STATE LICENSE
ConditionalTennessee Board for Licensing Contractors…
Landscaping is a named subcategory of building construction (BC-29), with Irrigation (BC-33) beside it. Neither needs a trade exam, but contracting directly with an owner on a project of $25,000 or more requires a contractor license: Business & Law exam, a financial statement or bond, and insurance. Landscapers working as subcontractors to a licensed contractor need no license; the Board names landscaping among the trades exempt in that position.
Below $25,000, the Home Improvement program defines home improvement to include landscaping and fences, so residential jobs from $3,000 to $24,999 in Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford and Shelby counties need the state Home Improvement license. The rule that applies at any size is pesticides. Applying herbicides, insecticides or fungicides to lawns and landscapes for hire is custom application: you need a TDA charter, a licensee in Horticulture — Lawn and Turf (HLT), and C03-certified applicators.
The state sets the license floor; the county or city permit office controls filing, inspections, and local rules wherever the job site sits.
Locally, the verified requirement is a business tax license for each city or county where you work. Structures such as walls or drainage are permitted under local code, and pesticide credentials come from TDA. Tennessee licenses contractors at the state level; the local desk issues the permit and does the inspecting. Every contractor also needs a business tax license for each city or county where it operates. All four big metros sit inside Home Improvement counties: Davidson (Metro Nashville), Shelby (Memphis), Knox (Knoxville) and Hamilton (Chattanooga). Residential remodeling from $3,000 to $24,999 there needs the state Home Improvement license, whether or not the job needs a permit. Memphis & Shelby County Construction Code Enforcement makes every state-licensed general contractor register its license before pulling a permit. The registration costs $50 and needs a Board-issued Qualifying Agent affidavit and a Memphis & Shelby County business license. Knoxville ties every permit applicant to a registration type: state contractor, homeowner, or unlicensed/state limited license. Where a city or county does not enforce its own building code, one- and two-family dwellings fall under the State Fire Marshal's residential permit program, which uses the 2018 IRC and state-contracted inspectors.
The local offices section below names the exact permit desk for every Tennessee county on file.
Each row names the issuing authority, cost, timeline, citation, and status behind the requirement — verified against the official source.
Published fees from the issuing authorities, as of October 2026. Local permit fees vary by project and jurisdiction — the basis is stated where a flat number does not exist.
Mowing, planting and hardscape under $25,000, outside the nine counties or under $3,000, with no pesticides, needs no state license.
TDA says charter requirements don't vary with volume. Subcontract the spraying to a chartered firm or don't offer it.
As a sub to a licensed contractor you're exempt from the contractor license. Bid to a homeowner acting as their own GC and you're the prime.
A practical sequence for a new landscaping contractor in Tennessee. Actual agency processing times are noted in the ledger above.
Each item names the issuing authority, cycle, and citation.
Statutory consequences with their citations — not estimates, not “commonly cited” guesses.
Custom pesticide application without a TDA charter is a criminal offense.
Anyone who engages or offers to engage in contracting without a valid license, or outside its classification or monetary limit, may not be awarded the contract or take part in any re-bid of the project. The Board's licensing instructions add that the offender's own license application may be denied or held for up to six months.
The Board may assess $50–$5,000 for violations of T.C.A. § 62-6-120(d) and for unlawful bidding, and $50–$1,000 for other violations of the contractor law. Each day of continued violation counts as a separate violation.
Inside city limits, the city office listed here issues the permit; the county office serves unincorporated areas. Every office links to its official page.
Every fact in this file was checked against these official sources on October 2026.
Pending verification: Prov's per-exam fee for the Business & Law and trade exams from July 1, 2026 is not published on tn.gov (PSI charged $57 per exam per the Board's Rev. 02/25 application package) · The full text of T.C.A. § 62-6-103/§ 62-6-120 could not be fetched from an official host (the tn.gov statute mirror pages have been removed; the official code is behind LexisNexis). Any statutory cap on what an unlicensed contractor may recover in court, and the criminal grade of unlicensed contracting, are therefore not asserted here · Whether the Home Improvement license carries an exam requirement (none is listed on the Board's HI page or Feb. 2026 webinar) and its exact term · The C03 recertification CEU count is in a rule table whose layout did not extract cleanly, so it is not stated
General information, not legal advice. Always confirm requirements, deadlines, and forms with the issuing authority before filing or contracting.
Store licenses, permits, policies, and renewal dates in one place.