West Virginia Contractor License (2026): The Repealed Statute Everyone Still Cites, and What §30-42 Actually Requires

If you have been reading about West Virginia contractor licensing online, there is a reasonable chance you have been reading about a repealed statute.

Nearly every guide on the first page of Google cites W. Va. Code § 21-11 as the West Virginia Contractor Licensing Act. One of them hyperlinks directly to the Code site — where all twenty sections now read "[Repealed.]" The Act lives at W. Va. Code § 30-42-1 et seq. today: Chapter 30, Professions and Occupations, Article 42. The testing vendor knows it — its current exam blueprint allocates a large block of the business-and-law exam to "West Virginia Code Chapter 30, Article 42" and none at all to § 21-11.

That is not a pedantic difference. If a guide is citing the repealed article, it was written against superseded text, and the errors compound from there: the wrong dollar threshold, the wrong testing vendor, an insurance minimum that does not exist, and a renewal fee nobody charges.

This guide is built from the current statute, the Contractor Licensing Board's rule as amended effective May 4, 2026, the West Virginia Division of Labor's published fee schedules, and the testing vendor's own candidate bulletin.

On the numbers below. Fees, thresholds and deadlines here were verified against primary sources as of September 2026. They are set by the Board, the Legislature and the testing vendor, and they change — verify current figures before you rely on them.

When you actually need a license: $5,000 and $25,000

The single most-repeated error about West Virginia is that the licensing threshold is $2,500. It is not, and it is not one number either.

W. Va. Code § 30-42-3(d) defines a contractor as a person who, for compensation and "other than as an employee of another," undertakes or bids construction work "where the cost of the undertaking is $5,000 or more for residential work or $25,000 or more for commercial work."

Two tiers, not one.

"Undertaking" means the whole project, not your scope. The Board's rule defines it as "the entire construction project, including the cost of all labor and materials required to accomplish it." The Division of Labor states the same thing bluntly for the trades: the threshold is "total contract amount, not just the plumbing work." A $9,000 plumbing package inside a $40,000 residential remodel is measured against the $40,000.

Where the $2,500 came from. West Virginia's own One Stop Business Portal still publishes the obsolete figure, telling readers that "a total project cost of materials and labor equaling or exceeding $2,500.00 or more is required to have a contractor license." A stale state web page is almost certainly the upstream source of the error across the entire aggregator ecosystem. The statute controls.

Three related thresholds worth knowing:

• $10,000 — triggers a mandatory written contract (§ 30-42-10(b))
• $25,000+ — unlicensed work triggers an additional penalty of up to $200 per day (§ 30-42-14(d))
• $40,000 — caps the Remodeling & Repair classification

The classifications — and two that do not exist

West Virginia does not use Class A / Class B / Class C. That scheme belongs to Virginia, and it appears on West Virginia guides purely as contamination. There are no monetary "classes" in West Virginia law.

Nine statutory classifications under § 30-42-3: Electrical · General Building · General Engineering · Heating, Ventilating and Cooling · Multifamily · Piping · Plumbing · Residential · Specialty.

Seventeen examined classifications under the Board's rule — the statutory nine plus: Concrete · Excavation · Manufactured Home Installation · Masonry · Remodeling & Repair · Sprinklers & Fire Protection · Structural Steel Erection · Utilities (Sewer & Water). The rule also lets the Board add "any other specialty classifications as the Board determines warrant examination."

Carpentry and Roofing are not West Virginia license classifications. They appear only as topic weightings inside the General Building, Residential and Remodeling exams. Several guides list them as license types; they are not.

Three scope definitions that decide which classification you need:

• General Building — structures "requiring in the construction the use of more than two contractor classifications, or a person who supervises the whole, or any part, of the construction."
• Specialty — services that "do not substantially fall within the scope of any contractor classification as set out herein."
• Residential structure — "not more than three distinct floors which are above grade … Dormitories, hotels, motels, or other transient lodging units are not residential structures."

The Residential classification carries a quiet advantage: under the Board's rule, a residential contractor is "considered licensed for all classifications required in the construction, repair, or improvement of a residential structure." It is the closest thing West Virginia has to an umbrella license.

Who qualifies the license: "qualifier" and "license holder" are two different people

This is where West Virginia is unusually precise, and where every competing guide blurs two distinct legal roles into one.

The qualifier passes the exams. Under the Board's rule: "'Qualifier' means the individual who qualifies an entity for licensure by obtaining a passing score on any required examinations. A qualifier must be a member of the responsible management of the entity … or a full-time employee of the entity … A qualifier must submit an affidavit to the Board affirming the use of his or her examination score in order for the entity to obtain an initial license or to add an additional classification to an existing license. An entity may have multiple qualifiers."

The license holder signs the application — "a member of the responsible management of a business entity … who signs and submits the license application/affidavit on behalf of the entity."

They can be the same person. They often are not.

The employment requirement, and the proof West Virginia demands

"Responsible management" means officers of a corporation, partners of a general partnership, managers of an LLC, managing partners of an LP or LLP, a sole proprietor, or others with a fiduciary responsibility to the entity.

"Full-time employee" means "an employee of a contractor who spends a minimum of 30 hours per week working under the control and supervision of a contractor for a wage and other benefits as required by law."

And then West Virginia does something most states do not. The Division of Labor's own licensing instructions state:

"The person completing the exam(s) must be an officer, member, owner, or a full-time employee. Payroll records are required as proof for a full-time employee."

A payroll record is a W-2 artifact. West Virginia does not merely permit an employed qualifier — it requires documentary proof that the employment is real, and the proof it names is the payroll. That is a genuine, citable anti-license-lending control, and it is the standard any qualifying agent arrangement in West Virginia has to satisfy. A qualifier placed as a full-time W-2 employee at 30+ hours a week, on the payroll, with wages and legally required benefits, produces exactly the evidence the Division asks for. An arrangement that cannot produce a payroll record cannot satisfy the requirement.

The statute backs it at the entity level too: "No firm, partnership, corporation, association, or other entity may engage in contracting in this state unless an officer thereof holds a license issued pursuant to this article" (§ 30-42-6(a)).

The asymmetry that decides whether a qualifier can serve two companies

This is the detail with the most practical consequence, and it is essentially unreported:

• A qualifier who is responsible management may use the same passing score "to qualify an additional entity" in which they are also responsible management.
• A qualifier who is a full-time employee "may not use the same passing score … to qualify an additional entity for licensure as a full-time employee of the additional entity."
• A full-time-employee qualifier who "has left the employment of such entity may use the same score to qualify another entity in which he or she is a member of the responsible management."

An owner-qualifier can carry more than one company. A W-2 employee qualifier can carry exactly one at a time. The statute reinforces it: "a license holder may hold a license on behalf of only one business entity during a given time period" (§ 30-42-7(b)).

For any contractor planning to hire a qualifying agent in West Virginia, that is the constraint to plan around. The exam score is portable across time; it is not divisible across companies.

When the qualifier leaves: 45 calendar days

The Board's rule is specific in a way that rewards reading closely:

"If a qualifier severs his or her relationship with an entity, the entity must name a replacement qualifier within 45 calendar days from the date of notice of the severance."

Four precision points competitors miss:

• 45 calendar days, stated explicitly — the rule otherwise defaults "days" to business days.
• The clock runs from the date of notice of the severance, not the date of departure.
• The replacement must independently hold passing exam scores and file a fresh affidavit with the Board.
• The consequence is removal of the classification from the license, or inactivation of the license — not automatic revocation.

One honest gap: the rule sets a 45-day replacement window but publishes no separate deadline for notifying the Board of the severance itself. If you see a specific notification day-count quoted elsewhere for West Virginia, it is not coming from the rule.

Forty-five days is more generous than Arkansas's thirty and tighter than Georgia's hundred and twenty. It is still not long enough to find, vet, and exam-qualify someone from a standing start — which is why the replacement is normally identified before the departure, not after.

The exams: Prov, not PSI

West Virginia's testing vendor is Prov, Inc. The candidate bulletin is published by the State and carries Prov's copyright. Prov's bulletin refers to "the State's prior testing vendor (i.e. those used before September 2024)" when explaining which reference books are no longer permitted — the changeover happened in September 2024.

A West Virginia government page still tells applicants to schedule with PSI Services, complete with a PSI phone number and email. Readers who follow it will contact the wrong company. If you have been trying to book a West Virginia contractor exam and getting nowhere, that page is very likely why.

What the bulletin and rule actually establish:

• Both exams are required. The rule: "All applicants must pass a written examination in each contractor classification for which they seek licensure … and a West Virginia business and law examination." The one exception is an out-of-state contractor seeking licensure for bidding purposes only, who takes only the business-and-law exam and receives a conditional license.
• The business-and-law exam has been renamed the "Contractor Licensing Act Exam."
• Exam fee — $59.95 per exam, first attempt or retake, paid directly to Prov.
• Passing score — 70% on every exam.
• Open book. Prov "does not require that you bring in the references, but the examinations are delivered in an Open Book format." Older and newer code editions are always permitted. No note-taking or marking in the books.
• Remote proctoring is available — test from home on your own computer with a live proctor, Monday through Friday, 8am to 10pm. No competing guide mentions this.
• The Board must hold at least one examination per classification each calendar quarter (§ 30-42-5(b)(1)).

One thing to plan around: code editions are mixed across classifications. The exams reference different International Code Council editions depending on which classification you are sitting, and the electrical exam references its own NEC edition. There is no single "West Virginia code year." Confirm the edition for your specific classification in the current Prov bulletin before buying a reference book.

Note also what the fee structure means for a multi-classification contractor: the license fee is flat, but examination fees are charged for each classification examination requested. Three trade classifications means three trade exams plus the Contractor Licensing Act exam.

Fees: $90 a year, new and renewal alike

The "$45 renewal" figure circulating online is unsupported. It traces to a single site — which also claims West Virginia licenses renew every two years, in a state whose statute says a license "expires one year from the date on which it is issued."

Published fees, as of September 2026:

• Annual license fee — $90, the same for a new license and a renewal
• Electrical-only sole proprietorship whose owner holds a § 29-3B electrician's license — $20
• Delayed renewal fee — $25, in addition to the annual fee, where renewal comes more than 15 calendar days after expiration
• Duplicate license — $10
• Exam — $59.95 per exam, paid to Prov
• Low-income and military-family waivers of the initial fee are available under the 2026 rule; the $90 still applies at renewal

Statutory ceilings cap the application fee and the annual fee at $150 each (§ 30-42-7(a), § 30-42-8(a)).

There is no per-classification license surcharge. The $90 is flat no matter how many classifications you hold. The per-classification cost sits on the exam side.

One citation warning for anyone checking this independently: the fee provision was renumbered between the 2022 rule and the current May 4, 2026 rule. Third-party mirrors of the old rule are still circulating with the old subsection numbers.

Insurance and bonding: what West Virginia actually requires

There is no general liability insurance dollar minimum in West Virginia law. The "$500,000 minimum" claim traces to a single page — which contradicts itself by also saying $50,000 further down the same page. Other sites invent $100,000, or "$300,000 to $1 million." None of it appears in § 30-42 or the Board's rule.

What the application actually does is collect your carrier, your policy number, and your "Amount of Coverage." You disclose your amount; the Board sets no floor. Carry meaningful limits because your clients, lenders and general contractors will require them — not because the state prescribes a number.

There is no license surety bond in West Virginia. What the statute requires instead, under § 30-42-5(e), is that the applicant certify by affidavit that it:

• is in compliance with the business franchise tax provisions of Chapter 11;
• "has registered, and is in compliance, with the workers' compensation fund and the employment security fund"; and
• is in compliance with the applicable wage bond requirements of § 21-5-14.

The wage bond is a genuine requirement, and a wage-bond status affidavit goes in with the application. It is a different instrument from the license/permit bonds most states require. Surety bonds do appear in § 30-42 — but only as a post-hearing disciplinary remedy, removable after five continuous years without complaints. If a guide tells you West Virginia requires a $10,000 contractor license bond to get licensed, it is describing a different state. For how West Virginia compares nationally, see our contractor bond requirements by state guide.

Renewal, and the 90-day cliff

Annual, on a rolling anniversary. § 30-42-8(a): a license "expires one year from the date on which it is issued." There is no fixed statewide expiration date, despite guides claiming biennial renewal or a December 31 odd-year expiry.

• Renewal notice goes out at least 30 days before expiration.
• $25 late fee past 15 calendar days.
• Continuing education: none is currently required by the Board's rule. The statute authorizes the Board to address continued competency, and mentions continuing education only conditionally and in connection with reinstatement — not routine renewal. Two guides falsely claim "three hours every two years."

And then the provision that catches people, § 30-42-13(a):

"A license which is not renewed on or before the renewal date shall lapse … Provided, That no license which has lapsed for a period of 90 days or more may be renewed: Provided, however, That if a licensee is in a dispute with a state agency, and it is determined that the licensee is not at fault, the board shall renew the license."

Past 90 days you do not renew — you start over. New application, new exams. Compared with Arkansas's two-year outer limit, West Virginia is unforgiving, and the 90 days runs quietly while a contractor assumes a late fee will sort it out.

The trap: your contractor license does not let your people do the work

This is the structural feature of West Virginia licensing that almost no guide explains, and it catches out-of-state contractors constantly.

West Virginia has two independent locks, run by two different authorities:

• The contractor license attaches to the business, is issued by the Contractor Licensing Board, and is triggered by project size.
• The plumber certification and HVAC technician certification attach to the individual, are issued by the Commissioner of Labor, and are triggered by doing the work — at any dollar value.

Holding one does not satisfy the other. The Division of Labor answers it directly:

"Can I perform plumbing work if I have a current WV Contractor License with the plumbing classification? After January 1, 2009, no, each person performing plumbing work must have a plumber certification. For example, if there are three (3) plumbers working on a job, they each must have a plumber certification and their employer must have a contractor license with a classification that covers plumbing."

And for HVAC: all persons performing HVAC work are required to have an HVAC Technician Certification, "regardless of the dollar amount of the job or the individual's affiliation with a licensed contractor."

There is no "working under the company's license" exemption for these trades. Certifications cannot be issued to an entity — "a plumber certification can only be issued to a person and not to an entity."

Published individual certification fees (annual):

• Master plumber — $75 · Journeyman plumber — $75 · Plumber in Training — $25
• HVAC Technician — $75, waived entirely if the applicant holds an HVAC contractor license under § 30-42
• HVAC Residential Technician — $50 · HVAC Technician in Training — $25
• Late fee past 15 days — $25 · Duplicate — $10

(One source conflict worth flagging: a rule PDF hosted by the Division prints $60 for the HVAC Residential Technician while the Division's fee page, its FAQ and its official 2026 filing all say $50. Confirm with the Division before paying.)

A few structural details inside those programs:

• A master or journeyman plumber may supervise no more than three plumbers-in-training.
• You cannot sit the master plumber exam until 12 months after passing the journeyman exam.
• The full HVAC Technician tier requires 2,000 hours of HVAC work, training or experience, and the statute caps what can be demanded: an applicant "may not be required to provide documentation of more than 2,000 hours." The Residential Technician tier has no stated hour minimum.
• "Residential" for HVAC purposes is defined by capacity, not building type — no more than four separate units with a combined capacity of five tons / 130,000 BTUs, or a commercial location no larger than 5,000 square feet where no fire damper is required. Packaged rooftop units are expressly excluded.
• Notably, no minimum experience-hour figure exists anywhere in the plumbing statute, rule, or agency pages — only a requirement to "certify experience." Guides that quote a specific hour count for West Virginia plumbers invented it.

The HVAC fee waiver runs one direction only: an HVAC contractor license waives the individual HVAC technician fee, but not the exam and not the 2,000 hours, and it does not extend to the Residential or Training tiers. There is no plumbing equivalent.

One enforcement asymmetry worth knowing: the HVAC statute reaches "a person performing or offering to perform, or an employer authorizing a person" to perform unlicensed work. The plumbing statute reaches only the person performing. HVAC penalties hit the employer; plumbing penalties do not.

Who is exempt

West Virginia publishes two separate exemption sets, and using both is how you answer most "do I really need this?" questions.

Carved out of the definition of "contractor" (§ 30-42-3(d)) — including a person who merely furnishes materials without fabricating or consuming them; a person who personally performs work on property they own or lease, commercial or residential; real-estate, appraisal, development and management professionals licensed under another board and their employees; a licensed pest control operator, "unless the operator also performs structural repairs exceeding $1,000"; a plan-and-spec firm employing a full-time West Virginia-registered architect or professional engineer, along with its employees; and —

"A person who performs landscaping or painting services for commercial or residential customers."

Landscapers and painters are statutorily exempt in West Virginia. No competing guide reports this.

Exempt from licensure (§ 30-42-6(c)) — work done exclusively by government employees; the sale or installation of a finished product that "is not actually fabricated into and does not become a permanent fixed part" of the structure; work performed personally by an owner or lessee on agricultural or farming property; a material supplier who advises but does not install; work by a PSC-regulated public utility and its employees; owner-contracted emergency repair of equipment; "work performed by an employer's regular employees, for which the employees are paid regular wages and not a contract price," on the employer's own non-speculative property; "work personally performed on a structure by the owner or occupant thereof"; and certain specialized work performed to engineer-approved specifications that "because of its specialized nature or process cannot be reasonably or timely contracted for within the general area of the facility."

Note how the employee exemption and the contractor definition fit together. The definition excludes anyone acting "other than as an employee of another," and § 30-42-6(c)(7) exempts an employer's regular wage-paid employees. Your employees do not need contractor licenses. Your company does — and in the plumbing and HVAC trades, your individual workers separately need their own certifications.

How to apply

The Division of Labor's instruction is explicit: steps 1 through 6 must be complete before you submit.

1. Email the Board your scope of work to get your classification(s) and required exam(s). There is no self-service classification lookup — this step is a real dependency, and nobody else mentions it.
2. Schedule your exams with Prov (the state page still says PSI — it is stale). The person taking the exams must be an officer, member, owner, or full-time employee, and payroll records are required as proof for a full-time employee.
3. Business Registration Tax Number from the WV State Tax Department.
4. Secretary of State registration.
5. Workers' compensation, unemployment compensation, and general liability insurance.
6. Wage bond status affidavit from Wage & Hour.
7. The application/affidavit itself — "an owner, corporate officer or managing member is required to sign page three (3)."

The application must list "the name of each qualifier, examination score, and proof of relationship for each classification."

Two things the Board does not publish: a processing turnaround time, and a fixed meeting schedule beyond the statutory minimum of at least one meeting annually. Any specific "X weeks to approval" figure you find for West Virginia is not coming from the agency. For general expectations, see how long it takes to get a contractor license.

Two gates worth knowing before you bid anything: "The inspector or authority may not issue a building permit to any person who does not possess a valid contractor's license when required" (§ 30-42-10(a)), and "No bid may be accepted by any person soliciting bids for construction which does not bear the contractor license number on its face."

License lending, penalties, and statewide preemption

West Virginia draws the "working under someone else's license" line precisely. Grounds for discipline under § 30-42-15(g)(8) include:

"Willfully or deliberately acting in the capacity of a contractor when not licensed or as a contractor by a person other than the person to whom the license is issued except as an employee of the licensee"

That final clause is the whole distinction. Bona fide employees may work under the license. Independent operators may not. Section 30-42-15(g)(9) separately prohibits "aiding or abetting an unlicensed person," "allowing a license to be used by an unlicensed person," and attempting to assign or transfer a license. Section 30-42-9 makes it flat: "No license may be used for any purpose by any person other than the person to whom the license is issued or validly transferred."

If you are weighing an arrangement that sounds like borrowing a license, our guide on whether renting a contractor license is legal covers how these statutes read across states.

Penalties for unlicensed contracting escalate steeply. The Board shall issue a cease and desist order, and may impose a penalty of $200 to $1,000. Continuing after service of that order is a misdemeanor: $200–$1,000 for a first offense; $500–$5,000 or up to six months in jail for a second; $1,000–$5,000 and 30 days to one year in jail for a third. On work totaling $25,000 or more, add up to $200 per day for each day in violation.

Licensees also have to post the license at every construction site and include the license number "in all contracting advertisements and all fully executed and binding contracts," under penalty of a fine up to $200.

One provision that is genuinely good news and almost never reported: § 30-42-20 preempts local licensing. No municipality, local government or county "may require any additional occupational license or other evidence of competence as a contractor from any person … who holds a valid and current license issued pursuant to this article." Unlike Arkansas — where cities like Little Rock require their own privilege license on top of the state credential — one West Virginia license covers the state. The plumbing and HVAC statutes carry the same preemption.

What changed in 2026

• A new Board rule took effect May 4, 2026, replacing the 2022 version. It states the $90 fee in the rule itself, adds low-income and military-family initial fee waivers, expands the examined classification list, and routes appeals to the Intermediate Court of Appeals. Anything citing the old subsection numbering is citing the superseded rule.
• A new procedural rule took effect June 7, 2026, governing Board organization, complaints and hearings. Cease-and-desist hearings require 10 days' notice; disciplinary action requires six affirmative votes.
• 2026 SB 553 amended § 30-42-7 and § 30-42-9 to permit transfer of a contractor license to a qualifying immediate family member — spouse, child, sibling or parent — with a one-year window to pass any required exam, plus transfer on death or permanent incapacity. This is a meaningful succession tool for family construction businesses.
• On the horizon, not yet law: a proposed fourth HVAC tier, "HVAC duct technician," went through notice and comment in mid-2026 but has no effective date and would require further legislative authorization. A 2026 bill to split the plumbing rules into residential and commercial tracks did not become law — the current plumbing definitions are unchanged.
• The plumbing and HVAC certification rules are unchanged since May 1, 2023. Each has exactly one active version.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a West Virginia contractor license cost?

The Board-set pieces are small and knowable: $90 a year for the license, $59.95 per exam. What actually drives the number is everything else — how many classifications you need (each one is another exam), your general liability premium, workers' compensation coverage, the wage bond, and, if you are in plumbing or HVAC, individual certifications for every technician on your payroll at $75 a head annually. A single-classification residential contractor and a multi-trade commercial operation are not in the same universe. For the factors that move the total, see our contractor license cost guide, or talk through your situation directly.

Do I need a separate license for each city I work in?

No. Section 30-42-20 preempts municipal contractor licensing statewide. One state license covers West Virginia.

Is my West Virginia contractor license enough for my plumbers to do plumbing work?

No — and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in the state. The company needs the contractor license with the plumbing classification; each individual performing plumbing work needs their own plumber certification, regardless of job value. The same applies to HVAC, where the penalty provision also reaches the employer who authorizes uncertified work.

My license lapsed. Can I just pay the late fee?

Only if you are within 90 days. Past 15 days you owe a $25 late fee on top of the $90. Past 90 days the license cannot be renewed at all and you begin again with a new application and new exams.

Can one qualifier cover two of my companies?

Only if they are responsible management — an officer, member, manager, partner or owner — of both. A qualifier serving as a full-time employee may qualify only one entity at a time. That is a rule-level prohibition, not a practice norm.

My qualifier just resigned. How long do I have?

Forty-five calendar days from the date of notice of the severance to name a replacement who independently holds the passing scores and files an affidavit. Miss it and the Board may remove the classification or inactivate the license.

Where a qualifying agent fits in West Virginia

West Virginia's requirements land in a particular shape. The exams are open book and can be taken from home, so the trade knowledge barrier is lower than in many states. There is no license bond and no prescribed insurance minimum, so the capital barrier is lower too. What West Virginia demands instead is a qualified individual with a genuine, documented employment relationship — payroll records required — and it permits that person to carry only one company at a time.

That makes the qualifier the scarce input. And the 45-day replacement clock means the scarcity becomes urgent the moment someone resigns.

Placing a qualifier as a genuine, full-time W-2 employee is the model we work in, and it is the one West Virginia's payroll-record requirement is written to verify. If you need to hire a qualifying agent for a West Virginia classification, or you hold the experience and are considering becoming a qualifying agent, the employment standard is the part to get right — because it is the part the Division of Labor asks you to prove on paper.

For the national picture on commercial licensing, start with how to get a general contractor license. To compare West Virginia against the states you are expanding into, browse all state licensing guides.

Fees, thresholds, exam specifications and deadlines in this guide are set by the West Virginia Contractor Licensing Board, the West Virginia Division of Labor, the Legislature and the testing vendor, and are subject to change. Figures were verified against primary sources in September 2026. Verify current requirements with the Contractor Licensing Board (1900 Kanawha Blvd East, Building 3, Room 200, Charleston, WV 25305 · 304-356-3928) or the Division of Labor (304-558-7890) before applying.