or district attorney, in addition to other remedies. An unregistered contractor also cannot sue in Kansas court to collect on a roofing job.
The roofing contractor registration certificate number must appear on every commercial vehicle used for roofing services and on every business sign, card, piece of correspondence and contract used to solicit or conduct roofing work, and it must be supplied on any building permit application for the job.
Under K.S.A. 50-6,143, a contractor taking an assignment of a homeowner's insurance claim rights must use a specific capitalized notice, send the insurer a copy within three business days, and give the homeowner five business days to cancel. The assignment is void if the contractor violates that section or is not registered under the roofing act.
The attorney general maintains a public system for confirming valid roofing contractor registration certificates and will verify a number to the public, and to city, county or state officials, on request, though a listing is not an endorsement of the contractor's work or reputation.
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