Mississippi · Roofing licensing · official-source guide
Mississippi licenses roofing through the Mississippi State Board of Contractors (MSBOC). Commercial roofing over $50,000 requires a Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding certificate of responsibility. Residential roofing over $10,000 requires a Residential Roofer or Residential Builder or Remodeler license. Both require a Mississippi Law and Business exam plus a trade exam, and current general liability insurance.
Verified against agency sources on 2026-09-18. Rules and fees change; confirm with the named authority before relying on this guide.
The Mississippi State Board of Contractors, known as MSBOC, is the state agency that licenses commercial and residential contractors and roofers statewide. MSBOC states directly on its own site that commercial and residential contractors and roofers are required to be licensed by the board. The agency was created to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public from incompetent, inexperienced or fraudulent contracting work, and it issues both commercial certificates of responsibility and residential licenses. Mississippi law also requires that one seat on the ten member board be reserved for a working roofing contractor, which shows the trade is treated as its own category within the licensing system rather than folded silently into general construction. Because MSBOC licenses at the state level, there is no separate city or county roofing license anywhere in Mississippi. Local building departments issue permits and, for residential jobs, require the contractor to post the state license or certificate number at the job site, but they do not run a parallel licensing system. A roofing company that holds a valid MSBOC license or certificate can generally work anywhere in the state without applying again in each city or county, though local permit fees and inspections still apply. Homeowners and general contractors hiring a roofer can confirm licensure directly through MSBOC rather than relying on a local business license, since a local license does not substitute for the state roofing credential. In practice this means cities such as Jackson, Gulfport, Southaven, Hattiesburg and Biloxi require a building permit before roofing work starts, and their inspectors check for a valid, matching MSBOC number rather than issuing their own separate roofing trade license. Permit fees and inspection timing still vary city by city and county by county, and a local business license or privilege tax registration is typically required in addition to, not instead of, the MSBOC roofing license. Specific city fee schedules and inspection timelines were not confirmed from each city's own primary source during this review, and that gap is listed at the end of this page; a contractor should confirm exact local requirements with the building department in each city or county where a job is located.
Mississippi licenses commercial roofing work through a specialty classification called Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding, issued under the Building Construction major classification by MSBOC. The board's own classification page describes the scope as installation, maintenance, repair and alteration of roofing, sheet metal and siding, and specifically includes waterproofing and coatings to protect, repair, stop leaks or extend the life of a roof, along with required roof deck attachments and any wood sheathing or fascia repair needed during a roof job. The sheet metal portion covers cornices, flashing, gutters, downspouts and similar work, and the siding portion covers aluminum, vinyl or other siding, fascia and soffit. This classification requires a trade exam. A contractor can also hold the full Building Construction major classification, which includes roofing along with every other specialty listed under it, or can hold Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding as a stand alone specialty without the broader major classification. Commercial licensure through MSBOC is triggered by contract value rather than by trade alone. Any commercial roofing contract, subcontract or undertaking of fifty thousand dollars or more requires the contractor to hold a current certificate of responsibility, per Mississippi Code Section 31-3-1. Work below that threshold on a commercial building generally falls outside MSBOC's mandatory licensing trigger, though the contractor should still confirm local permit rules. A company that wants to bid larger commercial reroofing or new construction roofing jobs needs the certificate of responsibility in the Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding classification, or in Building Construction, before submitting a bid, since an unlicensed bid can be disqualified outright.
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On the residential side, MSBOC issues a distinct Residential Roofer subclassification. Under the board's own rules, an applicant for a residential remodeler's license may seek licensing for this subclassification, and the board administers a separate roofer's examination for it; the resulting license is clearly marked to show it only authorizes residential roofing work. MSBOC's classification page describes Residential Roofer as covering installation, repair or improvement of residential rooftop structures, including roof coverings and roof drainage, and states that the holder is limited to residential roofing work only. Roofing work can also be performed under two broader residential classifications. A Residential Builder, which covers construction, remodeling, repair or improvement of residential buildings of fifty or fewer units and no more than three floors, or qualifying small commercial jobs under 7,500 square feet, includes roofing within its scope as long as the job does not exceed those size limits. A Residential Remodeler, limited to buildings of three floors or fewer, also includes roofing in its scope under the same size constraints. In practice this means a residential roofing company can choose the narrow Residential Roofer license if roofing is its only trade, or hold Residential Builder or Residential Remodeler if it also frames, remodels or manages larger residential projects. All three classifications require passing a trade exam with a score of at least 70 percent, in addition to the separate Mississippi Law and Business exam every residential applicant must pass regardless of classification.
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Mississippi ties its roofing licensing requirement to the dollar value of the job rather than to the trade alone, and the thresholds differ for commercial and residential work. MSBOC's own instructional material states that all contractors and subcontractors performing work on commercial jobs over $50,000, including equipment installation, must hold a commercial certificate of responsibility issued by MSBOC. On the residential side, the same MSBOC material states that new residential construction over $50,000, residential remodeling or additions over $10,000, and residential roofing over $10,000 all require a residential license issued by MSBOC. This means a roof replacement contract under $10,000 on a house is not required to be performed by an MSBOC licensed roofer, while a $10,000 or larger residential reroof, or any commercial roofing contract of $50,000 or more, brings the job under mandatory state licensing. Mississippi's commercial statute also defines the $50,000 figure directly in Mississippi Code Section 31-3-1, excluding from mandatory commercial licensing any contract, subcontract or undertaking under that amount, along with several other narrow carve outs such as certain federally funded highway work. Contractors who normally work below these thresholds should still track project size carefully, because storm and hail damage repair jobs, which often combine roof replacement with structural, decking or interior work, can push a single contract over the $10,000 residential or $50,000 commercial line even when an individual homeowner's roof alone would not have required a license.
Every MSBOC license, whether commercial or residential, is tied to a qualifying party, defined by the board as the individual who takes the required exams on behalf of the applicant business. The qualifying party must be an owner, officer, or a responsible managing employee of the company, and a company may designate more than one qualifying party, with different qualifiers responsible for different classifications if the company holds several. Any owner, officer, or responsible managing employee may sit for the exam. MSBOC requires a United States Social Security number for each qualifying party listed on an application, and other forms of identification are not accepted in its place. Applicants must also identify the correct tax registration for their business type: commercial applicants must have a Mississippi Sales Tax or Use Tax number, while residential applicants must provide a Mississippi Income Tax Identification Number, a Federal Tax Identification Number, or a Social Security Number. Businesses must apply and conduct business under the exact legal name shown on the application, since that is the name printed on the certificate of licensure, and operating under a different name is treated as unlicensed contracting. Converting the legal structure of a business, for example moving from a sole proprietorship to an LLC or from an LLC to a corporation, requires filing a brand new license application rather than simply updating the existing one. A foreign corporation, meaning one domiciled outside Mississippi, must also qualify to do business with the Mississippi Secretary of State and show MSBOC proof of that good standing before a license or certificate can be issued.
Mississippi does not set a fixed number of years of hands on experience as a statutory prerequisite for a roofing license, unlike some states. For residential applicants, the governing statute instructs the board to consider experience, any complaints on file, and other pertinent information as part of its review of the application and exam results, but it does not specify a minimum years figure a residential roofing applicant must document. Commercial applicants face a more structured financial screening instead of, or in addition to, an experience threshold. An applicant for a new commercial certificate of responsibility must submit a reviewed financial statement completed within the prior twelve months and prepared and signed by a certified public accountant, showing the applicant's assets, liabilities and net worth. MSBOC's commercial rules set minimum net worth figures tied to the classification sought: an applicant for a major classification, such as the full Building Construction category, must show a net worth of at least $50,000, while an applicant for other classifications, which includes the Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding specialty on its own, must show a net worth of at least $20,000. Renewal applicants must also submit a balance sheet prepared under generally accepted accounting principles, though the rules specifically state an audited financial statement is not required. Residential applicants do not face this financial statement or net worth requirement; their pathway centers on the exam, insurance documentation, and the standard application fee instead.
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Every MSBOC applicant, commercial or residential, must pass a Mississippi Law and Business Management exam covering the legal and business side of contracting. On top of that baseline exam, an applicant must also pass a trade exam for any classification that requires one, and MSBOC's classification list marks Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding and Residential Roofer both as test required. All MSBOC exams are administered through PSI, the board's third party testing vendor, and are open book, meaning candidates may bring the specific reference materials listed in the PSI Candidate Information Bulletin into the test. MSBOC must first submit a qualifying party's information to PSI before that person can schedule a sitting, and the board notifies the applicant by email once scheduling is available. Residential rules set a required passing score of at least 70 percent on the applicable written exam. Where a candidate cannot take the standard written exam, the board will administer an oral exam instead. General building contractors seeking the commercial Building Construction major classification also have the option of taking the NASCLA Accredited Examination for Commercial General Building in place of the Mississippi specific exam; that national exam is accepted by multiple states and can reduce duplicate testing for contractors who plan to hold licenses in more than one state. There is no equivalent NASCLA exam listed for the Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding or Residential Roofer classifications specifically, so a roofing focused applicant should expect to sit for the Mississippi specific trade exam through PSI.
MSBOC's own instructional overview states that new commercial license applications carry a $400 non refundable fee, while new residential license applications carry a $50 non refundable fee. Mississippi's commercial statutes break the commercial fee structure into components: Section 31-3-14 imposes a $200 Construction Education Fund fee on every certificate of responsibility application or renewal, and Section 31-3-17 imposes a separate $200 special privilege license tax on the same application, together forming the commercial total; the board may also charge up to $100 for each additional classification a commercial applicant seeks beyond the first. On the residential side, MSBOC's rules set the initial license fee at $50 and the renewal fee at $100, and applicants selecting more than one specialty classification, such as adding Residential Roofer to a Residential Builder license, pay an additional $100 per extra classification, since one classification is included in the base fee. A lost, mutilated or destroyed license can be replaced for a $25 fee on either the commercial or residential side. Reinstating a license from inactive to active status carries a $25 processing fee, along with proof of current general liability insurance and, for commercial holders, updated financial information. None of these published fees include separate state exam fees charged directly by PSI, the third party administrator, which a candidate pays when scheduling a trade or law exam outside of the MSBOC application itself.
Mississippi's commercial and residential insurance rules for roofing contractors are not the same. Commercial applicants and certificate of responsibility holders must submit a certificate of insurance evidencing current general liability coverage of at least $300,000 per occurrence and $600,000 aggregate, and that certificate must list MSBOC as the party to be notified if the policy is cancelled, with the named insured matching the license exactly. Commercial holders must also provide proof of workers compensation coverage if state law requires it for their business. Residential license holders face a different structure. MSBOC's own guidance states there is no minimum dollar coverage requirement for residential license holders, but residential contractors, including a Residential Roofer, Residential Builder or Residential Remodeler, must still carry proof of current general liability insurance to keep an active license, and that insurance is not required at all while a license is inactive. Beyond simply carrying a policy, Mississippi law requires every residential license holder to give the customer a written insurance disclosure at the time of contracting. The disclosure must appear in bold, conspicuous type larger than the rest of the contract, placed immediately before the customer's signature line, and it must state whether the contractor carries general liability insurance, naming the insurer and policy number when coverage exists. This disclosure requirement, found in Mississippi Code Section 73-59-11, applies specifically to roofers along with builders and remodelers, so a homeowner signing a storm damage or reroofing contract in Mississippi should expect to see this statement on the paperwork itself, not just take the contractor's word for coverage.
MSBOC licenses and certificates expire on the last day of the twelfth month following issuance or the most recent renewal, rather than on a single fixed calendar date shared by every licensee. A licensee who misses that annual renewal date is not immediately barred from renewing; Mississippi Code Section 73-59-3 allows renewal within 180 days after expiration by paying the regular license fee plus a 10 percent late penalty. MSBOC's own guidance confirms this 180 day window applies to both commercial and residential licenses, and states that a license lapsed for more than 180 days cannot simply be renewed and instead requires a brand new application. Continuing education applies only on the residential side. Under Mississippi Code Section 73-59-11, each qualifying party on a residential license, which includes Residential Roofer, Residential Builder and Residential Remodeler qualifiers, must complete two credit hours of continuing education from an MSBOC approved provider or instructor to maintain the license. This requirement applies to residential licenses issued on or after July 1, 2015, and the board does not mandate which specific courses a licensee must take, leaving the choice to the individual unless continuing education has been separately ordered as part of a disciplinary case. MSBOC maintains a searchable list of approved continuing education providers, instructors and courses on its site. There is no continuing education requirement described for commercial certificate of responsibility holders, including commercial roofing contractors licensed under Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding; their renewal obligation is limited to the fee and required documentation rather than coursework.
MSBOC has entered into reciprocity agreements with contractor licensing boards in a number of other states, but that reciprocity only ever waives the Mississippi trade exam, never the rest of the application process. Every applicant, regardless of any reciprocity agreement, must still submit a full Mississippi application, meet all other MSBOC requirements, and pass the Mississippi Law and Business exam. For roofing specifically, MSBOC's reciprocity page lists North Carolina's State Licensing Board for General Contractors as waiving its Roofing exam for Mississippi applicants who hold a current North Carolina license, took the North Carolina exam, and have had no disciplinary action in the prior three years. Other listed states, such as Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee, generally waive broader sets of exams for licensees moving from those states, subject to each state's own conditions on how long the license must have been held and how recent any discipline must be, though roofing is not separately named in most of those agreements. Louisiana no longer has a formal reciprocity agreement with Mississippi, but MSBOC states it will still recognize a passing Louisiana exam score and waive the otherwise required Mississippi trade exam for a qualifying applicant. Separately, under the Military Family Freedom Act and the Universal Recognition of Occupational Licenses Act, Mississippi recognizes out of state occupational licenses held by military members, their spouses and dependents, and by qualified applicants generally, which can support a trade exam waiver even without a specific state to state reciprocity agreement in place.
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Mississippi treats unlicensed roofing work as a criminal misdemeanor, and the penalty differs by whether the work is residential or commercial. On the residential side, Mississippi Code Section 73-59-9 makes it a misdemeanor for anyone required to hold a residential license to undertake residential construction, remodeling or roofing work without one, or to knowingly submit false information to MSBOC to obtain a license; a conviction carries a fine of not less than $100 and not more than $5,000, imprisonment of 30 to 60 days in the county jail, or both. That same statute also bars an unlicensed contractor from suing to enforce a residential construction contract, limiting recovery instead to documented actual expenses for labor and materials that can be proven by clear and convincing evidence. MSBOC also has authority to issue a citation and stop work on a jobsite where a residential builder or remodeler is working without a valid license. On the commercial side, Mississippi Code Section 31-3-21 makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly and willfully submit a commercial bid without holding a certificate of responsibility, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both; a bid submitted without the contractor's certificate number is not to be considered at all, and any public or private contract awarded to a contractor who lacked a current certificate of responsibility at the time of bidding is void under the statute. MSBOC also separately has authority to levy a civil monetary penalty of $100 to $5,000 per violation against residential licensees found guilty after a disciplinary hearing, on top of the criminal penalties described above.
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Mississippi's residential roofing rules require more than simply holding a license quietly in a file; they require the license number to be shown at the job itself. Once a residential builder, remodeler or roofer, or a holder of a commercial certificate of responsibility, receives a building permit from a municipal or county official, Mississippi Code Section 73-59-11 and MSBOC's own rules require the contractor to post a sign at the permitted job site showing the license or certificate of responsibility number, along with the state that issued it, in lettering at least two inches high and twelve inches wide. This means a roofing crew working under a permit in Mississippi should have their MSBOC number visibly posted at the site itself, not just available on request. On the bidding side, commercial contractors face a separate and stricter rule: any commercial bid of $50,000 or more must show the contractor's current certificate of responsibility number on the outside of the bid envelope or container, and a bid missing that number is not to be opened or considered at all; the same rule applies to smaller bids only if the envelope states the bid did not exceed $50,000. MSBOC's published material does not describe a general requirement to print the license number on vehicles, letterhead or web advertising outside of these jobsite sign and bid envelope rules, so a Mississippi roofing contractor's core statutory advertising obligation is the posted jobsite sign once a permit issues, combined with the written liability insurance disclosure given to the customer at the time of contracting, described in a separate section of this page.
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Mississippi maintains a public online license lookup operated by MSBOC at search.msboc.us, which allows a search by contractor name or by license number, and the tool specifically notes that when searching by license number, the searcher should enter numbers only, without the letter prefix or suffix. MSBOC also separately maintains and publishes a violators database for consumers who want to check whether a contractor has been the subject of disciplinary action, described on the board's Unlicensed Activity page. Before hiring, MSBOC's own consumer guidance recommends confirming that a contractor is properly licensed and comparing estimates from at least two or three licensed contractors, checking references, and getting a detailed written contract before work begins or a deposit changes hands. Because Mississippi issues separate commercial certificates of responsibility and residential licenses, and further separates residential roofing into its own Residential Roofer subclassification alongside the broader Residential Builder and Residential Remodeler categories, a homeowner or general contractor checking a roofing company's status should confirm not just that a license exists, but that it actually covers roofing and matches the size and type of the specific job, since a Residential Builder license, for example, only covers roofing up to that classification's own building size limits. MSBOC's investigative team also conducts routine jobsite visits around the state specifically to verify that contractors and subcontractors on site hold the license their work requires, which underscores that license status can be checked both before hiring and, for a public body or general contractor, spot checked mid project.
Mississippi's Gulf Coast and inland counties are both regularly exposed to hail, tropical storm and hurricane damage that drives roof replacement and repair demand, and MSBOC's licensing rules apply to storm restoration roofing exactly as they apply to any other roofing job: the same $10,000 residential and $50,000 commercial dollar thresholds, the same trade exam and classification rules, and the same insurance disclosure and jobsite sign requirements described elsewhere on this page govern a storm damage reroof just as they govern a routine one. MSBOC does maintain emergency licensing provisions that can matter after a major storm. Mississippi Code allows the board to issue an emergency license to a residential builder or remodeler applicant for a limited period, not to exceed 90 days and extendable for an additional 90 days, or until a contract entered during the emergency period is completed, for a fee not to exceed $50; the employer or contracting party must certify the emergency applicant's status to the board within five days of that person beginning work. This mechanism is designed to help meet a surge in legitimate repair demand after a declared disaster without waiving the underlying licensing structure. MSBOC's website also links out to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency as related resources for storm response. A specific statute regulating hail or storm chasing sales tactics, cancellation rights for storm damage roofing contracts, or a dedicated disaster fraud roofing statute was not confirmed on MSBOC's own site during this review, and any such claim is left out of this page and listed in the gap notes rather than stated without a citation.
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When a roof is damaged by hail or storm and the repair is paid through a homeowner's insurance claim, the person who negotiates that claim on the policyholder's behalf, for a fee, is generally acting as a public adjuster, and Mississippi licenses that role separately from roofing. The Mississippi Insurance Department, not MSBOC, issues public adjuster licenses, alongside independent adjuster and other adjuster license types, and its Adjuster Licensing page confirms Public Adjuster as one of the distinct license categories the department administers, with its own application, renewal and continuing requirements handled through the department's licensing division. A roofing contractor's MSBOC license, whether the Residential Roofer subclassification or the commercial Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding certificate, authorizes roofing construction work; it does not, on its own, authorize negotiating a claim settlement, interpreting policy language, or otherwise representing a homeowner to their insurer for compensation, since that activity falls under the Mississippi Insurance Department's separate adjuster licensing structure rather than under MSBOC's contractor licensing statutes. A Mississippi roofing contractor working storm damage jobs should keep its own role, estimating and performing the repair, distinct from public adjusting, and should refer a homeowner who wants help negotiating directly with their insurer to a Mississippi Insurance Department licensed public adjuster rather than performing that negotiation itself under the roofing license alone. This page did not find specific statutory language from a primary Mississippi source spelling out a contractor specific prohibition, penalty, or deductible related restriction tied to roofing companies and insurance claims, so no such claim is made here, and the gap is listed at the end of this page rather than guessed at.
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These are common details other guides publish about Mississippi, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
Yes. The Mississippi State Board of Contractors licenses roofing at the state level through a commercial Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding classification and a residential Residential Roofer subclassification, plus roofing coverage under the broader Residential Builder and Residential Remodeler licenses.
Commercial roofing contracts of $50,000 or more require a certificate of responsibility. Residential roofing over $10,000 requires a residential license. Smaller jobs generally fall outside MSBOC's mandatory licensing trigger, though local permits may still apply.
Yes. MSBOC offers a Residential Roofer subclassification with its own trade exam, limited to residential roofing work. Roofing is also included within the broader Residential Builder and Residential Remodeler classifications, subject to their size limits.
All applicants take the Mississippi Law and Business Management exam. Roofing, Sheet Metal and Siding and Residential Roofer are both marked test required on MSBOC's classification list, so a trade exam is also required, administered open book through PSI.
MSBOC states a new commercial application fee of $400 and a new residential application fee of $50. Residential renewal is $100. Commercial fees combine a $200 Construction Education Fund fee and a $200 special privilege license tax under state law.
Commercial certificate holders must carry general liability insurance of at least $300,000 per occurrence and $600,000 aggregate. Residential license holders have no set minimum coverage amount but must carry current general liability insurance while active.
Licenses and certificates expire twelve months after issuance or the last renewal. Late renewal is allowed within 180 days with a 10 percent penalty added to the license fee; after 180 days a new application is required.
Residential license holders, including Residential Roofer qualifiers, must complete two hours of continuing education from an MSBOC approved provider to maintain a license issued on or after July 1, 2015. No continuing education is described for commercial certificate holders.
MSBOC has reciprocity agreements that can waive the Mississippi trade exam for licensees from certain states, including a specific Roofing exam waiver listed for North Carolina. Every applicant still files a full application and passes the Mississippi Law and Business exam.
Unlicensed residential roofing work is a misdemeanor punishable by a $100 to $5,000 fine, 30 to 60 days in county jail, or both, and bars the contractor from suing to enforce the contract. Unlicensed commercial bidding is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail.
No. Negotiating an insurance claim for a fee generally requires a public adjuster license from the Mississippi Insurance Department, a separate agency from MSBOC. An MSBOC roofing license authorizes construction work, not claim adjusting.
MSBOC operates a free public search at search.msboc.us by contractor name or license number, and also publishes a violators database. Confirming the license matches both the contractor's name and the roofing classification needed is recommended before signing a contract.
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