Arizona contractor license requirements

This guide summarizes what Arizona requires to run a contracting business, with a link to the state's own source for every requirement. Licenses for individual electricians, plumbers and HVAC technicians are separate; see the trade guides linked below. Rules change; check the linked source before you apply.

License classes

Arizona's contractor law sorts licenses into seven groups: general commercial building, general dual licensed, general engineering, general residential, specialty commercial, specialty dual licensed and specialty residential contracting. A dual license covers both residential and commercial work. (source)

Experience and exams

An applicant must name a qualifying party, who before the license is issued must have at least four years of practical or management trade experience in the type of construction being licensed, at least two of them within the last ten years. Accredited technical training can count for up to two of the four years, and the registrar may reduce the four-year requirement where industry custom and usage show it is excessive. (source)

Before a license is issued, the qualifying party must, where the registrar requires it, show by written examination taken no more than two years before applying that they know the trade and Arizona's building, safety, health and lien laws, contracting business administration and the registrar's rules. The exam requirement is waived for someone who is or was a qualifying party for an Arizona licensee in the same classification within the preceding five years. (source)

Bond and insurance

Arizona contractors must post a surety bond or cash deposit to get a license and keep it in force to renew. The registrar fixes the amount within ranges set by law: $1,000 to $7,500 for specialty residential, $5,000 to $15,000 for general residential, and, depending on estimated annual volume, $2,500 to $50,000 for specialty commercial and $5,000 to $100,000 for general commercial. Residential swimming pool general contractors and dual-licensed swimming pool contractors use the general commercial amounts, and dual licensees post one bond with separate commercial and residential amounts. Residential and dual licensees must also either post an extra $200,000 bond or cash deposit or pay into the Residential Contractors' Recovery Fund. (source)

To get, renew or keep an Arizona contractor's license, the applicant must attest that it complies with the state's workers' compensation insurance laws. If the law requires it to carry workers' compensation, the attestation must include the policy number or proof of self-insurance. (source)

Fees and renewal

Arizona law sets maximum fees, not the actual amounts charged. For an original two-year license, the application and license fee can be no more than $350 for specialty residential, $500 for general residential, $1,000 for specialty commercial, $1,350 for specialty dual, $1,500 for general commercial and $2,000 for general dual contracting; the Registrar of Contractors' actual fees may be lower. Anyone applying for or renewing a license to do residential contracting also pays an assessment of up to $600 per two-year license period to the Residential Contractors' Recovery Fund, unless an exception applies. (source)

Arizona contractor licenses are renewed every two years (biennially), with renewal dates staggered across the year. The registrar may allow annual renewal on a contractor's written petition claiming that the two-year cycle would cause a real and immediate hardship. (source)