What Are Indiana's Contractor Licensing Rules?

Is a contractor license required in Indiana?

Only for plumbing. Indiana has no statewide general contractor license, no statewide home improvement contractor license or registration, and no statewide electrical or HVAC contractor license. The Home Improvement Contracts Act looks like it might fill that gap, but it's a consumer-protection law governing what has to be in a residential improvement contract — written terms, pricing, a signed copy delivered to the homeowner — not a licensing requirement for who's allowed to do the work. Plumbing stands apart: acting as a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber without an Indiana license is directly prohibited by statute. Cities and counties are free to layer their own contractor registration on top of any of this — Indianapolis, for example, separately licenses general, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing contractors working within the city — but that's local regulation, not a state requirement.

Which agency regulates it?

The Indiana Plumbing Commission, operating under the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (PLA), issues apprentice plumber, journeyman plumber, plumbing contractor, and temporary plumbing contractor licenses. There's no equivalent state board for electrical, HVAC, or general contracting, because Indiana doesn't license those trades at the state level at all. Separately, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security regulates elevator mechanics and contractors, boilers and pressure vessels, and amusement rides — real state licensing programs, but for entirely different equipment and safety systems, not general construction contracting.

Where can you find the actual laws?

Plumbing licensing is Indiana Code 25-28.5-1 — the prohibition on unlicensed contracting is § 11, exam qualifications and the reciprocity-eligibility conditions for out-of-state applicants are § 12, corporate and partnership licensing is § 13, the separate automatic-reciprocity mechanism is § 19, and criminal violations are § 31. The implementing rules are in 860 IAC 1-1, including § 7 on a corporation's designated officer or employee and § 8 on temporary licenses, plus 860 IAC 1-5-5 on a contractor's responsibility for its own employees and subcontractors. The Home Improvement Contracts Act is a separate statute, Indiana Code 24-5-11. The Indiana Plumbing Commission publishes its own current licensing instructions directly.

What does it take to get licensed?

An individual plumbing contractor license requires being at least 18 and showing four years of qualifying experience — through a commission-approved apprenticeship, through documented plumbing work under a licensed contractor's direction, or through another statutory exemption — before the commission will approve the applicant to sit for the licensing exam. The application fee is $50, and the license renews every two years. A corporation needs its own, separate plumbing contractor license, and it can't get one unless at least one of its officers or employees already holds an individual Indiana plumbing contractor license and is named on the corporate application. Partnerships work differently: a partner who actually performs plumbing contracting generally has to be individually licensed themselves, rather than relying on one licensed partner to cover the whole firm. There's no statewide bonding or liability insurance minimum currently in force for a plumbing license — Indiana's old statewide bonding rule has been repealed, so any bond or insurance requirement that still applies would come from a city or county instead.

What are the penalties for operating without a license?

Criminal, under Indiana's standard misdemeanor framework. Acting as, or advertising as, a plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber without holding the required license — or continuing to do so after a license has been suspended or revoked — is a Class A misdemeanor, carrying up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Continuing to work after simply letting a license lapse without renewing is treated less severely, as a Class B misdemeanor, carrying up to 180 days and a $1,000 fine. The commission can also pursue administrative discipline against a licensee separately, including for letting unlicensed employees perform plumbing work. There's no plumbing-specific consumer recovery fund. None of this applies to the other trades, since there's no state license to operate without in the first place — general contracting, electrical, and HVAC violations, if any, would run through whatever a city or county has chosen to enact on its own.

Does Indiana have reciprocity with other states?

On paper, yes — in practice, not currently with anyone. The statute itself sets up a real without-examination path: an out-of-state plumbing contractor or journeyman plumber can get an Indiana license without testing if they're at least 18, currently hold the equivalent license elsewhere, that other state's requirements were substantially equal to Indiana's at the time they were licensed, and — this is the condition that actually controls — that state extends the same recognition back to Indiana license holders. The Indiana Plumbing Commission's own current guidance states plainly that reciprocity isn't available for journeyman or contractor plumbers, which means no other state currently meets that mutual-recognition condition as far as the commission is concerned. An out-of-state applicant still has to apply, get the commission's approval to sit for the exam, and pass it like anyone else. Electrical, HVAC, and general contracting have no state-level reciprocity question at all, since there's no statewide license for any other state's credential to reciprocate with.

Is it legal to rent or lease a license in Indiana?

For plumbing, Indiana builds a real, individually accountable relationship into the corporate licensing process itself. A corporation can't get its own plumbing contractor license without naming an officer or employee who already holds an individual Indiana plumbing contractor license — and that person doesn't need to own any part of the business, employment is enough. What they take on in exchange is real: that named individual is personally responsible to the commission for how the corporate license is used, and that responsibility doesn't end just because they resign or get removed — it continues until the corporation actually notifies the commission in writing, which it has to do within 30 days of the change, along with naming any replacement. Separately, a plumbing contractor is barred from letting an unlicensed employee or subcontractor act as though they were a licensed plumbing contractor or journeyman. What the statute and rules don't address, one way or the other, is whether the same individual can be named on more than one corporation's license at the same time — that's genuinely unresolved rather than clearly allowed or clearly barred. What is clear is that a bare arrangement where someone is paid only to attach their name to a corporate license, with no real employment or officer relationship and no actual responsibility behind it, isn't what the statute describes or permits.

How do you find a qualifier or a business in Indiana?

findQualifier.com is a public, searchable board of licensed professionals advertising their availability to work as a qualifier, by state and trade. Browse available qualifiers in Indiana, browse Indiana businesses looking to hire, or post a listing.