How to Verify a Washington Contractor's License

Washington's contractor records sit behind public lookups run by two agencies. This guide shows where to look and how to read what you find.

Two agencies matter. The Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) registers construction contractors and licenses plumbing and electrical contractors. The Department of Agriculture (WSDA) licenses pesticide applicators, which is where pest control lives.

Know which credential you are checking

Washington does not use one credential for every trade. The name of the credential depends on the trade, and the word matters: a contractor who says "licensed" for a trade Washington only registers is claiming something the state never issued.

• Plumbing: an L&I plumbing contractor license. The company holds it; the plumbers on the job need their own certificate. L&I's plumbing page says only L&I-certified plumbers can legally perform plumbing work on someone else's property.
• Electrical: an L&I electrical contractor license. L&I says homeowners should hire a licensed electrical contractor, and tells you to use its Verify tool to see if the contractor is properly licensed and bonded and to verify that the electrician(s) and other electrical professionals are properly certified for the work they are doing.
• HVAC: a registration, not a license. Washington has no standalone HVAC contractor license. HVAC/R work is carried as a specialty on a construction contractor registration; L&I's registration page names HVAC among the 63 specialties it regulates.
• Pest control: a WSDA license held by a person, the Pest Control Operator, not by the company. Covered in its own section below.

Look it up at L&I

The lookup is L&I's Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business tool at secure.lni.wa.gov/verify. It searches by name, by contractor or tradesperson license number, by workers' compensation account, or by Washington UBI number.

1. Ask for the number. A contractor who cannot produce a license or registration number has given you your answer already.
2. Search by the number first, so the record you read belongs to the business that bid, not to a similarly named one.
3. If you only have a name, match the address and UBI on the record to the business that handed you the bid, not just the trading name.
4. Read the record against the four checks below.

How to read the record

The record shows status, expiration, the insurance policy on file and the bond. L&I's hiring page sets out what the tool is for. Use it to verify the contractor has an active license, to ensure the contractor is bonded and insured for damages that may occur, to check that they maintain a safe job site or have corrected any violations, and to review a contractor's license history for previous lawsuits or license violations.

• Status. Active is the only status that counts. Only ACTIVE L&I records are listed on this site; suspended and expired ones never appear. L&I's own floor: when you check online, you will at least know that the contractor has posted a minimum bond and purchased liability insurance, and that their registration hasn't been suspended by L&I.
• Bond. L&I's registration page sets the contractor bond at $30,000 for general contractors and $15,000 for specialty contractors. Many bonds are continuous, written "until canceled": no expiry date does not mean a lapsed bond.
• Insurance. The registration page gives the minimum as $200,000 in public liability and $50,000 property damage, or $250,000 combined single limit. The policy on file carries effective and expiration dates; check that it is current.
• History. Lawsuits and license violations sit on the record.

Three traps in a Washington record

The effective date is not the first-licensed date. L&I's registry publishes the effective date of the current licensing period, and that date resets at renewal. It does not publish the original licensure date. Nothing on the record can confirm "twenty years in business", which is why this site makes no "licensed since" claim for any Washington listing.

A specialty registration is narrower than it sounds. L&I says general contractors can perform most types of construction work and can hire subcontractors in multiple specialties, while specialty contractors can only perform work in the specialty they are registered in and cannot hire subcontractors. A job that spreads beyond the HVAC/R specialty needs a general contractor or separately registered trades.

Electrical insurance on this site is a coverage gap, not a verdict. L&I's published insurance file covers only a small share of electrical contractor licenses, far below its near-complete coverage of plumbing and construction records. An electrical listing here with no insurer shown means the policy was not in the published file, not that the contractor is uninsured; confirm it in the Verify tool. L&I adds a warning the record cannot give you: make sure your electrical contractor has purchased the required permit(s) and obtained the required inspections for the work being done, because you could jeopardize your insurance coverage if there's fire after non-permitted/inspected electrical work.

Pest control: check the person, at WSDA

WSDA issues no company-level pest control license. It licenses commercial applicators as individuals and records the business each one works for. The number on a Washington pest control listing on this site belongs to a Pest Control Operator employed by that company, and the listing says so. When a pest company says it is licensed, ask which operator holds the license and check that person.

The lookup is WSDA's License Lists page. Choose Commercial Applicators, then sort the results by business name, by the licensee's last name, or by zip code. You can search one county, all of Washington, or anywhere a licensee lives or a business operates, and narrow to the endorsement that matters for a home: PCO (Pest Control Operator) General or PCO (Pest Control Operator) Structural. The form has an Include expired licenses? switch. Leave it on No, so an expired license cannot pass as current. The page prints a "Database updated" date, and the list is only as current as that date.

WSDA publishes no license date of any kind, so tenure cannot be checked at all; Washington pest control pages on this site are ordered by company name and say so. Because presence in the register cannot show that an employment record is current, a company is listed here only where at least one of its licensed operators also has current ground-application insurance on file.

What this site checked before you did

Every Washington plumbing, electrical and HVAC listing here is drawn from L&I's open contractor-registry data, refreshed daily by the state, and only ACTIVE records are listed. Pages are ordered by insurance policy on file with L&I, then larger contractor bond, then company name. Each listing shows the date it was last checked and its license number, and the page links to L&I's Verify tool, so you can repeat the check. Start at the Washington hub, or go straight to plumbers, electricians, HVAC contractors or pest control.