Does North Dakota Require a Contractor Bond? The Two-Track System Behind the License

North Dakota does not require a contractor's bond for its state contractor license. The bond statute, NDCC 43-07-11, was repealed by the legislature in 1995, and nothing has replaced it at the state level since. What the Secretary of State tests instead, under NDCC 43-07-04, is insurance: an applicant eighteen or older submits a sworn statement of experience, a certificate of liability insurance, and proof that Workforce Safety & Insurance coverage is in place. There is no trade exam, no verified hours, and no named qualifier on the application.

A contractor licensed in Florida or California reads that and concludes North Dakota has no competency requirement at all. That conclusion is wrong, and the way it is wrong is expensive. North Dakota did not delete the trade competency test. It moved it into three other regulators, then wrote one sentence into the contractor statute that pulls all of it back in.

At a glance

• Contractor bond: None required for the state license. NDCC 43-07-11 was repealed by S.L. 1995, ch. 397, section 9.
• What the state tests: Liability insurance and Workforce Safety & Insurance coverage, not trade skill (NDCC 43-07-04).
• Where competency actually lives: The State Electrical Board, the State Plumbing Board, and city mechanical boards.
• The enforcement hook: NDCC 43-07-14(1)(e) makes working without a required trade license grounds to revoke the contractor license.
• The renewal cliff: Miss the March 1 deadline and NDCC 43-07-10(3) deems you unlicensed until you cure by June 1.

New to licensing in North Dakota? Start with the North Dakota contractor license requirements, and for every other state see how to get a contractor license in each state.

The State License: Four Classes, No Trade Test

Getting the state contractor license is a short, administrative process, and it is worth seeing the whole thing before the parts that trip people up.

Notes on the table above:

• A license is required once a single job's cost, value, or price exceeds $4,000 (NDCC 43-07-02).
• Fees and caps are set in NDCC 43-07-07; nonprofits building homes for low-income buyers are exempt from the license fee, not from the license itself.
• The license runs on a "contractor year," March 2 through March 1, not a calendar year.

The steps themselves run in order:

1. Register the business with the North Dakota Secretary of State.
2. File a sworn application stating your experience and qualifications as a contractor.
3. Attach a certificate of liability insurance and a Workforce Safety & Insurance statement.
4. Pay the fee for the class you want, from $100 to $450.
5. Staff the trade license your actual work requires, since this application tests none of it.
6. Renew before March 2 every year.

Most companies clear steps one through four in a week. Step five is what the rest of this page is about.

The Sentence That Connects the Two Tracks

Here is the provision almost nobody covering North Dakota contractor licensing quotes. Under NDCC 43-07-14, any person may file a verified complaint with the Secretary of State charging a licensee with specified acts or omissions: abandonment, diversion of funds, fraudulent or deceptive practices, false statements on an application. Subdivision 1(e) adds one more:

"Engaging in work without any trade or professional license as required for the work pursuant to local, state, or federal law."

Read that against NDCC 43-07-15, which sets out the consequence: the registrar may initiate an adjudicative proceeding and, on a finding of guilt, may suspend or revoke the contractor's license, order a civil penalty of up to $1,000, order restitution of up to $5,000, and suspend for up to sixty months.

So the structure is this. The Secretary of State does not test your trade competency at the front door. It makes working without the trade license somebody else requires a ground for taking your contractor license away instead. That is not a weaker qualifier rule than Florida's. It is the same rule, enforced from the other end.

And note the phrase "local, state, or federal law." It reaches the city mechanical license in Bismarck, the State Plumbing Board master license, the State Electrical Board master license, and federal credentials like EPA Section 608 alike. North Dakota's contractor statute imports every one of them by reference.

Where the Competency Actually Lives, Board by Board

Three separate regulators carry the weight the contractor application skips. None of them test insurance. All three test people.

Notes on the table above:

• Electrical contracting without a master or power limited electrician behind it is not allowed at all.
• Plumbing has no business license of any kind; every category licenses a human being.
• Mechanical/HVAC is municipal, not statewide; cities share one exam and honor each other's results.

Electrical: North Dakota Writes the Qualifier Rule Out Loud

The North Dakota State Electrical Board is the one North Dakota authority that states the qualifier doctrine in plain terms, and what it says is as strict as anything in the country.

Start with who may contract at all. Per the Board's contracting guidelines:

"A contract, agreement, or undertaking with another person for the installation of electrical wiring or power limited wiring or the installation of electrical or power limited system parts of other apparatus may not be entered by anyone other than a master electrician or power limited electrician."

A company cannot enter an electrical contract in North Dakota unless a master electrician stands behind it. Not a business with insurance. A master.

Then the one-company rule:

"A master, class B, or power limited electrician may exercise that individual's privileges as a licensed master, class B, or power limited electrician for no more than one shop or business."

One person, one business, at a time. North Dakota's Electrical Board states it without needing a statute to do it.

Then the Board defines the role itself. A master of record is:

"an individual responsible to adhere to all laws and rules of the North Dakota wiring standards for the partnership, company, corporation, limited liability company, or association and has shown proof of liability insurance that the master of record is covered by the organization."

Read the insurance clause closely, because it is doing real work. The master of record must show that the organization's liability insurance covers them. A company cannot name a master of record who does not appear on its own policy. That is an integration test wearing an insurance certificate.

And then the sentence that closes the back door:

"The master of record is not allowed to work on other property other than property owned or leased by the organization."

A master of record is confined to the organization's own work. They cannot moonlight, cannot carry side jobs, cannot put the credential to work anywhere else. Combine it with the one-shop rule and there is no version of a North Dakota master of record who is just a name on a filing. The Board has closed the door from both sides.

The Board offers exactly three statuses, and you pick one: Contracting Master (or Contracting Class B, or Contracting Power Limited), Master of Record (or Power Limited Electrician of Record), or Non-Contracting Master. A non-contracting master "has the same responsibility as a journeyman electrician" and must work under the supervision of a contracting master or a master of record.

The onboarding is unusually hands-on. If you select contracting or of-record status, the Board requires you to first register the business with the Secretary of State and obtain the business contractor license, then file an Application for Electrical Contracting and an E-Cert application with a certificate of liability insurance with policy limits of at least $500,000. Then the Board runs a contractor orientation, an administrative-rule session plus a telephonic information session, and the participants are the contracting or of-record electrician and the owner or the owner's representative who signed the application.

License fees are $50.00 for a master or power limited license and $40.00 for a class B, under NDAC 24.1-03-01-01, whether you are applying for the license or renewing it. Master, power limited, and class B licenses expire April 30 each year; journeyman licenses expire March 31. Renewal requires 8 hours of continuing education, 4 of them on code.

One scope limit worth knowing: a class B electrician may not contract except for farmstead electrical wiring, or residential wiring in one or two family dwellings located in a city with a population of 2,500 or fewer. A class B is not a cheaper master. It is a rural-residential credential with a hard ceiling.

One near-term operational note. The Board is replacing its online licensing, registration, and wiring-certificate system. The current system shuts down January 29, 2027, and the new one opens February 3, 2027. Licensees whose electrical, power limited, or conveyance license comes due during that window should plan to renew after the new system opens; current licenses stay valid through the transition, and the Board is assessing no late fees for it.

For the full ladder underneath all of this, see How to Get an Electrician License in North Dakota.

Plumbing: Three Licensed Stages, Not Two

The North Dakota State Plumbing Board licenses individuals and only individuals: apprentices, journeymen, masters, sewer and water installers and contractors, water conditioning installers and contractors, backflow assembly testers. There is no company plumbing license to be had.

The ladder runs through three stages, and conflating them is an easy mistake. An apprentice must be at least eighteen and serves four years, not less than 1,900 hours a year, for a total of 7,600 hours under a licensed master, before sitting the journeyman exam (NDAC 62-02-01-01.1). That exam carries a 70 percent passing grade (NDAC 62-02-01-03). A journeyman then needs two more years, 3,400 hours, licensed as a journeyman before applying for a master plumber license at 21 or older, and the master exam's passing grade is 80 percent.

A company cannot accrue any of those hours, age into eligibility, or sit either exam. The competency in a North Dakota plumbing company is, by construction, a human being on the payroll.

And because NDCC 43-07-14(1)(e) makes working without a required trade license a revocation ground, a plumbing company that loses its licensed master has not merely lost a crew member. It has walked into the exposure that provision creates. The full ladder, hours, fees and scope lines are in Plumbing License North Dakota.

Mechanical: The Competency Is Municipal

HVAC is the strangest of the three, because there is no state mechanical license at all. Cities license it: Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Minot and others, off a shared examination that participating cities proctor and honor.

Bismarck is the sharp case for staffing purposes: all qualifying work experience must be completed under a Licensed Master Installer. Not merely supervised generally. Under a licensed master. The current exam draws on the 2021 International Mechanical Code and International Fuel Gas Code, and passing it carries reciprocity with Fargo, Grand Forks, and Minot. A Bismarck mechanical company without a master cannot grow its own journeymen, because nobody on the crew is accruing qualifying hours. The full picture, including where Fargo and Bismarck disagree, is in HVAC License North Dakota.

The Renewal Cliff Nobody Writes About

This is the second finding on this page that does not appear on the first search-results page, and for a working contractor it may be the more urgent one.

North Dakota runs on a "contractor year," defined in NDCC 43-07-01(2) as March second through March first. Renewal is due before March second each year, and since a 2025 change, Senate Bill 2163, the renewal application only has to list projects completed in the prior calendar year over $50,000, up from the old $25,000 threshold.

Miss the deadline, and NDCC 43-07-10(3) is unambiguous:

"If any contractor fails to file an application for a certificate for the current contractor year by the March first deadline, the contractor's license is not in good standing and the contractor is deemed to be unlicensed within the meaning of section 43-07-02."

Deemed unlicensed. Not late. Not lapsed-but-curable-without-consequence. Deemed unlicensed, by cross-reference to the section that makes unlicensed contracting a crime.

The registrar then has up to sixty days after March first to notify you by mail that you are not in good standing. A contractor can spend most of two months in that status before a letter arrives. You have until June first to cure, by filing the renewal, paying the renewal fee, and paying a $50 penalty fee. After June first, the license is expired outright.

So North Dakota has a three-month window in which a contractor who simply forgot a filing deadline is legally in the same position as one who never applied. Everything in the next section applies during it.

What "Deemed Unlicensed" Actually Costs

Section 43-07-02 carries three separate consequences, and the first is the one that should govern your calendar.

You cannot sue to get paid. The statute bars an unlicensed person from engaging in the business of contracting on jobs over $4,000, and, in the same breath, from maintaining "any claim, action, suit, or proceeding in any court of this state related to the person's business or capacity as a contractor."

That is not a fine. That is the loss of your ability to enforce your own contracts. A general contractor who discovers mid-dispute that a sub was unlicensed has just discovered something very valuable. A sub who discovers it about themselves has discovered the opposite.

It is a class A misdemeanor. Acting in the capacity of a contractor without a license is criminal, not merely administrative.

The civil penalty scales off the license fee. In addition to the license fee, the registrar may assess a civil penalty "in an amount not to exceed three times the amount set forth in section 43-07-07," and section 43-07-07 is the fee schedule in the table above. Three times a Class A fee is $1,350; three times a Class D fee is $300. The penalty "must be assessed and collected before a person is issued a license," so it is not a bill you can defer past the point where you need to be licensed again.

Separately, section 43-07-02 defines construction fraud and grades it as a felony: class C under $10,000, class B from $10,000 to $50,000, class A over $50,000, keyed to the payment received. Abandonment is presumed if a contractor fails substantially to commence within sixty days of a written start date (or ninety days of the contract date if none was written), or fails to complete within ninety days of a written completion date (or one hundred eighty days if none was written). North Dakota put real teeth in this chapter. It just did not put them in the application form.

Three More Provisions That Catch Multi-State Contractors

Bids have a ten-day rule. Under section 43-07-12, bids and proposals for public contract projects must contain a copy of the license or current-year certificate enclosed in the required bid bond envelope, and a contractor "must be the holder of a license at least ten days before the date set for receiving bids, to be a qualified bidder." A bid submitted without it "may not be read or considered and must be returned to the bidder." The section does not apply to bids to the Department of Transportation, the Public Service Commission, or for federal-aid highway funds.

Permits pull your number, and your subs' numbers. Section 43-07-24 requires a contractor to supply the license number when applying for a building permit. It also requires a person doing general contractor work on their own property, even when exempt from licensing, to supply the permit official the license number of each subcontractor on the project.

Revocation reaches people, not just the entity. Section 43-07-15 closes with a definition worth reading twice: a licensee whose license is revoked or suspended "includes any officer, director, agent, member, or employee of the licensee." A licensee may not obtain a license under any name during revocation or suspension, and section 43-07-17 bars relicensing for up to five years. You cannot dissolve the LLC, form a new one, and reapply on Monday.

If your company holds or is pursuing licenses in several states at once, not just North Dakota, our licensing services in all 50 states page tracks how each state's rules differ.

What This Means for How You Staff

Put the whole structure together and the practical conclusion is clean. Getting the North Dakota contractor license is an administrative exercise, as the steps and fee table above show. Keeping it is a staffing question.

Because the moment your people perform work that a city, a board, or a federal rule requires a trade license for, and nobody on the job holds it, section 43-07-14(1)(e) is available to anyone who wants to file a complaint: a competitor, a customer, an inspector. The constraint on a North Dakota contracting business is the licensed person, exactly as it is in states with an explicit qualifier statute. North Dakota just declined to say so on the application.

And the licensed person has to be real. The Electrical Board has already written what "real" means, in language more concrete than most qualifier statutes manage: one shop or business, covered by the organization's liability insurance, working only on property the organization owns or leases, sitting through orientation next to the owner. That describes an employee, not a filing.

A qualifying agent qualifies the company, as an owner or a full-time W-2 employee who actually supervises the work, which is what What Is a Qualifying Agent covers in full. If your company holds or wants a North Dakota contractor license and does not have the master electrician, master plumber, or licensed master installer the work actually requires, see Hire a Qualifying Agent to start a placement, or our contractor qualifier services for the short version of what we do.

The distinction between the two credentials on this page is covered in Contractor License vs Business License.

If you hold a North Dakota master credential and want to understand what it is worth to a company that needs one, see Become a Qualifying Agent.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does North Dakota require a contractor bond?

No. NDCC 43-07-11, the contractor's bond section, was repealed by S.L. 1995, ch. 397, section 9, and nothing has replaced it at the state level. Public bodies letting contracts may impose their own additional requirements under section 43-07-06, and private owners may require bonds by contract, but neither is a condition of the state contractor license itself.

Does North Dakota require a qualifying agent for a contractor license?

Not on the Secretary of State application, which names no qualifier and includes no trade exam. But the competency requirement exists in substance. Section 43-07-14(1)(e) makes engaging in work without a trade or professional license required by local, state, or federal law a ground to suspend or revoke the contractor license, and the State Electrical Board separately requires a master electrician, as a contracting master or a master of record, before a company may enter an electrical contract at all.

What is a master of record in North Dakota?

The State Electrical Board's term for the licensed master electrician who carries responsibility for a company's compliance with North Dakota wiring standards. The master of record must be covered by the organization's liability insurance, may hold that role for no more than one shop or business, and is not permitted to work on property other than property the organization owns or leases.

Can one master electrician cover two companies in North Dakota?

No. The Board states that a master, class B, or power limited electrician may exercise those privileges for no more than one shop or business.

What happens if I miss the March 1 North Dakota contractor license renewal?

Your license is not in good standing and, under section 43-07-10(3), you are deemed unlicensed within the meaning of section 43-07-02. You have until June 1 to cure by filing the renewal and paying the renewal fee plus a $50 penalty fee. After June 1 the license is expired. During the period you are deemed unlicensed, the consequences of unlicensed contracting apply, including the statutory bar on maintaining a court action related to your business as a contractor.

What is the exam passing score for a North Dakota master plumber?

80 percent, under NDAC 62-02-01-03. The journeyman plumber passing grade is 70 percent. A master plumber applicant must also be at least 21 and have two years, 3,400 hours, of experience as a licensed journeyman.

What does it cost to get a North Dakota contracting company fully licensed?

The state fees are public and fixed: $100 to $450 initially by class, renewing at $30 to $90, shown in the table above. What is not fixed is the rest of it: whether you already have the licensed master or master installer the trade boards and cities require, how many North Dakota municipalities you work in, your liability premium given scope and loss history, and your Workforce Safety & Insurance position. Those drive the real number far more than the filing fees.

Is North Dakota's online electrical license renewal system changing?

Yes, starting in 2027. The State Electrical Board's current online system shuts down January 29, 2027, and the new one opens February 3, 2027. Licensees whose renewal falls during that window should wait for the new system; current licenses remain valid and the Board is assessing no late fees for the gap.

Sources

• North Dakota Century Code, Chapter 43-07 (Contractors), North Dakota Legislative Branch. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
• Senate Bill 2163, 69th Legislative Assembly (2025), ndlegis.gov. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
• Electrical Contracting and Non-Contracting Guidelines and Requirements, North Dakota State Electrical Board. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
• Electrician's License Renewal and Requirements, North Dakota State Electrical Board. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
• North Dakota State Electrical Board, homepage system-transition notice. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
• North Dakota Administrative Code 24.1-03-01-01, electrical license fee schedule, North Dakota Legislative Branch. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
• North Dakota Administrative Code 62-02-01, plumber licensure chapter, North Dakota Legislative Branch. Retrieved 2026-10-15.
• Mechanical Installers and Application Requirements, City of Bismarck. Retrieved 2026-10-15.

If the Licensed Person Is What You Are Missing

North Dakota is a good state to get licensed in and an easy state to quietly fall out of compliance in, because the front door asks so little and the back door, section 43-07-14(1)(e), and a renewal deadline that converts a missed filing into "deemed unlicensed," asks so much.

If your company holds or wants a North Dakota contractor license and does not have the licensed trade professional the work actually requires, that is the gap we fill. We place qualifying agents as full-time W-2 employees. Call 615-219-2110 or see Hire a Qualifying Agent to start a placement in North Dakota.

Statutory citations on this page are to the North Dakota Century Code chapter 43-07 as published by the North Dakota Legislative Branch, to the North Dakota Administrative Code chapters 24.1-03-01 and 62-02-01, and to the published guidelines of the North Dakota State Electrical Board, the North Dakota State Plumbing Board, the City of Bismarck, and the North Dakota Secretary of State. Fees, deadlines and rules are set by those authorities and are subject to change; verify with the issuing authority before acting on them. This is general information about licensing requirements, not legal advice. Last reviewed October 2026.