How to Check Whether a Maryland Contractor Is Licensed

‍Search the Maryland Home Improvement Commission's free public license query, then call the Commission at 410-230-6231 to ask about complaints, because the website shows active status only. Confirm the licensed name matches your contract, which must carry the MHIC number by law. Ask Remodel Now, which remodels kitchens and baths in Baltimore County, for that number before you sign.

Start with the license lookup, before the estimate

Most homeowners call three companies, collect three proposals, and only then wonder whether any of them are legitimate. Flip that order. The license check is free, takes about two minutes, and tells you whether the rest of the conversation is worth having.

Maryland licenses home improvement contractors through the Maryland Home Improvement Commission, which sits inside the Maryland Department of Labor. The Commission runs a free public search, the Home Improvement Public Query, with five ways in. You can search by the contractor's personal last name, by trade name, by city or ZIP code, by a salesperson's last name, or by license number. The same Department of Labor system holds separate lookups for master electricians and plumbing contractors, which matters when you want to know who is running the pipe.

If a contractor hands you a license number, type the number. If they only give you a company name, search the trade name, then search the owner's last name as a cross check. Those two searches sometimes return different pictures, and the difference is the interesting part. The Commission also answers the phone at 410-230-6231 or 1-888-218-5925, and that line is a more complete source than the website.

What an MHIC license actually proves

An MHIC license is not a quality award. It is a floor, and knowing where that floor sits keeps you from reading too much into it.

To get licensed, an applicant has to pass a state exam, show at least two years of experience in home improvement work, construction, or related education, file proof of current general liability insurance, and demonstrate financial solvency scaled to the business. A contractor who cannot meet the solvency guidelines can post a surety bond or bring in an indemnitor. The license runs on a two year cycle, and the insurance has to stay in force throughout.

So a license tells you the company passed a test, proved some history, carries liability coverage, and is solvent enough that the state will let it take your deposit. It does not tell you the crew can set a shower pan, flash a window head, or pick up where a 1954 framing crew left off.

The license covers existing homes. Remodeling, additions, roofing, siding, windows, doors, decks, flooring, and painting all count as home improvement.

How to read the license record without misreading it

Here is the part almost nobody is told. The public query searches active licensees. It is a status check, not a history check, and the page itself says to contact the Commission if you need information regarding disciplinary actions against a licensee.

A clean looking result is therefore not a clean record. A contractor can show active status today and still have complaints on file. The Commission's own consumer advice tells homeowners to call and ask about complaints, the step most people skip because the website looked fine. Complaints stay part of a contractor's public record for three fiscal years, so one call covers a real window.

Then check whether the name on the license matches the name on your contract. Maryland licenses the contractor, and a license ties to a person and to the trade names registered under it. Operating under a trade name that differs from the licensed entity is legal and ordinary. What is not ordinary is the truck saying one thing, the letterhead saying another, and the license belonging to a third party who is nowhere in the conversation. That pattern usually means a borrowed license, and it is the most common way a homeowner ends up outside every protection the state offers. So: active status, a future expiration date, a name that matches your contract, and a phone call about complaints.

Subcontractors, salespeople, and who is actually on the hook

Maryland eliminated the separate subcontractor license category as of July 1, 2016. A subcontractor can legally work on your bathroom without holding an MHIC license, as long as the work is for a licensed contractor. Only a licensed contractor may contract with you.

That distinction carries weight. The tile setter, the drywall crew, and the finish carpenter do not need to appear in any lookup. Your entire legal relationship runs through one licensed company, and that company answers for the work regardless of whose hands did it. If a contractor tries to redirect a complaint toward a sub, the Commission still looks at the licensed contractor.

Salespeople are licensed separately, and one may represent up to two licensed contractors. If a salesperson sold you the job, Maryland requires that person's name and license number on the contract, and both the salesperson and the contractor have to sign it. You can search a salesperson by last name in the same public query. If someone sat at your table, quoted a number, and will not give you a license number, stop there.

What Maryland law requires to be printed on your contract

Verification now moves from a website to the paper in front of you. The Commission publishes a plain language summary of Maryland home improvement contract requirements, and a contract missing these items is not a stylistic preference. It is a violation the Commission can cite.

A home improvement contract in Maryland must be in writing and legible, must describe each document it incorporates, and must be signed by each party. It has to describe the home improvement to be performed and the materials to be used. It has to carry the contractor's name, address, telephone number, and MHIC license number, plus the name and license number of any salesperson involved. It has to state the approximate dates when work will begin and when it will be substantially completed. And you must receive a signed copy before work starts.

Every contract also has to include a notice giving the Commission's phone number and website and stating that each contractor must be licensed and that anyone may ask the Commission about a contractor. For contracts signed after August 20, 2012, that notice has to add three things: formal mediation of disputes is available through the Commission, the Commission administers a Guaranty Fund that may compensate homeowners for certain actual losses caused by licensed contractors, and you may request that your contractor purchase a performance bond for protection beyond what the Fund covers.

Two conditional requirements are easy to miss. If payment will be secured by an interest in your real estate, the first page must carry a notice in at least 10 point bold type warning that the contract creates a mortgage or lien against your property and may cause a loss of it if you fail to pay, telling you that you may consult an attorney, and giving you three business days to rescind in writing. You initial that notice independently. If the sale falls under the Maryland Door-to-Door Sales Act, the contract needs a notice that you may cancel the transaction at any time prior to midnight of the fifth business day after the date of the transaction, or midnight of the seventh business day if the buyer is at least 65 years old, plus a separate Notice of Cancellation form filled in with real instructions. That five business day cancellation right is not the three business day rescission attached to the lien notice, and the two get confused constantly.

A mandatory arbitration clause has its own rules. It has to name who will arbitrate, disclose any mandatory fees and the fee schedule, say whether the findings bind you, and disclose that a Guaranty Fund claim gets stayed until the arbitration finishes. Both parties initial and date next to it. Read that clause twice, because it changes how a dispute plays out.

The one third rule, and the payment schedule that comes after it

Maryland sets one hard limit on money. A contractor cannot accept more than one third of the contract price as a deposit, and cannot accept any payment until the contract is signed by each party.

That is the whole statutory limit. Beyond the deposit, the Home Improvement Law does not control the payment schedule. Draws, progress payments, and final retainage are negotiated between you and the contractor, and a smaller deposit is perfectly allowed if that is what you agree to. If payment will be made in monthly installments, the contract has to state the number of payments, the amount of each, and any finance charge.

Use that freedom. A sensible schedule ties each payment to something you can walk up and look at. Materials delivered and on site. Demolition done and rough plumbing passed. Tile set and grouted. Punch list cleared. A schedule built on calendar dates instead of completed work hands the contractor an incentive that has nothing to do with your house. Hold the final payment until the punch list is finished. The last three percent of a bathroom is the part everyone wants to walk away from and the part you will look at every morning.

Change orders, and the part of the job nobody can see yet

Every honest remodeling estimate has a boundary, and the boundary is the drywall. Nobody can price what is behind a wall they have not opened. What separates a professional operation from a problem is not whether surprises happen. It is whether a written process for handling them exists before the first one shows up.

Ask for that process before you sign. Who writes the change order, whether work stops until you sign it, whether it carries its own price and schedule impact, and whether verbal approval counts. The answer to the last one should be no, for your protection as much as the contractor's. A job with no change order paperwork is one where the final invoice becomes an argument.

What turns up depends on when the house was built, and in this region that spread is wide. A 1950s Cape or rancher in Parkville, Catonsville, or Woodlawn often has galvanized steel supply lines narrowed from the inside out, a cast iron waste stack with a hub joint that was never meant to be reconfigured, and plaster over wood lath that does not come off in sheets. The subfloor is likely one by six planks laid diagonally, which is strong but not flat, and tile does not forgive not flat. Framing is frequently full dimension lumber, so a two by four really measures two inches by four, and anything from a modern supply house needs shimming to match. If the bathroom sits above a finished ceiling, moving a drain means opening that ceiling, which is a second room in the project whether anyone planned for it or not.

A 2005 house in Columbia, Bowie, or Owings Mills brings different problems. The plumbing is usually fine. The framing is engineered, and that is the issue, because an I joist or a roof truss cannot be notched the way solid lumber can. A drain line crossing a floor truss has to pass through an approved opening or the design changes. Builder grade construction also tends to lack blocking behind the drywall, so grab bars, heavy mirrors, and wall hung vanities need framing added before anything gets mounted. And the original tub surround was often a one piece acrylic unit set before the walls closed up, which makes removing it a demolition question and replacing it with tile a layout question.

Older houses carry one more wrinkle. If the home was built before 1978 and the work will disturb painted surfaces, the federal Renovation, Repair and Painting rule applies. The EPA lead program requires the firm itself to be certified and a certified renovator on or supervising the project. The federal rule also requires the firm to give you the pamphlet Renovate Right before work begins, and it sets the boundary by area disturbed. Work that disrupts six square feet or less of painted surface per room indoors, or twenty square feet or less outdoors, counts as minor repair and maintenance and falls outside the requirements. Go past either figure and the full rule applies. Separate jobs in the same room inside thirty days get added together. The exemption is also narrower than those two figures make it sound. It holds only if the job avoids every work practice the rule prohibits or restricts, and it never covers window replacement or demolition of painted surface areas, however small the patch. Ask to see the firm certification. It is a separate credential from the MHIC license.

The Guaranty Fund, and the line where it stops

The Commission administers a Guaranty Fund that compensates homeowners for actual losses caused by licensed contractors. It is a useful backstop, and narrower than most people assume.

The Fund covers the cost of restoration, repair, replacement, or completion arising from an unworkmanlike, inadequate, incomplete, or abandoned home improvement. You have to be a homeowner who lives in the home or owns no more than three residences. The people who cannot claim are a spouse or immediate relative of the contractor, an employee, officer or partner of the contractor, and an immediate relative of an employee, officer or partner. The Fund is designed for homeowners.

Here is what it does not reach, per the Guaranty Fund FAQs. It does not pay consequential damages, attorney fees, or court costs. It does not pay for work outside the original contract scope. And it pays nothing at all for work performed by an unlicensed contractor. That last exclusion is why the two minute license check matters more than any other step here. Hiring unlicensed means losing the entire state safety net for that job, permanently, no matter how the work turns out.

There are limits and a clock. Recovery per homeowner is capped and can never exceed what you actually paid the contractor. The Fund also caps total payouts against any single contractor, and when claims exceed that aggregate, payouts get prorated. A claim has to be brought within three years after you discovered the loss, or should have with ordinary diligence. Smaller claims can be decided without a hearing. Larger ones go before an administrative law judge.

The process starts with a complaint, not a claim form. You file a written complaint, the contractor has thirty days to respond, and the Commission aims to finish investigating within sixty days of that response. If it does not resolve, you may become eligible to claim, and the Commission sends you the claim form to complete and return. Claim forms are not available online. Mediation is free. The complaint FAQ lists what gets investigated: unworkmanlike performance, abandonment without justification, and violations of the home improvement law.

Four protections get confused constantly. They are not interchangeable.

  • MHIC Guaranty Fund. What it is actually for: Your actual loss from a licensed contractor's bad, incomplete, or abandoned work. Capped, no consequential damages, nothing for unlicensed work.
  • Performance bond. What it is actually for: Protection beyond the Fund, which you may ask the contractor to buy. Your contract has to tell you this right exists.
  • General liability insurance. What it is actually for: Damage the contractor causes to your property or a third party during the work. Not a workmanship warranty.
  • Workers compensation. What it is actually for: Injury to the contractor's employees on your property, so an injured worker's bills do not come looking for your homeowners policy.

Insurance certificates, and why you call the carrier instead

The Commission's consumer advice says to get a copy of the contractor's current liability insurance certificate. Get it, then do the part that actually verifies it.

A certificate of insurance is a snapshot produced on a date, and a policy can lapse the week after it prints. It lists the carrier, the policy number, the limits, and the policy period. Call the carrier or the agent named on it, read them the policy number, and ask two things: is the policy in force today, and does it cover residential remodeling. You can also ask to be added as a certificate holder, so the carrier notifies you if the policy is cancelled. A contractor with real coverage will not blink at that. One who pushes back has told you something.

Workers compensation is a separate check with a separate tool. The Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission runs a free employer coverage verification, searchable by legal trading name and address, or better, by federal tax identification number. Read the disclaimer. No result does not prove there is no coverage. It may only mean your terms did not match, or that coverage is not currently reported. Treat a blank as a reason to ask, not a conclusion.

Permits are a county matter, and the permit is your second license check

Maryland does not run one statewide permit process. The state sets the code, and the counties and Baltimore City enforce it. The Maryland Building Performance Standards incorporate the 2021 International Residential Code by reference under COMAR 09.12.51.04, and each jurisdiction adopts it with local amendments and runs its own permit office. Those Standards also leave the residential code's plumbing and mechanical chapters outside their scope, so fixture clearances, shower sizes and fan ratings come from the plumbing and mechanical codes a jurisdiction adopts separately. In Baltimore County that plumbing code is Council Bill 94-23, which took up the 2021 International Plumbing Code with the county's own amendments and deletions. That is why "Maryland requires a permit" is never a complete answer, and why the governing number for a shower pan is not always in the book you expect.

In Baltimore County, permits go through the Department of Permits, Approvals and Inspections, which requires a permit for any additions, alterations or structural modifications to existing dwellings, historic districts included. All residential alterations or additions by a private contractor require the Maryland Home Improvement License number of that contractor on the application, so the county runs the same check you just ran. Electrical and plumbing work carries its own permit on top of that and has to be obtained by a licensed electrician and plumber, which is a second place the license gets looked at. The county also keeps a permit records search by property address, worth looking up on your own house before you start, because an open permit from a previous owner becomes your problem at closing time.

Baltimore City is a different authority with different paperwork. Permits run through the Department of Housing and Community Development, and DHCD's building permit requirements call for an MHIC licensed contractor on construction work for one and two family dwellings. Prince George's County covers Bowie, College Park, Greenbelt, Hyattsville, Laurel, Lanham, Adelphi, and Riverdale Park, and its Department of Permitting, Inspections and Enforcement handles residential alteration permits online, requiring a letter on company letterhead from the licensed contractor naming who may pull permits under that license. Silver Spring is unincorporated, so its permits go through Montgomery County's Department of Permitting Services. Rockville is a different case. It is an incorporated city and issues its own building, electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits through the city's Inspection Services Division, so a Rockville bathroom files with City Hall and not with the county. Howard, Anne Arundel, and Frederick counties each run their own offices, and other incorporated towns in the region do the same, so confirm which office has your address before anyone fills out a form.

Notice what those requirements share. The county is checking the MHIC license too, which makes the permit a second independent verification. That is why the Commission tells homeowners to ask to see the permit before work starts. A contractor who proposes to skip it, or who asks you to pull it in your own name, wants you to absorb the liability and give up that check at once.

Once the permit is open, the inspector looks at specific things, and they are all things a good crew wants looked at. Rough plumbing gets tested before anything closes up. A shower compartment has to give at least 900 square inches of interior cross sectional area and at least 30 inches in its minimum dimension, measured from the finished interior surfaces and carried up to 70 inches above the shower drain outlet. A toilet cannot sit closer than 15 inches from its center to a side wall, partition, or vanity, needs at least 21 inches clear in front of it, and needs 30 inches center to center from an adjacent fixture. Shower and tub walls need a nonabsorbent finish at least six feet above the floor. Where mechanical exhaust serves the bathroom, the rate is 50 cubic feet per minute intermittent or 20 continuous, ducted outside and not into an attic. Those numbers are why a layout that looks fine on a napkin sometimes cannot be built, and why a contractor who measures before promising is doing you a favor.

Red flags, and what to ask before you sign

Some warning signs are reliable enough to act on by themselves. The unsolicited knock after a storm is the oldest one in this business. Legitimate roofing and siding work here does not need to be sold on a doorstep at six in the evening. The Door-to-Door Sales Act notice and its cancellation window exist for that exact situation, and a contract missing the notice and the separate cancellation form is already in violation. The window runs to midnight of the fifth business day after the transaction, or the seventh business day if the buyer is at least 65.

A deposit demand above one third is illegal, full stop, as is any payment taken before the contract is signed. A request to pay cash, or to write the check to an individual rather than the licensed company, defeats every record you would want later. A proposal with no license number, no start and completion dates, and no description of materials is not a contract under Maryland law even if both of you sign it. Pressure tied to an expiring discount is a sales technique, not a scheduling constraint. And a contractor who says no permit is needed for work that clearly moves plumbing, alters structure, or adds square footage is either wrong or hoping you are.

The questions worth asking before you sign are short. What is your MHIC license number, and does the licensed name match the name on this contract. Who pulls the permit, and in whose name. Who is the carrier on your liability policy, and may I be listed as a certificate holder. Who is on site daily, and who do I call when something comes up. How does a change order get written and approved. What is each payment tied to, and what gets held until the punch list is signed off. If the house predates 1978, are you a lead safe certified firm.

Remodel Now remodels bathrooms and kitchens for homeowners in Baltimore, Towson, Owings Mills, and the rest of the Baltimore-Washington Metro Area, and has worked out of Woodlawn in Baltimore County since 2001. Maryland law puts the MHIC license number on the home improvement contract, so ask any bidder for that number, run it through the public query, and call the Commission about complaints before you sign. That includes this one. Questions about scope or the permit path in your jurisdiction can go to (301) 798-4696.

A licensed contractor with clean verification is no guarantee of a good job. It is a guarantee that if the job goes wrong, you still have somewhere to stand. Worth two minutes on a state website before you hand anyone a deposit.

Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check if a Maryland contractor is licensed?

Use the Maryland Home Improvement Commission's free Home Improvement Public Query on the Maryland Department of Labor site. You can search by the contractor's last name, by trade name, by city or ZIP code, by a salesperson's last name, or by license number. Confirm the status reads active with an expiration date still in the future, and confirm the licensed name or a registered trade name matches the company that will sign your contract. You can also verify by phone at 410-230-6231 or 1-888-218-5925.

Does an active MHIC license mean there are no complaints?

No. The online query searches active licensees, and the page itself directs you to contact the Commission for information about disciplinary actions. A contractor can show active status and still have complaints on file. Closed complaints are reportable to the public and stay part of a contractor's public record for three fiscal years, so calling or emailing the Commission adds a meaningful layer the website does not show.

How much deposit can a Maryland home improvement contractor legally ask for?

No more than one third of the contract price, and no payment at all may be accepted before the contract is signed by each party. Beyond that deposit, the Home Improvement Law does not control the payment schedule, so draws and progress payments are negotiated between you and the contractor. A smaller deposit is perfectly allowed if that is what you agree to.

What has to appear on a Maryland home improvement contract?

It must be in writing and legible, describe each document it incorporates, and be signed by each party. It must describe the work and the materials, carry the contractor's name, address, telephone number and MHIC license number, include any salesperson's name and license number, and state approximate start and substantial completion dates. It must also contain the Commission's phone number and website, a notice that each contractor must be licensed, and notices about mediation, the Guaranty Fund and your right to request a performance bond. You must receive a signed copy before work starts.

Does the MHIC Guaranty Fund cover work done by an unlicensed contractor?

No. The Fund pays nothing for work performed by an unlicensed contractor. It also excludes consequential damages, attorney fees, court costs, and work outside the original contract scope. Recovery is capped per homeowner and can never exceed what you actually paid the contractor, and a claim must be brought within three years of discovering the loss.

Do subcontractors in Maryland need an MHIC license?

Not since July 1, 2016, when the separate subcontractor license category was eliminated. A subcontractor may work on your home without an MHIC license as long as the work is for a licensed contractor. Only a licensed contractor may enter the contract with you, and that licensed company answers for the work regardless of who performed it.

How do I verify that a contractor's insurance is real and current?

Ask for the certificate of insurance, then call the carrier or the agent named on it, read them the policy number, and ask whether the policy is in force today and whether it covers residential remodeling. Ask to be added as a certificate holder so the carrier notifies you of a cancellation. For workers compensation, the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission runs a free online employer coverage verification, searchable by legal trading name and address or by federal tax identification number.

Who is supposed to pull the permit, and does it differ by county?

Permitting is handled by the county, by Baltimore City, or by an incorporated municipality, not by the state, so the process differs across the region. Baltimore County requires the contractor's Maryland Home Improvement License number on a residential alteration or addition application. Baltimore City DHCD requires an MHIC licensed contractor for construction work on one and two family dwellings, and Prince George's County DPIE requires a letter on company letterhead naming who may pull permits under the license. Silver Spring files with Montgomery County, while Rockville issues its own permits through the city's Inspection Services Division. In practice the contractor performing the work should pull the permit, and you should ask to see it before work starts.

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