To check a Virginia contractor, search the business name or license number in DPOR License Lookup and confirm three things: the license is current, its class (A, B or C) reaches your contract price, and its specialty covers the work, such as HIC for home improvement. Under Code of Virginia § 54.1-1100, any job over $1,000 needs a contractor license, and a Class C license stops below $30,000 per job.
In the Board for Contractors regulant lists dated October 20, 2026, 54,029 contractor licenses were current: 63.6% Class A, 15.5% Class B and 20.9% Class C. So about one licensed firm in five can only take jobs under $30,000, and 2,916 licenses (5.4%) expire within 60 days.
At a glance: what each Virginia license class allows and what the October 20, 2026 lists showed.
| Item | Class A | Class B | Class C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single contract or project | $150,000 or more | $30,000 to under $150,000 | Over $1,000, under $30,000 |
| Total work in any 12 months | $1 million or more | $250,000 to under $1 million | Under $250,000 |
| Current licenses | 34,371 (63.6%) | 8,372 (15.5%) | 11,286 (20.9%) |
| Holding HIC or RBC (home work) | 62.3% | 53.7% | 52.7% |
| Expiring within 60 days | 5.1% | 6.3% | 5.6% |
| License date in the past 12 months | 4.9% | 2.7% | 5.9% |
| Mailing address outside Virginia | 25.5% | 12.1% | 7.5% |
How to look up a Virginia contractor license in DPOR
- Open DPOR License Lookup and search by license number or business name. Contractor numbers start with 2705 (or 2701 for some older Class A licenses), followed by six digits.
- Match the name on the record to the business name on your contract. The license belongs to the business, so a salesperson’s personal name may not appear.
- Read the class and compare it with your total contract price, change orders included.
- Read the specialty codes and match them to the job (next section).
- Check the expiration date against your project end date. Licenses run two years.
- If anything on the record doesn’t match, call the Board’s licensing section at (804) 367-8511, as listed on the Board for Contractors page.
Which Virginia specialty codes cover work on a house
The class sets the dollar size of the job. The specialty, defined in 18VAC50-22-30, sets the type of work. Counts are current licenses carrying each code on October 20, 2026.
- HIC – home improvement contracting (11,852 licenses): repairs and improvements to houses and townhouses and structures attached to them, excluding electrical, plumbing, HVAC and gas fitting.
- RBC – residential building contracting (22,267): building houses; the regulation says RBC also covers home improvement work.
- ELE, PLB, HVA, GFC – electrical (7,128), plumbing (4,385), HVAC (4,781), gas fitting: the trade work HIC leaves out. The workers also need individual tradesman licenses; DPOR’s tradesman list held 30,340 of them, including 11,982 master electrician and 6,005 master plumber licenses.
- ROC – roofing (1,670), PTC – painting, CEM – concrete, BRK – masonry, LSC – landscape: single-trade specialties.
The mix differs by class. HIC appears on 41.3% of Class C licenses, against 14.6% of Class A licenses (including the older 2701 list), where residential and commercial building codes dominate. A roofer holding only ROC is licensed for the roof, and the deck added to the same contract needs HIC or RBC.
What 54,029 current DPOR contractor licenses show
The regulant lists are free tab-delimited files that DPOR updates about weekly. They hold the license number, business name, mailing address, class, specialty codes and license and expiration dates. They include only current licenses: every expiration date on the October 20 lists falls on or after October 31, 2026.
- Expiring soon: 996 licenses (1.8%) expire within 30 days and 2,916 (5.4%) within 60. A contractor missing from a later list has let the license lapse or changed its record, and License Lookup shows which.
- Class A dominates: 34,371 of 54,029. Class B is the smallest group at 8,372.
- Out-of-state firms: 10,609 licenses (19.6%) use a mailing address outside Virginia, led by Maryland and North Carolina. The share is 25.5% for Class A and 7.5% for Class C.
- New firms: 2,569 licenses (4.8%) carry a license date in the past 12 months. Half of Class B licenses date back 19.1 years or more, and half of Class C licenses 15.1 years.
- Where they are: Virginia Beach (2,229), Richmond (1,671) and Chesapeake (1,294) are the most common mailing cities.
If a Virginia contractor takes your money and stops
The Board can discipline a license but can’t order a refund, according to DPOR’s consumer information statement. The money route is the Contractor Transaction Recovery Fund:
- You first need a Virginia court judgment against a licensed contractor for improper or dishonest conduct, such as fraud or taking money for work never done. A plain breach of contract does not qualify.
- The contractor must have been licensed when the conduct happened, and the contract must be for your Virginia residence.
- A single claim is limited to $30,000, including any bond payment, and claims against one contractor to $100,000 per two-year period (§ 54.1-1123).
- DPOR’s adjudication section answers eligibility questions at (804) 367-1559.
The same statement suggests a down payment of about 10% of the contract, or about 30% when the job needs custom-made items, and says the license number should appear in the contract.
Checklist before you sign with a Virginia contractor
- License current in DPOR License Lookup, under the business name on your contract.
- License number written in the contract.
- Class that covers the full price: Class C under $30,000, Class B under $150,000, Class A above that.
- Specialty that covers the work: HIC or RBC for remodeling, plus ELE, PLB, HVA or GFC for trade work.
- Expiration date after your project ends.
- Down payment near 10%, more only for custom-made items.
- Building permit pulled with your city or county before work starts.
For the permit side in Hampton Roads, see our Virginia Beach building permit search, Norfolk permit search and Virginia Beach unpermitted construction complaints; for Richmond, our Richmond permit history guide. Other states are in our contractor license lookup guide.
Counts are our calculations from DPOR’s Board for Contractors regulant lists (2701, 2705 A, B and C, and 2710 tradesmen), dated October 20, 2026 and downloaded October 25, 2026. DPOR pages and the Code of Virginia checked October 25, 2026.