Minnesota seeks to protect all home owners by requiring a license for residential building contractors. Both general contractors who construct new homes and residential building remodelers need to get a license from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. In addition to insurance, each firm seeking a license needs to have a qualifying individual. The basic requirement for the general contractor’s qualifying individual is to pass a Minnesota residential building contractors exam. Firms should follow the application procedures of the Department of Labor and Industry to get a Minnesota general contractors license for residential construction.
Step 1:
Either qualify individually or find a qualified individual in the case of a general contracting firm in Minnesota. The basic requirement is that the individual must pass a Minnesota residential building contractor exam. This exam is administered by Pearson VUE.
Go to the “Minnesota Contractors” page on the Pearson VUE website. On this page, you need to use several links relevant to Minnesota general contractors:
b. The Minnesota Business and Law Content Outline tells you the topics tested on this part of the exam. Use content outlines as a sort of checklist when preparing for the test. Make sure you have mastered each topic that might be tested on the business and law exam for general contractors working on residential building construction.
c. The other exam content outlines may or may not be needed by you because that depends on the type of license you are seeking. The residential building contractor is the typical license and exam for general contractors. Naturally, though, some firms will want a license for residential remodeling, manufactured house installation and the other Minnesota contractor licenses. You can see the links to all Minnesota contractor exam content outlines on this same page.
Use the handbook to register and take the exam. As of 2010, the fee for each exam is $51. Double that for each license type since you have to take the business and law exam and specific trade exam. While the Minnesota general contractor exams are open-book tests, you really should be very familiar with all of the references, as you want to be able to find all of the information for answering questions in a timely fashion.
Step 2:
Meet the other requirements for a Minnesota residential general contractor. The below information summarizes the requirements for a residential building contractor:
b. Workers comp insurance unless you have no employees
c. Unemployment insurance unless you have no employees
d. Submission of an application that includes various information on the business and a fee. The fee structure is as follows and depends on the gross volume of your Minnesota general contractor firm:
Less than $1 million – $690
$1 to $5 million – $790
More than $5 million – $890
e. Get liability insurance. The total must be at least $300k per occurrence with at least $10k from that for property damage.
Visit here to get links to Minnesota general contractor applications and related forms.
Resources:
Minnesota Building Contractor License Process for Residentíal General Contractors
