North Carolina Contractor License Requirements

To be licensed as a general contractor in North Carolina you must be at least 18, possess good moral character as the Board determines it, prove financial responsibility, pay the application fee, consent to a criminal background check if asked, and have a qualifier pass the relevant exam. There is no minimum years of experience.

That last point catches people out, so it is worth stating twice: North Carolina gates entry on money and on the examination, not on time served.

The statutory list

G.S. 87-10(a) sets out what an applicant must do before being entitled to an examination:

• Be at least 18 years of age.
• Possess good moral character, as determined by the Board.
• Provide evidence of financial responsibility, as determined by the Board.
• Submit the appropriate application fee.
• Consent to a criminal background check, if the Board requires one.

Nothing in Article 1 of Chapter 87, or in Title 21 Chapter 12A of the Administrative Code, sets a minimum period of experience in the trade.

Financial responsibility is the requirement with teeth

This is where most applications actually turn, and the threshold depends on which limitation you are applying for. The figures are 21 NCAC 12A .0204’s — working capital and the Limited net-worth alternative at .0204(b)(2), (c)(2) and (d)(2), the bond amounts at .0204(e):

Financial responsibility is the requirement with teeth

Limitation	Working capital	Or net worth	Or a surety bond
Limited	$17,000	$80,000	$175,000
Intermediate	$75,000	—	$500,000
Unlimited	$150,000	—	$1,000,000

Two details that are easy to misread. The net-worth alternative exists only for the Limited tier — Intermediate and Unlimited are working capital or bond, nothing else. And the bond is a genuine alternative to demonstrating working capital, not an additional requirement stacked on top of it.

Working capital means current assets exceeding total current liabilities by the stated amount. Which report the Board will accept, what it has to contain, and the extra evidence a recent bankruptcy triggers are all set out at financial requirements.

The license is the company’s; the exam is a person’s

A North Carolina license is issued to a legal entity — a corporation, an LLC, a partnership or an individual. The examination is passed by a person, the qualifier, who must be a responsible managing employee, owner, officer or member. One qualifier may qualify up to two licenses.

The practical consequence catches buyers out: acquiring a company does not acquire its license, though a qualifier’s exams can move to another entity. See the qualifier role for how adding and dropping one works.

What you are not asked for

Worth being explicit, because other states do ask and readers arrive assuming North Carolina does too:

• No general liability insurance minimum is set as a condition of holding the license. Workers’ Compensation coverage is checked at the building-permit stage under G.S. 87-14, not by the Board at licensure.
• No experience minimum, as above.
• No continuing education for the first license. CE is a renewal requirement, and only for the Building, Residential and Unclassified classifications.

Then the exam

Once the application is in order the Board issues an eligibility letter and the qualifier books with PSI. The exams are open book and every one requires 70% to pass. The exam page covers formats, lengths and what you may bring.

Which exam depends on the classification you want, which is a separate choice from the limitation above — see classification and limitation for how the two axes fit together, or the full process for the order everything happens in.