Kentucky · Roofing licensing · official-source guide
Kentucky does not license roofing contractors at the state level. The Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction licenses electrical, HVAC, plumbing, and building inspection trades only. Roofing work funded by property insurance proceeds is instead governed by Kentucky Revised Statutes 367.620 to 367.628, which bar contractors from acting as public adjusters and require storm-related repair contracts to include cancellation rights.
State-level license
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Public lookup
Not published
Verified against agency sources on 2026-09-18. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
Kentucky does not issue a state roofing contractor license. The Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, the agency that licenses construction-related trades statewide, limits its list to building inspector, electrical, electrical inspection, manufactured housing, HVAC, plumbing, and fire protection. Roofing and general building contracting do not appear on that list, and the department's own license search tool only returns results for those named trades. A contractor can install, repair, or replace a roof anywhere in Kentucky, on a house or a commercial building, without ever applying to a state board or sitting for a state trade exam. That does not mean roofing work in Kentucky is unregulated. The state instead controls the trade through consumer protection law rather than occupational licensing. Kentucky Revised Statutes 367.620 to 367.628 set rules for contracts to repair or replace real estate when the customer expects to pay from a property or casualty insurance settlement, which covers most storm and hail roofing jobs. Those statutes require specific cancellation disclosures and bar a contractor from acting like a public adjuster on the same claim. A roofer can also be pulled into other Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction licenses if the job crosses into electrical or HVAC work, and into city or county registration once work starts in Lexington, Louisville, or another local jurisdiction. The result is a mix: no statewide roofing license, a narrow but real state insurance-claim law aimed at roofing and storm-repair contracts, and separate city rules layered on top.
Sourcesdhbc.ky.gov
The closest thing Kentucky has to roofing regulation sits in the Consumer Protection chapter of its statutes, not in a licensing board. KRS 367.620 defines a "contractor" as any person who engages in, or offers to engage in, the business of contracting or providing goods or services relating to real estate, and it defines "real estate" to include both residential and commercial property located in Kentucky. The law applies to a "real estate goods or services contract," meaning a contract where the work, including repair, replacement, construction, reconstruction, or improvement of real estate, is expected to be paid from property, casualty, or property and casualty insurance proceeds. That description matches the typical hail or wind damage roofing job: an adjuster inspects the roof, the insurer approves a claim, and the customer signs a contract to have the roof replaced with the settlement money. When the statute was first created in 2012 it targeted roofing contractors by name. The Kentucky General Assembly rewrote it in 2025 and again in an amendment effective July 15, 2026, broadening the language from "roofing contractor" to "contractor" so it now reaches any insurance-funded real estate repair, not roofing alone. For a roofing business the practical effect has not changed: any contract tied to an insurance payout for storm or hail damage falls under KRS 367.620 to 367.628, whether the customer is a homeowner or a commercial property owner. The statute excludes investigating, negotiating, or settling the insurance claim itself from its definition of covered goods or services, keeping the contractor's role separate from the adjuster's role.
Sourcesapps.legislature.ky.gov
Before a Kentucky contractor signs a real estate goods or services contract tied to insurance proceeds, KRS 367.624 requires the contractor to give the customer the contractor's mailing address and telephone number, plus a fax number and email address if the contractor has them. The contract must also carry two specific notices in at least 10-point boldface type. The first tells the customer they can cancel the contract at any time before midnight of the fifth business day after the insurer notifies them in writing that all or part of the roofing work is not a covered loss. The second states that the contract cannot assign or transfer the customer's rights or benefits under the insurance policy in violation of KRS 304.20-105, and that any contract that does so is void and unenforceable. The statute goes further than a warning. It requires the contractor to attach a fully completed, detachable "Notice of Cancellation" form, in duplicate, written in at least 10-point boldface type, with blank lines for the transaction date and the customer's signature. The customer can cancel by mail, email, or fax using that form or any other signed and dated written notice, as long as it reaches the contractor before midnight of the fifth day after the denial notice. For a roofing company that signs contracts before the insurance claim is finalized, which is common after a hailstorm, this disclosure and cancellation package is not optional paperwork. Skipping it puts the underlying contract at legal risk under the same chapter of Kentucky law.
Sourcesapps.legislature.ky.gov
KRS 367.628 draws a line between selling roofing work and handling an insurance claim. Under subsection (1), a Kentucky contractor, or anyone representing one, cannot represent or negotiate, or advertise that they will represent or negotiate, as a public adjuster or otherwise, on behalf of an insured on an insurance claim connected to the roofing or other real estate work. The same subsection bars a contractor from marketing itself, its employees, or its business as a claims specialist, an insurance specialist, or as affiliated with an insurer or an insurer's agent. Any contract clause that lets a contractor act as the customer's claims representative in violation of this rule is unenforceable by its own terms. The statute carves out two things a roofing contractor can still do. A contractor can give the customer an estimate for the roofing work, and a contractor can talk directly with the insurance company's representative about the damage after the customer has already filed the claim. What a contractor cannot do is step into the adjuster's role: pushing the claim amount, disputing the insurer's coverage decision on the customer's behalf, or presenting itself as having special standing with the insurance company. For a roofing business that wants to help a customer through a storm claim, the path that stays inside Kentucky law is to document the damage and give pricing, and to let the customer or a licensed public adjuster handle the claim negotiation itself.
Sourcesapps.legislature.ky.gov
KRS 367.628(2) covers the money side of a storm-damage roofing contract once the job is expected to be paid from insurance proceeds. A contractor, or anyone representing one, cannot cause damage to the property, or tell someone else to cause damage, in order to increase the scope of the roofing work or to land the contract in the first place. That provision targets the practice of exaggerating or manufacturing storm damage to inflate an insurance claim. The same subsection bans the deductible-waiver pitch that some storm-chasing roofers use to close a sale. A Kentucky contractor cannot offer to pay or rebate any part of the customer's insurance deductible or claim proceeds as an inducement to sign the contract, and cannot grant a discount against the contractor's own fee for the same purpose. The statute also puts a dollar ceiling on other inducements: a contractor cannot pay the insured, or the insured's representative, more than $100 in any form of compensation, including a bonus, coupon, credit, gift, or prize, in connection with the work. Combined with the public adjuster ban in subsection (1), this section functions as Kentucky's anti-storm-chasing law. It does not require a roofing license or registration, and it carries no separate state licensing board, but it does create specific, sourced legal limits on how a Kentucky roofing contractor can market and price insurance-funded work, with contract clauses that violate it unenforceable in court.
Sourcesapps.legislature.ky.gov
The public adjuster role that KRS 367.628 bars roofing contractors from performing is itself a licensed profession in Kentucky, just not one a roofing contractor can hold while working as a contractor on the same claim. The Kentucky Department of Insurance licenses adjusters, including public adjusters, alongside agents, consultants, and several other insurance-related roles, and applicants apply through the department or the National Insurance Producer Registry and pass a criminal background check through the Administrative Office of the Courts. Kentucky Revised Statutes 304.9-433 sets out what a licensed public adjuster must do before taking on a customer's storm claim. The public adjuster cannot provide services until the customer has signed a written contract on a form the insurance commissioner has already approved, and the customer has a rescission period after signing before the adjuster can start work, except in emergency circumstances the commissioner allows. The commissioner can also pull approval from a contract form later if it turns out to be misleading or hard to read. For a Kentucky customer comparing a roofing contractor's sales pitch to an offer from someone claiming to be a public adjuster, the practical distinction is that only the second one is supposed to be handling the insurance negotiation, and only the second one needs a Department of Insurance license to do it.
Many states that do not license roofing specifically still require a roofing company to hold a general contractor license or register under a home improvement contractor law before selling residential work. Kentucky has neither. The Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction license list, covering building inspector, electrical, electrical inspection, manufactured housing, HVAC, plumbing, and fire protection, does not include a general contractor or home improvement category, and no other state agency was found to operate one. This means a Kentucky roofing business does not file a state license application, does not sit for a state trade exam, and does not carry a state-issued license number to put on invoices or vehicles for roofing work itself. The insurance-claim rules in KRS 367.620 to 367.628 fill part of the gap by regulating how a roofing contract tied to a claim is sold and cancelled, but that chapter is consumer protection law, not a licensing statute, and it creates no registry, no license number, and no renewal cycle. A roofing contractor working only outside Fayette County, Jefferson County, and similar jurisdictions with their own registration rules can, as far as state law goes, start doing roofing work in Kentucky without applying to any state licensing body at all, so long as the business itself is properly formed and insured.
Sourcesdhbc.ky.gov
A roofing job in Kentucky can still brush up against a Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction license even though roofing itself is not on the list. The department licenses electrical contractors and electrical inspectors, which matters if a re-roof includes running new wiring for roof-mounted equipment, relocating a mast, or connecting solar panels. It licenses HVAC contractors, relevant when a roof replacement changes attic ventilation, exhaust penetrations, or rooftop mechanical units. It licenses plumbing work, which can come up when a re-roof affects a vent stack penetration. It also separately licenses manufactured housing installers and maintains its own fire protection licensing division. None of these licenses cover the roofing membrane, shingles, or decking work itself. A roofing company that only tears off and replaces roofing material, without touching electrical, HVAC, or plumbing systems, does not need any Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction license for that scope. A company that also performs the electrical or mechanical work connected to a roof, rather than subcontracting it to a separately licensed trade, does need the matching department license for that portion of the job. The department maintains its own licensee search tool at dhbc.ky.gov so a customer can confirm whether a person claiming an electrical, HVAC, plumbing, or related license actually holds one, even though that same tool will never show a roofing-specific listing since roofing is not among the trades the department licenses.
Sourcesdhbc.ky.gov
Lexington, home to the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, is one of Kentucky's two largest cities and runs its own contractor registration process separate from anything at the state level. Before taking on roofing work inside Fayette County, a contractor first needs either a Home Office Certificate, if the business is based out of a home, or a Certificate of Occupancy, if it operates from a commercial location. The city's listed fees are $10 for the Home Office Certificate and $25 for the Certificate of Occupancy on an existing commercial building, both payable through the city's online permitting portal. Next, the contractor applies for an occupational business license through the Lexington-Fayette Division of Revenue. The contractor then has to provide a certificate of general liability and workers compensation insurance that lists Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government as the certificate holder, though a company with no employees, or one not otherwise required to carry workers compensation, can mark itself exempt on the registration application. Only after the business license and insurance certificate are in hand can the contractor complete the online Contractor Registration Application through the city's Building Inspection division, uploading both documents as part of that application. This is a local business and insurance registration, not a trade license or exam, but a roofing contractor working in Lexington cannot legally register without going through every one of these steps in order.
Sourceslexingtonky.gov
Louisville Metro, Kentucky's largest city and the consolidated government for Jefferson County, runs its own construction review and contractor licensing process through its local government rather than through the state. This report could not independently confirm Louisville Metro's current roofing or contractor license fees, bond amounts, or specific application requirements directly from the city's own website, so no dollar figures or exam requirements for Louisville are published here. A roofing contractor planning to work inside Louisville Metro should confirm current registration requirements directly with the city's Construction Review division before bidding or signing contracts there, rather than relying on the statewide picture in this report. The pattern across Kentucky's other large cities and counties is similar even where this report could not verify a specific fee schedule: local governments, not the state, decide whether a roofing contractor needs a business license, a contractor registration, or a building permit account before starting work, and those requirements sit on top of, not in place of, the state insurance-claim rules in KRS 367.620 to 367.628. A roofing company that works across several Kentucky counties, for example doing storm-restoration work that follows a hail track through multiple jurisdictions, needs to check the local building department or revenue office in each city or county rather than assuming one registration covers the whole state.
Sourcesapps.legislature.ky.gov
Even without a state roofing license, a roofing business operating in Kentucky still has to exist as a properly formed business. That means registering the business entity with the Kentucky Secretary of State if it operates as a corporation, limited liability company, or similar entity, and registering with the Kentucky Department of Revenue for the tax accounts that apply to the business, including sales and use tax on materials where it applies. These are general business formation steps that apply to any Kentucky business, not requirements written specifically for roofing. Workers compensation insurance is a real obligation for a Kentucky roofing company with employees, since roofing is physical, fall-exposed work, but this report could not confirm the exact employee-count threshold or any statutory minimum coverage amount directly from a Kentucky state agency source, so no specific number is published here. What is confirmed, from Lexington-Fayette's own contractor registration process, is that at least one major Kentucky local government requires a certificate of general liability and workers compensation insurance, naming the local government as certificate holder, before it will register a contractor, and it lets a contractor with no employees or no coverage obligation mark itself exempt rather than fabricate a policy. A roofing contractor should treat both general liability and workers compensation coverage as a cost of doing business in Kentucky even where the state itself sets no roofing-specific minimum.
Sourceslexingtonky.gov
Kentucky does not have an unlicensed-roofing-practice penalty, because it does not license roofing in the first place, so a contractor cannot be cited for practicing roofing without a license the way an unlicensed electrician could be. What Kentucky does have is a built-in penalty inside KRS 367.628 itself: any contract provision that lets a contractor act as a public adjuster or claims specialist, in violation of the statute, is automatically unenforceable. A customer facing a contractor who tries to enforce that kind of clause has a straightforward defense under Kentucky law, without having to prove fraud separately. Beyond that specific rule, KRS 367.620 to 367.628 sit inside Kentucky's Consumer Protection Act, and KRS 367.220 gives a customer who suffers an ascertainable loss from an unlawful practice the right to sue in circuit court for actual damages, with the court able to award equitable relief and, where appropriate, punitive damages, plus reasonable attorney's fees and costs to the winning side. The clerk of the court has to send a copy of the complaint and any judgment to the Attorney General, giving the state visibility into these cases even when the Attorney General is not the one who filed suit. A Kentucky roofing contractor that violates the cancellation-disclosure or anti-public-adjuster rules is exposed to a private lawsuit for actual damages and attorney's fees, not a licensing board complaint, since no licensing board exists for the roofing trade.
Because Kentucky issues no state roofing license, it has no state law requiring a roofing contractor to print a license number on advertising, vehicles, or written estimates, the way a licensed electrician or plumber in the state has to. This report did not find a Kentucky statute or Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction rule that regulates roofing advertising wording or requires a license number display for roofing specifically, so no such requirement is published here as fact. What Kentucky law does require, under KRS 367.624, is that before signing an insurance-funded contract, a roofing contractor give the customer its mailing address, phone number, and, if available, fax number and email address, in writing, as part of the contract itself, along with the boldface cancellation notices described earlier in this report. A Kentucky customer cannot look up a roofing contractor's license on the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction site, because roofing is not one of the trades that site licenses. What a customer can check is whether someone claiming to be a public adjuster on their storm claim actually holds a Kentucky Department of Insurance adjuster license, using the department's Individual and Business Entity Search tool. Beyond that, a customer in Lexington or another city with its own contractor registration can ask to see the contractor's local business license and registration, and can ask any roofing contractor directly for proof of general liability and workers compensation insurance before signing a contract.
These are common details other guides publish about Kentucky, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. The Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction licenses electrical, HVAC, plumbing, building inspector, manufactured housing, and fire protection trades, but not roofing or general contracting, so a roofing business does not need a state trade license to operate.
Kentucky Revised Statutes 367.620 to 367.628 govern any real estate repair contract, including roofing, that is expected to be paid from property or casualty insurance proceeds, requiring specific disclosures and barring certain sales practices.
No. KRS 367.628 bars a contractor from representing or negotiating as a public adjuster, or marketing itself as a claims or insurance specialist, on an insured's claim, though it can still give an estimate and talk to the insurer's representative about the damage.
No. KRS 367.628 prohibits a contractor from offering to pay or rebate any part of an insurance deductible or claim proceeds as an inducement to sign a roofing contract.
KRS 367.624 gives a customer until midnight of the fifth business day after the insurer notifies them in writing that the work is not a covered loss, using the attached Notice of Cancellation form or other signed written notice.
Yes, for contracts tied to insurance proceeds. KRS 367.624 requires the contractor to furnish its mailing address and telephone number, plus a fax number and email address if it has them, before the contract is signed.
No. A public adjuster is licensed separately by the Kentucky Department of Insurance under KRS 304.9-433 to handle a customer's insurance claim, while a roofing contractor is barred by KRS 367.628 from acting in that role on the same claim.
A contract clause that lets the contractor act as a public adjuster is automatically unenforceable under KRS 367.628, and a customer can sue for actual damages, equitable relief, and attorney's fees under KRS 367.220.
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government requires contractors to hold a Home Office Certificate or Certificate of Occupancy, an occupational business license, and proof of insurance before registering. Louisville Metro also runs its own local process; confirm current requirements directly with each city.
Kentucky law requires many employers to carry workers compensation coverage, and Lexington-Fayette's own contractor registration requires a certificate of insurance naming the city, though this report could not confirm the exact statewide employee-count threshold from a state source.
Use the Kentucky Department of Insurance's Individual and Business Entity Search tool to confirm whether a person claiming to be a public adjuster actually holds that license.
No separate rule set exists. KRS 367.620 defines real estate to include both residential and commercial property, so the same insurance-claim disclosure and public-adjuster rules apply to a commercial roof paid from an insurance settlement.
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