How to Check an Electrician’s Licence

The six checks, in order

Steps 1 to 3 take about five minutes. Steps 4 to 6 are the ones people skip, and they are where the real information is.

1. 1
   Work out who issues the licence where the work will be done

   Not where the contractor is based — where the job is. In 35 jurisdictions the state licenses the individual, so you search a person. In 11 the state licenses only the contracting business, so a search for your electrician by name will correctly return nothing and you must search the company instead. In 5 there is no state licence of any kind. Our sibling study, who actually issues an electrician licence in all 50 states and DC, codes every jurisdiction on that one axis and publishes the official lookup URL for each. Two rows there correct what most articles repeat: Missouri does have a statewide electrical contractor licence that political subdivisions must recognise in lieu of a local one (RSMo §324.925), and Kansas is not going statewide in 2027 — the bill behind that claim, HB 2588, died in the 2025–26 session.

2. 2
   Search the authority’s own register, and search on the number

   Ask for the licence number in writing, then search by number first and by name second. A number that returns no record is the clearest finding you can get. Use the authority’s own .gov search rather than a directory that reprints it — directories go stale and none of them are the authority. Our licence lookup routes you to the right register for each state and discloses up front that it holds verified records in only five of them.

3. 3
   Read the class before you read anything else

   This is the field that most people never look at. Apprentice, journeyman, master and electrical contractor are four different things, and only some of them may contract with you directly or pull a permit. In Texas, work must be performed through a licensed electrical contractor even when the individual doing it holds a journeyman licence. In California there are two separate databases — a CSLB C-10 contractor licence for the business that bids and permits, and a DIR certification for the individual who lands the wire — and checking one is checking half. In Virginia, a tradesman card alone does not let someone contract. Read the classification and any monetary limit, not just the word “active”.

4. 4
   Read status, expiry and — where it is published — discipline

   Status and expiry are the easy pair: expired, inactive, suspended or revoked is a stop, not a negotiation. Discipline is where boards differ. California’s CSLB states that its lookup lets you “verify information, including complaint disclosure”; Washington L&I’s tool shows the contractor’s bond and insurance on file alongside the licence. Many boards publish nothing of the kind. Absence of a disciplinary record is not evidence of a clean history — it is usually evidence that the board does not publish one. Where the register is silent, ask the board directly; several will say by telephone what they will not put on a web page.

5. 5
   Verify the insurance with the insurer, not with the PDF

   A certificate of insurance is a summary of a policy, prepared by the contractor’s agent, on a date already past. The standard ACORD 25 form says so on its own face: “THIS CERTIFICATE IS ISSUED AS A MATTER OF INFORMATION ONLY AND CONFERS NO RIGHTS UPON THE CERTIFICATE HOLDER.” So do not accept the PDF as the check — use it as the phone book. It carries the insurer’s name and NAIC number, the policy number and the effective and expiry dates. Ask for it to be sent by the agent or carrier direct, then call the number on it and confirm the policy is in force today. The NAIC’s Consumer Insurance Search will tell you whether the insurer named is a real, licensed company. Where the state requires a contractor bond — Washington and Nevada both do — the licence record usually shows it, so step 2 has already answered that one.

6. 6
   Ask who is pulling the permit — then confirm it was pulled

   The strongest check here, because somebody else has already done the verifying. A building department checks the licence before it issues an electrical permit. A permit in the contractor’s own name is therefore a licence check performed by a public authority with power to stop the job — and it buys you an independent inspection of the finished work. Ask for the permit number once work is scheduled and confirm it with the issuing department. In the five states with no state licence this does double duty: the department that issues the permit is also the authority that licenses the contractor, so one call answers both questions.