Tennessee · statewide

Tennessee contractor licensing

The Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors, part of the Department of Commerce & Insurance, issues four different credentials: the Contractor license, the Home Improvement license, the Limited Licensed Electrician (LLE) license, and the Limited Licensed Plumber (LLP) license. Which one a job needs depends on the project value, the trade, and sometimes the county or city. The $25,000 Contractor threshold is not the whole system: smaller jobs can still need a Home Improvement, LLE, LLP, or local license. This page does not count Tennessee contractors and is not a ranking or Trust Score.

Page generated 2026-09-24. Contractor data downloaded from the state dashboard on 2026-09-24; the dashboard does not print an as-of date. Discipline rows keep their own action dates. The state search is the live check for current status.

Which license covers what

• Contractor license

  Required before contracting, including bidding, offering to engage, or negotiating a price, for projects of $25,000 or more when acting as a prime contractor, certain subcontractor, or construction manager/consultant. Electrical, mechanical, plumbing, HVAC, or roofing subcontractors contracting with a contractor need a license when their portion is $25,000 or more; masonry subcontractors at $100,000 or more.

  List in this hub: acquired (below) · Board rules

• Home Improvement Contractor license

  Required for residential remodeling projects from $3,000 to $24,999, only in counties that adopted the law: Bradley, Davidson, Hamilton, Haywood, Knox, Marion, Robertson, Rutherford, and Shelby.

  List in this hub: not acquired — check the state search · Board rules

• Limited Licensed Electrician (LLE)

  Required only for electricians working in a municipality that uses the Division of Fire Prevention for permits or inspections, for work under $25,000 per project. Check local requirements first. Issued to individuals.

  List in this hub: not acquired — check the state search · Board rules

• Limited Licensed Plumber (LLP)

  Required only for plumbers working in a municipality that uses the Division of Fire Prevention for permits or inspections, for work under $25,000 per project; general maintenance under $500 is exempt. Check local requirements first. Issued to individuals.

  List in this hub: not acquired — check the state search · Board rules

The Home Improvement counties describe where the law applies, not where a contractor is based. City and county governments may have their own licenses; those are not covered here.

Contractor licenses (29,096 license numbers)

From the Board's public Contractor & Qualifying Agent dashboard (Download → Crosstab). It lists Contractor licenses only — no Home Improvement, LLE, or LLP licenses. 29,096 license numbers, by status as published: Active 20,460 · Expired 6,137 · Expired-Grace 1,513 · Retired 639 · Closed 291 · Revoked 22 · Invalid 19 · Inactive 7 · Suspended 4 · App Denied 2 · Active - Temp 1 · Applicant 1. A further 1,053 rows are applications without a license number and are not counted as licenses. Each license lists classifications (for example building, electrical, mechanical, roofing, or highway work) and an aggregate monetary limit, which is the largest job the license allows — not revenue, size, or quality. 19,592 licensees list a Tennessee address and 9,482 an out-of-state address; an address is not a service area. State dashboard · Verify a license

Qualifying agents

A qualifying agent is the person who qualifies a Contractor license; one license can have several. The dashboard lists 32,941 license-to-agent links (3,194 licenses have more than one). Qualifying agents are people, not contractor businesses, and are not counted as contractors. This page does not republish their names; look them up on the state dashboard.

Board discipline (679 rows)

From the Department's monthly Disciplinary Action Reports, January 2024 through August 2026 (PARTIAL). The report lists one program for Contractors, Home Improvement, LLE, and LLP together, so a row does not say which credential was involved. 587 rows are unlicensed activity: many respondents never held a license and are not in the list above. No row prints a license number, so none is attached to a contractor record. Respondents are shown as published. Source reports

Complaints

The Board takes complaints about unlicensed activity, unfair or deceptive practices, and other violations. Complaint records are not published; only actions the Board takes appear in the discipline reports. A complaint is not discipline. File a complaint

What is not claimed

• No count of Tennessee contractors. License numbers, qualifying-agent links, and discipline rows are different things and are never added.
• No Home Improvement, LLE, or LLP list was loaded. Missing here is unknown, not zero.
• "Under $25,000 needs no license" is not true everywhere: Home Improvement, LLE, LLP, and local rules can apply.
• No record is attached to a contractor by name. No Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, or Chattanooga pages.
• No ranking, recommendation, or Trust Score.