STATE LICENSE
RequiredWashington State Department of Labor & In…
Every construction contractor in Washington must register with the Department of Labor & Industries under chapter 18.27 RCW before advertising, bidding or performing work. Registration is a financial-responsibility filing, not a competency credential: L&I checks that a bond and an insurance certificate are on file under the exact business name, takes the fee, and issues a 12-digit registration number. There is no trade exam, no experience affidavit and no continuing education.
The bond doubled in 2024. Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1534 raised the general contractor bond from $12,000 to $30,000 and the specialty bond from $6,000 to $15,000 for registrations issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2024 - the first increase in 22 years. The same bill created the Homeowner Recovery Fund, which began accepting claims July 1, 2026 and pays up to $25,000 per contractor per parcel on unsatisfied judgments.
General registration is what lets you hire subcontractors; a specialty registration limits you to the one specialty you registered in and forbids subcontracting. Plumbing, electrical, elevator, boiler, asbestos and mobile-home work carry separate education, examination and licensing requirements on top of, or in place of, the registration.
The state sets the license floor; the county or city permit office controls filing, inspections, and local rules wherever the job site sits.
Registration is statewide and exclusive: under RCW 18.27.130 no Washington city or county may issue or require its own contractor registration, license or bond, only a general business license fee or a gross-receipts tax. What the local desk does instead is check you. RCW 18.27.110 forbids any city, town or county from issuing a construction building permit for work to be done by a contractor required to be registered without first verifying the registration, and requires the permit itself to carry the registration number plus a written warning to the applicant about using unregistered contractors. In practice that means Seattle SDCI, Tacoma, Spokane and King County Permitting (which covers unincorporated King County only) all pull your L&I record before issuing - a suspended registration stops the permit, not just the job.
The local offices section below names the exact permit desk for every Washington 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 September 2026. Local permit fees vary by project and jurisdiction — the basis is stated where a flat number does not exist.
2SHB 1534 raised the general bond from $12,000 to $30,000 for registrations issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2024. If your renewal date falls on or after that date, the higher bond must be on file before L&I will renew.
Unlike most states, Washington charges nothing for a general contractor trade or business exam, because there is none. The cost of entry is the bond and the insurance, not the test.
If you move from a general to a specialty registration, L&I will not let the bond amount drop for two years.
A practical sequence for a new general contracting contractor in Washington. 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.
Advertising, offering to do work, bidding or performing work while unregistered, suspended or revoked is a gross misdemeanor. Each day worked after a citation and each worksite is a separate gross misdemeanor.
The monetary penalty for an infraction for failure to register is not less than $1,200 and not more than $10,000. The director may reduce it to no lower than $600 if a first-offense respondent registers within 10 days of the notice. Collected penalties fund the homeowner recovery account.
An unregistered contractor may not bring or maintain any action in a Washington court to collect compensation or for breach of contract, and substantial compliance requires that the bond and insurance were in force at all times.
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 September 2026.
Pending verification: The exact list of all 63 L&I contractor specialties and their individual scopes was not retrieved; L&I names roofing, painting, HVAC, tree removal and mobile home set-up as examples. · Whether Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane and King County each additionally require a local business license for an out-of-city contractor doing a single job was not confirmed on those jurisdictions' own pages.
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.