Arizona Contractor License Requirements
Every figure below was read off the AZ ROC or the statute, and the sentence it came from is listed at the bottom of this page. Where a figure could not be verified this page says so rather than showing a number.
What the state requires
- Licence
- General commercial, general residential or general dual licensed contractor (e.g. B General Commercial Contractor, B-1 General Residential Contractor)
- Issued by
- Arizona Registrar of ContractorsAriz. Rev. Stat. tit. 32, ch. 10
- Exam
- A written examination covering the trade applied for plus the applicant's general knowledge of the building, safety, health and lien laws of the state, administrative principles of contracting and the Registrar's rules
- Exam fee
- No verified figureA.R.S. 32-1126 sets only statutory maximums for the combined original biennial application and license fee, not the amounts actually charged: not more than $500 general residential, not more than $1,500 general commercial, not more than $2,000 general dual. Biennial renewal caps are $320 / $1,000 / $1,320 respectively, with a $50 late penalty. The examination fee is set separately by the Registrar, who may contract with a private testing service and let the candidate pay it directly. The actual published fee schedule lives on roc.az.gov, which refused every request from this machine, so all fee fields are null.
- Application fee
- No verified figure
- Initial licence fee
- No verified figure
- Licence bond
- Required; amount variesNo flat figure: the Registrar fixes the bond within a statutory schedule keyed to the applicant's estimated annual volume of construction work. General commercial: $5,000 under $150,000 of volume; $5,000-$15,000 for $150,000-$500,000; $10,000-$25,000 for $500,000-$1,000,000; $15,000-$50,000 for $1,000,000-$5,000,000; $35,000-$75,000 for $5,000,000-$10,000,000; $50,000-$100,000 at $10,000,000 or more. General residential: not more than $15,000 and not less than $5,000. Specialty commercial runs $2,500 to $50,000 on the same volume bands; specialty residential $1,000-$7,500. Residential and dual licensees must additionally either post a $200,000 consumer-damages bond or join the residential contractors' recovery fund and pay an assessment of not more than $600 per biennial period. A cash deposit may replace any of these bonds.
- General liability
- Not requiredThe license application must carry an attestation that the applicant has complied with the statutes and rules governing workers' compensation insurance, with the policy number or proof of self-insurance where coverage is legally required. Chapter 10 imposes no general liability insurance minimum as a licensing condition.
- Workers compensation
- Required
- Experience
- 4 yearsThe qualifying party must have a minimum of four years' practical or management trade experience, at least two of which were within the last ten years, in the type of construction applied for. Technical training in an accredited college or university or a manufacturer's accredited training program may substitute for up to two of the four years. The Registrar waives the experience documentation if the qualifying party is or was a qualifying party for an Arizona licensee in the same classification.
- Continuing education
- No verified ruleA.R.S. tit. 32, ch. 10 imposes no continuing education requirement, and the Registrar's own renewal pages could not be read because roc.az.gov refused, so this is left null rather than asserted as zero.
- Renewal
- Every 2 years
- NASCLA exam
- AcceptedNASCLA lists the Arizona Registrar of Contractors among the agencies that accept the NASCLA Accredited Examination for Commercial General Building Contractors. What it substitutes for could not be confirmed on the ROC's own site because that host refused.
What people get wrong
roc.az.gov sits behind a Cloudflare bot check that refused both plain fetches (HTTP 403) and the built-in browser (interstitial never cleared), so every figure here comes from the Arizona Revised Statutes on azleg.gov and no actual published fee or exam-vendor figure could be read. The statutory fee numbers are ceilings the Registrar may not exceed, not the amounts charged, which is why application_fee_usd and initial_license_fee_usd are null. Arizona splits licences three ways - commercial, residential, dual - and the bond and fee both depend on which, so there is no single Arizona figure.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need a contractor licence in Arizona?
- Yes. Arizona issues a state general contractor licence — General commercial, general residential or general dual licensed contractor (e.g. B General Commercial Contractor, B-1 General Residential Contractor) — through the Arizona Registrar of Contractors. roc.az.gov sits behind a Cloudflare bot check that refused both plain fetches (HTTP 403) and the built-in browser (interstitial never cleared), so every figure here comes from the Arizona Revised Statutes on azleg.gov and no actual published fee or exam-vendor figure could be read. The statutory fee numbers are ceilings the Registrar may not exceed, not the amounts charged, which is why application_fee_usd and initial_license_fee_usd are null. Arizona splits licences three ways - commercial, residential, dual - and the bond and fee both depend on which, so there is no single Arizona figure.
- How much is the Arizona contractor licence bond?
- Arizona requires a licence bond but the amount is not a single figure. No flat figure: the Registrar fixes the bond within a statutory schedule keyed to the applicant's estimated annual volume of construction work. General commercial: $5,000 under $150,000 of volume; $5,000-$15,000 for $150,000-$500,000; $10,000-$25,000 for $500,000-$1,000,000; $15,000-$50,000 for $1,000,000-$5,000,000; $35,000-$75,000 for $5,000,000-$10,000,000; $50,000-$100,000 at $10,000,000 or more. General residential: not more than $15,000 and not less than $5,000. Specialty commercial runs $2,500 to $50,000 on the same volume bands; specialty residential $1,000-$7,500. Residential and dual licensees must additionally either post a $200,000 consumer-damages bond or join the residential contractors' recovery fund and pay an assessment of not more than $600 per biennial period. A cash deposit may replace any of these bonds.
- How much continuing education does Arizona require?
- No verified rule. A.R.S. tit. 32, ch. 10 imposes no continuing education requirement, and the Registrar's own renewal pages could not be read because roc.az.gov refused, so this is left null rather than asserted as zero.
- Does Arizona accept the NASCLA exam?
- Yes. NASCLA lists the Arizona Registrar of Contractors among the agencies that accept the NASCLA Accredited Examination for Commercial General Building Contractors. What it substitutes for could not be confirmed on the ROC's own site because that host refused.
Sources
“If the estimated annual volume of construction work of the applicant is $10,000,000 or more, the applicant must furnish a surety bond or cash deposit of not less than $50,000 or more than $100,000. ... General residential contractors and subclassifications of general residential contractors shall furnish a surety bond or cash deposit in an amount of not more than $15,000 and not less than $5,000.”
https://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/01152.htm“Dual licensed contractors and residential contractors shall also either: 1. Furnish an additional surety bond or cash deposit in the amount of $200,000 solely for actual damages suffered by claimants as described in section 32-1132. 2. Participate in the residential contractors' recovery fund and pay the assessment prescribed by section 32-1126, subsection G.”
https://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/01152.htm“Have a minimum of four years' practical or management trade experience, at least two of which must have been within the last ten years, dealing specifically with the type of construction, or its equivalent, for which the applicant is applying for a license.”
https://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/01122.htm“An attestation that the applicant has complied with the statutes and rules governing workers' compensation insurance. If the applicant is required by law to secure workers' compensation insurance pursuant to title 23, chapter 6, the attestation must contain the workers' compensation insurance policy number or be accompanied by proof of self-insurance.”
https://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/01122.htm“Application and license fees for an original biennial license: (a) For general residential contracting and subclassifications of general residential contracting, not more than $500. (b) For general commercial contracting and subclassifications of general commercial contracting, not more than $1,500.”
https://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/01126.htm“All states listed below will accept the NASCLA Accredited Examination For Commercial General Building Contractors. ... Arizona Registrar of Contractors”
https://www.nascla.org/nascla-commercial-exam-participating-state-agencies
Then there is the exam
Practise Arizona exam questions free, with explanations that cite the reference book and section.