How to Verify a Virginia Contractor's License

Virginia licenses its building trades through one board, the Board for Contractors, inside the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR). A plumber, an electrician, an HVAC contractor, a roofer, a painter and a general contractor all hold the same kind of credential: a DPOR contractor license. The one home trade that does not is pest control, licensed by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS).

Step 1: open the DPOR license lookup

The official lookup is at dpor.virginia.gov/LicenseLookup, which DPOR's consumer page describes as where you verify license status and check disciplinary history. Its help note says to enter search terms like name, license number, address, and license type. If a name returns too many firms, the Advanced License Search splits the query into License Number, Name, Location, Board and License Type.

Results come back as a table of License Number, Name, Address, License Type and Board, and the number opens the record. DPOR cannot link straight to an individual record, so no website can hand you a link to a contractor's page; you type the number yourself, which is why every Virginia listing here prints it. The form states when its data was last updated, and its disclaimer warns that the data are updated routinely but may not be up to date at all times (due to document processing delays, technical maintenance, etc.).

Step 2: read the record

A contractor record shows the License Number, Firm Type, Rank (Class A, B or C), Address, Specialties, Initial Certification Date and Expiration Date. The Board for Contractors explains that contractor licenses consist of two parts: the class of license (A, B, or C), which determines the monetary value of contracts/projects that may be performed, and the classification/specialty, which determines what type of work is allowed.

• The class letter is a project-size tier, not a grade. The letters say how large a contract the firm may take on, nothing about quality. The dollar limits are set by statute, not published in DPOR's files, so this site shows the class as published and never ranks on it.
• The specialty is the trade. A record names each specialty with its code, for example "Roofing (ROC)". One license can carry several, and only the specialty authorizes the work. Gas fitting is not plumbing. The electronic and communication service specialty (telephone wiring, computer cabling, sound and television wiring) is not electrical. The refrigeration specialty is defined to exclude HVAC work. And the recreational facilities specialty is not roofing, whatever its abbreviation resembles.
• The expiration date is the currency test. The lookup keeps lapsed licenses on file, so finding the name proves nothing. A current record shows an Expiration Date ahead of today; a lapsed one shows a past date and a Status line such as TERMINATED or REVOKED, whatever the firm says.

Step 3: run the disciplinary search separately

A current license says nothing about complaints. The lookup's third link, the Disciplinary Action Search, returns disciplinary actions occurring on or after April 1, 2002; for anything earlier it points you to DPOR's Records Management Section. Our Virginia listings come from DPOR's current-licensee files, which carry no discipline column, so only the state's search will show a past action.

Virginia traps a homeowner walks into

• Roofing by a non-roofer. Virginia also allows its general building and home-improvement classifications to perform roofing work, so a general contractor can legally roof your house without the roofing specialty. Our Virginia roofing pages list holders of the roofing specialty only: permission to roof says nothing about who actually roofs. Verify a general contractor as one.
• A license under a person's name. Many Virginia contractors are sole proprietorships licensed under a personal name. The record's Firm Type line then reads "Sole Owner/Proprietorship" and the Name is the owner, not the name on the truck. Search both.
• Numbers that start with 01-. The register runs in two series. The older one closed to new entrants in February 1992, and some of its records carry no original license date. This site shows those firms as "licensed since before 1992": membership in a closed series proves that much, and we will not print a year the state never published.
• No phone, insurance or bond in the file. DPOR's public files publish none of the three for any licensee, so a Virginia listing here shows none: a gap in the state's file, not a finding about the contractor. Ask the contractor for a certificate of insurance directly.

Pest control is checked somewhere else

VDACS, not DPOR, licenses pest control businesses. Its Office of Pesticide Services certifies pesticide applicators, registers pesticide products and licenses pesticide businesses. The pesticides page links a downloadable list, Virginia Licensed Pesticide Businesses, which VDACS describes as real-time data. Each row carries the business name, license number, category codes and expiration date. Look for a category 7 code: 7-A is general pest, 7-B termite and wood-destroying organisms, 7-C fumigation and 7-D vertebrate pest. The same license also covers lawn, turf, right-of-way and agricultural application, so this site keeps only businesses holding a category 7 code.

VDACS says all pesticide business licenses expire on March 31 of each year and must be renewed, so every business in the file shares one expiration date, and the file publishes no original license date. With nothing to rank on, our Virginia pest control pages sort by company name.

Before you sign

DPOR's consumer guide says to deal only with licensed contractors, and that licensed contractors are required by law to provide a written contract for residential work, signed by both parties. Its warning signs include a contractor who solicits door-to-door (you have a three-day right to cancel a contract negotiated in your home!).

The Board for Contractors says the Contractor Transaction Recovery Act provides relief to eligible consumers who have incurred losses through the improper and dishonest conduct of a licensed contractor. The fund page adds that a claim starts from a judgment in a Virginia court and that the contractor must have been licensed during the period in which the improper or dishonest conduct occurred. An unlicensed contractor puts you outside the fund. Complaints go to DPOR's File a Complaint page, which states that a report must be made in writing and received by the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR) within three years of the act, omission, or occurrence giving rise to the alleged violation.

How this site uses the same records

Every Virginia listing here rests on a current, unexpired DPOR contractor license carrying the trade's own specialty, or, for pest control, a VDACS pesticide business license with a category 7 code. Plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, landscaping or irrigation, painting, swimming pool, concrete, tile, marble and ceramic, flooring, masonry, asphalt paving, electronic and communication service, water well and pump and residential building or home improvement licenses are each read from the state's own specialty designation, never a look-alike. Start from the Virginia hub, and read how we verify for the full rules.