Does Illinois license general contractors?

What Illinois does license

These are the construction credentials the State of Illinois actually issues. Doing this work without them is unlawful anywhere in the state, whatever the local rules say.

What it does not

The State of Illinois issues no licence for any of these:

• General contracting
• Home repair and remodelling
• Electrical work
• HVAC
• Carpentry
• Masonry and concrete
• Excavation
• Drywall
• Painting
• Landscaping

City rules, which is where it actually bites

Illinois leaves general contracting to the municipality, and the range between them is as wide as anywhere in the country. Three cities, four credentials between them, and one rule that applies everywhere.

What to check instead

With no general contractor licence to verify, these are the checks that actually tell you something in Illinois. Several of them are rights the statute already gives you.

1. If any part of the job is a roof, check IDFPR firstThe roofing licence is the one real, free, meaningful check Illinois gives a homeowner, and the lookup updates daily. Read three things beyond active or not: whether the licence is limited (residential, eight units or fewer) or unlimited, whether the person quoting you is the qualifying party or a salesperson, and the discipline record. The state's open licence file carries an “ever disciplined” flag with the case number, the action taken and the reason -- and a meaningful number of active roofing licences carry it.
2. Check the advertisement, not just the licenceIllinois requires a roofing contractor's licence number and licensed name on every contract, bid and advertisement, and on commercial vehicles. Plumbing advertisements must carry the plumbing licence number. A roofing or plumbing advert in Illinois with no licence number on it is not a grey area -- it is a specific statutory violation, and it tells you what you need to know before you call.
3. Ask the village hall what applies here, then ask whether they check itThe Attorney General tells homeowners to contact the local village hall or township, and that is the right advice because the answer genuinely changes at the municipal boundary. Ask the second question too. Some Illinois municipalities verify insurance at registration and check it again at renewal; others collect a certificate and file it.
4. Insist on the pamphlet -- and read what you sign about arbitrationFor any contract over $1,000 the contractor must give you the “Home Repair: Know Your Consumer Rights” pamphlet and you both sign an acknowledgment form. Separately, if the contract contains a binding arbitration clause or a jury trial waiver, the contractor must point them out before the contract is executed, and you must write “accept” or “reject” and sign in the margin beside each one. If that was not done, the clause is null and void. A contractor who skips the pamphlet is usually skipping the rest as well.
5. Verify the insurance the statute already requiresThis is the Illinois fact almost nobody knows. Section 25 of the Home Repair and Remodeling Act requires anyone in the business of home repair and remodelling to carry public liability and property damage insurance of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence for bodily injury, and $50,000 per occurrence for property damage -- plus $10,000 per occurrence for home repair that does not conform to state, county or municipal codes. No licence needed, no city ordinance needed; it applies statewide. Contractors with a net worth over $1 million may rely on that instead. Ask for the certificate and confirm it with the carrier.
6. Confirm workers' compensation with the CommissionIllinois requires workers' compensation for almost everyone hired or injured here, and the Workers' Compensation Commission runs a free employer coverage search built on the NCCI database plus employers approved to self-insure. It does not include employers in self-insurance pools, so a blank result is a question to ask rather than an answer.
7. Demand the sworn statement before you pay anythingSee the lien section below. In Illinois this is not merely prudent -- it is the specific mechanism the statute hands you, and skipping it is what turns your payments into money the law does not treat as rightfully paid.

The Illinois lien risk turns on one document you have to ask for

Under the Illinois Mechanics Lien Act an unpaid subcontractor or supplier can lien your home even after you have paid the general contractor in full. Illinois hands you a defence, but it is procedural rather than automatic. Section 5 makes it the duty of the contractor to give you, and your duty to require of the contractor, a written statement under oath listing the names and addresses of everyone furnishing labour, services or materials and the amounts due or to become due to each -- before you pay anything.

• For an owner-occupied single-family residence the contractor must also give you, in at least ten-point bold face, a notice stating that the law requires a sworn statement of persons furnishing labour and materials before any payments are required to be made.
• A subcontractor working on an existing owner-occupied single-family residence must notify the occupant within sixty days of first furnishing labour or materials, with a prescribed bold-face NOTICE TO OWNER warning. A later notice still preserves the lien, but only so far as you have not already been prejudiced by payments made before it arrived.
• Section 32 is the sharp edge. Payments to the contractor are not regarded as rightfully made, as against a subcontractor, if the owner made them without exercising and enforcing the rights in Sections 5, 21 and 22. The sworn statement is not a formality.
• Section 21(d) caps you at the original contract price -- you cannot be compelled to pay more for the completion of the work than the sum stipulated in the contract, unless you paid the contractor in violation of those same rights.
• The clocks: a subcontractor must serve its notice within ninety days of completing its work; a contractor must file its claim for lien within four months as against other creditors and purchasers, and within two years as against you.
• If a lien is already on your title, Section 34 lets you serve a written demand that suit be commenced within thirty days or the lien is forfeited -- and the demand must itself carry that warning in ten-point bold face.

Illinois has no right-to-repair statute -- but one letter changes your position

Nothing in Illinois law requires you to give a contractor notice and a chance to cure before suing, the way Texas does. There is something better placed, though, in the criminal Home Repair Fraud Act. Where a contractor has taken your money and delivered no performance or no substantial performance, the Act creates a rebuttable presumption that they promised performance they never intended to give -- if they fail or refuse to return your payments and fail to acknowledge or respond to a written demand for commencement or completion of the work within ten days after that demand is mailed or presented to them. Send that letter, send it certified, and keep the receipt. Home repair fraud is a felony above $1,000, and an aggravated felony where the victim is an elderly person or a person with a disability -- in which case any state or local home repair licence the offender holds may be suspended or revoked.

How to verify what can be verified

What you can actually check in Illinois, and what each one proves.

Three things people get wrong

Reviewed August 2026. Licensing rules change — The Roofing Industry Licensing Act now sunsets on 1 January 2031, so the General Assembly session before that is the next real review point; Chicago reset its Class C and D insurance minimums on 1 January 2026 and re-sets its fee schedule every calendar year. This page is general information for homeowners, not legal advice, and 9Builders is not a law firm. Verify anything that matters to your project against the official sources linked above, or with an attorney. 9Builders builds in the California Bay Area and is not an Illinois contractor.