Construction license changes

Uniform license fee schedules

A law change effective Jan. 1, 2012, will impact licensing fees for businesses and individuals. These revenue-neutral changes bring department costs in line with the costs of issuing licenses. The license tables below outline the new license fees.

Business and contractor license and registration fee table

Individual license, certification and registration fee table

Clarification about using new license numbers issued by DLI

The Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) recognizes there may be expense related to transitioning to the new license numbers currently being issued by the department.

Effective immediately, new license numbers must be used on all correspondence with the department and on all contracts. Regarding other uses of the license number, DLI recommends the following:

Website information -- as soon as possible.
Printed materials (letterhead, business cards, etc.) -- upon reorder
Advertising materials -- upon reorder
Vehicles and other equipment -- upon replacement

Click here to view a table representing the letter code for each license type.

Why did this change occur?

DLI developed and launched a new construction licensing system to administer the 72 different license-types maintained by more than 120,000 individuals and businesses. This new system now allows all license holders the opportunity for online renewal of any license, certificate or registration that expires Dec. 31, 2011.

As part of this new licensing system, all construction license types administered by DLI were changed to a uniform eight-character license numbering system.

Effective Oct. 3, 2011, every license, registration and certification now includes a two-character license class code (such as "BC" for residential building contractor) followed by a six-digit number (123456).

This change was necessary to implement the new standardized and simplified license application and online renewal processes for all licenses, certifications and registrations (pursuant to Minnesota Statutes 326B.091 to 326B.098).

What are the main licensing changes?

The main changes are:

All license numbers are now eight characters in length.
License class-codes are on all license types.
License class-codes are the first two characters.
License numbers include six numeric digits.

What licenses are most affected?

Most licensees now see the license class-codes relocate from the end of the license to the front and/or more zeros in the number. However, some licensees now see a significant change including:

Electrical contractors: The class-code for Class A and Class B electrical contractors changed from CA and CB, respectively, to EA and EB. The change is necessary because class-codes CA and CB are associated with boiler licenses. EA and EB are the class-codes used in the department's computer systems to identify these electrical contractor licenses.

High-pressure-piping license: The class-codes for HPP licenses were replaced with HPP-focused codes rather than retaining the existing generic codes. Licensed HPP businesses have HC for HPP contractor rather than BL. Licensed HPP contracting pipefitters have HM rather than CL. Licensed HPP journeymen pipefitters have HJ rather than JL.

Residential contractors: License class-codes replaced the first two digits ("20") of the eight-digit license number. Qualifying persons are also able to register independent from the affiliated contractor. To clearly distinguish licensed contractors from holders of certificates of exemption, class-codes starting with "X" are used for certificates of exemptions.

Water conditioning licenses: Under the restructured licensing system, a water conditioning contractor's license is held by a business rather than an individual. A master-level personal license was established to replace the individual contractor license. And, the installer's license was renamed water conditioning journeyman.

Plumbing business license: Previously, a master plumber who obtained a bond and insurance could work as a business offering services to the public. Now, a business license is created to "house" these bonded and ensured entities.