Contractor licensing — Arizona

Arizona uses a single-agency model. The Arizona Registrar of Contractors (AZ ROC) licenses all contractors, residential, commercial, and specialty, under Arizona Revised Statutes Title 32, Chapter 10. There is no separate state journeyman or individual trade license. If you are going to contract for work in Arizona, the license is a contractor license issued by AZ ROC, held by the business entity, and tied to a qualifying party. License classifications. - B: General Commercial (commercial building work). - K-series: commercial specialty classifications (for example K-11 electrical, K-37 plumbing, K-39 air conditioning/refrigeration). - R-series: residential specialty classifications (for example R-11 electrical, R-37 plumbing, R-39 air conditioning/refrigeration). Also includes B-1 General Residential and B-2 General Small Commercial inside the residential family per AZ ROC's classification list. - CR-series: dual residential and commercial specialty classifications for contractors who want one license covering both. The classification list published by AZ ROC (link below) controls. Scope of work is tied to the specific classification code. Working outside your class is a separate violation, independent of whether you are licensed at all. Qualifying party experience. ARS 32-1122 requires the qualifying party, the individual whose experience and exam qualify the license, to document a minimum of four years of practical or management trade experience in the classification sought, with at least two of those four years in the last ten. Up to two years may be substituted with accredited technical training. The qualifying party must pass a written trade exam plus the Arizona Statutes and Rules portion, and the exam must be taken within two years of application. The registrar may waive the exam if the applicant served as qualifying party for a licensee in the same classification within the prior five years (ARS 32-1122). Bonding. ARS 32-1152 sets the license bond (a surety bond, not insurance) on tiered schedules that AZ ROC adjusts by rule. The statute sets ranges; AZ ROC publishes the current bond amount required at issuance for each classification. - Residential specialty: not less than $1,000 and not more than $7,500 (ARS 32-1152(A)(7)). - Commercial specialty: bond tiered to gross annual volume, ranging from $2,500 under $150,000 in volume up to $37,500–$50,000 for volume over $10 million (ARS 32-1152). - B General Commercial: bond tiered from $5,000 under $150,000 in volume up to $50,000–$100,000 for volume over $10 million (ARS 32-1152). - Dual-license residential work is additionally covered either by participation in the Residential Contractors' Recovery Fund or, as allowed by ARS 32-1152(C), by posting an additional surety bond or cash deposit of $200,000 in lieu of Recovery Fund participation. Confirm the exact current bond amount and Recovery Fund assessment for your classification on the AZ ROC site before you buy. Statute sets the ceiling and floor, agency rule sets the number you actually post. Unlicensed contracting. Contracting without an AZ ROC license when one is required is prohibited under Title 32, Chapter 10, and is enforced through both civil penalties and, for repeat or scale violations, criminal referral. Working outside your classification is separately actionable. AZ ROC's complaint and enforcement process is described in Article 3 of Chapter 10.