South Carolina Contractor License Requirements
Every figure below was read off the SC CLB 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 Contractor licence, issued in a financial group from Group One to Group Five and in one or more classifications or subclassifications
- Issued by
- South Carolina Contractor's Licensing Board, Department of Labor, Licensing and RegulationS.C. Code Ann. tit. 40, ch. 11
- Exam
- A technical examination for each classification or subclassification applied for, plus the board's business management and law requirement. Passing is 70 percent.
- Exam fee
- No verified figureS.C. Code Ann. 40-11-50, the licence-fee section, was repealed by 2014 Act No. 207 and the figures now live on the board's fee schedule at llr.sc.gov, which did not respond to any request from this network. No fee is recorded rather than carried over from a secondary source.
- Application fee
- No verified figure
- Initial licence fee
- No verified figure
- Licence bond
- Not requiredChapter 11 conditions licensure on net worth or working capital by group, not on a licence bond. No bond figure appears in the chapter.
- General liability
- Required; no verified minimumNo insurance amount is set in tit. 40 ch. 11 and the board's own site was unreachable, so nothing is recorded.
- Workers compensation
- No verified rule
- Experience
- 2 yearsTwo years of full-time employment within the previous five years, verified by affidavit from former or current employers. That is a recency test as much as a duration test — experience older than five years does not count.
- Financial requirement
- Net worth or working capital by group: Group One $20,000 net worth or $10,000 working capital (jobs to $100,000); Group Two $60,000 or $40,000 (to $400,000); Group Three $150,000 or $100,000 (to $1,000,000); Group Four $250,000 or $175,000 (to $3,000,000); Group Five $350,000 net worth or $250,000 working capital (unlimited).
- Continuing education
- No verified ruleNo continuing education requirement appears anywhere in S.C. Code Ann. tit. 40 ch. 11. The board's own CE page could not be reached, so this is recorded as unknown rather than as zero.
- Renewal
- Every 2 years
- NASCLA exam
- AcceptedBoth the South Carolina Contractors' Licensing Board and the separate South Carolina Residential Builders Commission are on NASCLA's participating-agency list. What it displaces on the South Carolina side is not stated on NASCLA's page.
What people get wrong
llr.sc.gov — the board's site, including its fee schedule page — timed out on every attempt from this network, through plain fetches and through the browser, so all four fee fields and the insurance fields are null. The statute at scstatehouse.gov did respond and carries the substantive requirements. The figure most often misstated about South Carolina is the licensing threshold: general contracting work over $10,000 needs a licence, and that is a separate number from the per-job ceilings that define Groups One through Five.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need a contractor licence in South Carolina?
- Yes. South Carolina issues a state general contractor licence — General Contractor licence, issued in a financial group from Group One to Group Five and in one or more classifications or subclassifications — through the South Carolina Contractor's Licensing Board, Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. llr.sc.gov — the board's site, including its fee schedule page — timed out on every attempt from this network, through plain fetches and through the browser, so all four fee fields and the insurance fields are null. The statute at scstatehouse.gov did respond and carries the substantive requirements. The figure most often misstated about South Carolina is the licensing threshold: general contracting work over $10,000 needs a licence, and that is a separate number from the per-job ceilings that define Groups One through Five.
- How much continuing education does South Carolina require?
- No verified rule. No continuing education requirement appears anywhere in S.C. Code Ann. tit. 40 ch. 11. The board's own CE page could not be reached, so this is recorded as unknown rather than as zero.
- Does South Carolina accept the NASCLA exam?
- Yes. Both the South Carolina Contractors' Licensing Board and the separate South Carolina Residential Builders Commission are on NASCLA's participating-agency list. What it displaces on the South Carolina side is not stated on NASCLA's page.
Sources
“No entity or individual may practice as a contractor by performing or offering to perform contracting work for which the total cost of construction is greater than ten thousand dollars for general contracting or greater than ten thousand dollars for mechanical contracting without a license issued in accordance with this chapter.”
https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t40c011.php“(5) Group Five (a) bids and jobs unlimited; (b) required net worth of three hundred fifty thousand dollars or working capital of two hundred fifty thousand dollars”
https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t40c011.php“submit proof of having attained a grade of seventy percent or better on a technical examination where required for each classification or subclassification of licensure applied for”
https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t40c011.php“submit an affidavit verifying employment from former or current employers for whom the applicant was employed full-time for at least two years within the previous five years”
https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t40c011.php“All licenses may be renewed biennially.”
https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t40c011.php“South Carolina Contractors' Licensing Board”
https://www.nascla.org/nascla-commercial-exam-participating-state-agencies
Then there is the exam
Practise South Carolina exam questions free, with explanations that cite the reference book and section.