Minnesota Contractor License: Requirements, Cost and Exams

License classes

License classifications and the monetary trigger

Minnesota has three residential license types: residential building contractor (new construction, remodeling, and detached garages), residential remodeler (existing structures only, with no new construction and no detached garages), and residential roofer (roofing work only). A license is required when a business contracts directly with the owner of a one to four unit residential property and either performs work in two or more of the state's eight defined specialty skill areas, which are excavation, masonry and concrete, carpentry, interior finishing, exterior finishing, drywall and plaster, roofing, and general installation specialties, or has gross annual receipts from that licensable residential work exceeding fifteen thousand dollars in a calendar year. Below that fifteen thousand dollar threshold, a certificate of exemption can be filed instead of a full license application, under Minnesota Statutes section 326B.805. Anyone who exceeds the exemption's gross annual receipts limit during the year must immediately surrender the exemption certificate and apply for the proper license.

The qualifier rule

Qualifying individual rules

Minnesota licenses the company, not the individual, except that a sole proprietor must personally hold the license. Every company still needs exactly one qualifying person, who must be an actual employee of the licensee, not an independent contractor, and actively engaged in the residential contracting business. That person serves as the proprietor or managing employee for a sole proprietorship, a general partner or managing employee for a partnership, a chief manager or managing employee for an LLC, or an owner, officer, or managing employee for a corporation, under Minnesota Statutes section 326B.805. One person may qualify more than one corporation or LLC only where there is at least twenty five percent common ownership across every entity that person qualifies, and that threshold is a statutory requirement, not a guideline, under the same statute. After passing the exam, the qualifying person is issued a registration called a Q number, with the prefix QB for qualifying builder, QC for qualifying remodeler, or QR for qualifying roofer. This Q number is a registration, not a license by itself, and it lapses and requires retaking the exam if it stays inactive for more than two years. Otherwise, renewal every two years requires fourteen hours of approved continuing education, including at least one hour on the energy code and one hour on business management.

Replacement rules and deadlines when a qualifier leaves

Minnesota Statutes section 326B.805 requires the licensee to notify the department of any change in qualifying person within fifteen days of the change. Separately, the department's own published guidance gives the licensed business one hundred twenty days from the date the previous qualifying person stopped serving in that role to designate a replacement qualifying person and file the required change of qualifying person designation packet before the change takes effect. Both deadlines apply: notify within fifteen days, and replace and file within one hundred twenty days. The statute does not spell out a penalty for missing the one hundred twenty day window; check directly with the department about what happens if that window is missed.

Exams

Exam requirements and the exam vendor

Each licensed company designates one individual, the qualifying person, who must pass the state's own written exam before the license application is accepted. A residential building contractor license requires the qualifying builder exam, with parallel qualifying exams for the remodeler and roofer license types. The exam is open book, has 110 multiple choice questions, runs five and a half hours, and requires a seventy percent passing score. It is offered in English and Spanish, with roughly sixty percent of the content drawn from the Minnesota Residential Code and the remainder from statutes and industry regulation. No prior experience or education is required to sit the exam itself. Some sources describe the exam as proctored by PSI, but the department's own exam scheduling page names no third party testing vendor. Confirm current proctoring directly with the department, at 651 284 5034 or dli.license@state.mn.us, before relying on a specific vendor name.

NASCLA acceptance

Minnesota does not appear on NASCLA's current list of participating agencies for the Accredited Examination for Commercial General Building Contractors. Because Minnesota has no commercial general contractor license to begin with, NASCLA accreditation does not provide a pathway into Minnesota licensing in any form.

Experience, financial, and background requirements

The license application itself, separate from the exam, requires two years of verifiable residential construction experience within the past ten years, documented and submitted with the application. Applicants go through a criminal background check and a background disclosure form as part of the application. Required insurance includes public liability coverage of at least one hundred thousand dollars per occurrence and three hundred thousand dollars aggregate, plus twenty five thousand dollars in property damage coverage, naming the department as certificate holder, along with proof of workers compensation compliance. This is a licensing requirement, not an optional one. Minnesota does not use a traditional surety bond for this license. Instead, every licensee pays into the state's own Contractor Recovery Fund, a pooled indemnity fund, with the fee tiered by the applicant's gross annual receipts. Combining the base application fee with the tiered recovery fund fee, total license fees run around five hundred dollars for gross annual receipts under one million dollars, six hundred dollars for one million to five million dollars, and seven hundred dollars for over five million dollars. Confirm the current fee schedule directly with the department before counting on a specific number, since recovery fund tiers have changed before. Electrical and plumbing contractors must each file a twenty five thousand dollar bond with the department as a condition of their own separate state licenses. Mechanical and HVAC contractors are not a separate state licensed classification, but anyone contracting to perform heating, ventilation, cooling, gas, fuel burning, or refrigeration work must also file a twenty five thousand dollar bond with the department. Solar photovoltaic installation contractors have been required to hold a residential building contractor or remodeler license since July 1, 2023, with the actual electrical tie in work reserved to licensed electrical contractors.

Fees and timeline

Application timelines

A standard processing timeline for the residential building contractor, remodeler, or roofer license applications themselves is not stated in the board materials reviewed for this page. The separate Construction Contractor Registration Program, which covers commercial work and otherwise unlicensed residential work, does publish a timeline: a complete registration can issue in two to three business days, though during the peak renewal window of October through December of odd numbered years it can take up to thirty days. This registration renews every two years, due by December 31 of odd numbered years, with no agency fee.

Reciprocity

Reciprocity and exam waivers

A reciprocity or exam waiver agreement with another state for the residential building contractor, remodeler, or roofer exams is not stated in the board materials reviewed for this page. Minnesota's exam is a state specific, open book exam built around the Minnesota Residential Code rather than a NASCLA or multi state exam, so an exam waiver into or out of Minnesota should not be assumed to exist. This should be treated as unconfirmed rather than ruled out, and checked directly with the department for any specific state pair.

Trades

Trades overlay

Electrical and plumbing contractors each need their own separate state license from the department, and each of those licenses carries its own twenty five thousand dollar bond requirement. There is no separate state mechanical or HVAC contractor license classification, but anyone contracting to perform gas, heating, ventilation, cooling, air conditioning, fuel burning, or refrigeration work must still file a twenty five thousand dollar mechanical contractor bond with the department. None of these trade credentials substitute for the residential building contractor, remodeler, or roofer license, and the residential license does not satisfy any of them either. They sit side by side as separate requirements.

What changed

Confirming the exam vendor

This page reflects information gathered from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry and the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes, checked on 2026-10-21. Minnesota's contractor exam is sometimes described elsewhere as a "PSI exam," but the department's own exam scheduling page does not name any third party testing vendor anywhere on that page. Instead, that page describes the exam as administered directly by the Department of Labor and Industry itself, at its own office in St. Paul and a rotating set of regional sites around the state, including Bemidji, Detroit Lakes, Duluth, Mankato, Moorhead, Rochester, St. Cloud, Virginia, Willmar, and Winona. Exams are scheduled through the department's own online iMS scheduling system rather than through an outside testing company. Anyone relying on a specific vendor name for the Minnesota exam should confirm current proctoring arrangements directly with the department before making that assumption.

The board

Who licenses contractors in Minnesota

Minnesota does not have a commercial general contractor license at the state level. The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, through its Construction Codes and Licensing Division, licenses residential building contractors, residential remodelers, and residential roofers statewide under Minnesota Statutes chapter 326B. Commercial contractors, and any residential contractor who does not meet the threshold for a license, are not licensed at all. Instead, they register, with no exam required, through the separate Construction Contractor Registration Program. Some cities run their own local contractor licensing on top of the state system for certain permits; Duluth is one example. Always confirm whether the city where the work takes place has its own additional contractor licensing or permitting requirements.