Check a contractor in two minutes
The Division of Consumer Affairs runs one lookup for every profession it regulates. Home improvement contractors are listed as businesses, not people, so start on the business side.
- Open the Business Search. Go to newjersey.mylicense.com/verification and choose the facility or business search. The person search is for electricians, plumbers and other licensed trades (more on those below).
- Pick the profession. Choose Home Improvement Contractor from the profession list. Leave the license type blank unless you are told otherwise.
- Search the name or the number. Type the business name the way it appears on the estimate, or the 13VH number itself. A partial name works; two characters is the minimum. If the name on the estimate is not the name that comes up, ask why before you go on.
- Read the result. Three things matter: the status should say Active, the expiration date should be ahead of your job (registration is renewed every year, and the Division's contractor page gave March 31, 2026 as the current expiration date), and the address should match the one on the paperwork.
- Match the number to the paperwork. The 13VH number on the result must be the one printed on the estimate and the contract. A contractor using someone else's number is the oldest trick in this trade.
What the lookup does not tell you
A registration means the business filed the paperwork, carries the insurance and bond the state asks for, and disclosed its owners and any disqualifying convictions. It says nothing about the quality of the work, how many jobs the company has finished, or whether anyone has complained. For those, ask for the insurance certificate, a written contract (the law requires one, below) and recent jobs you can go and see. Our finished projects are listed with photos.
Which trades hold a real license
The registration law exempts people who are already licensed by the State in their own profession and are working inside it (N.J.S.A. 56:8-140). Those trades are checked on the same site, under Person Search, with their own board:
- Electrical contractors: Board of Examiners of Electrical Contractors. The business permit number goes on the permit application for any new circuit, panel or service.
- Master plumbers: State Board of Examiners of Master Plumbers. Moving a sink, a gas line or a drain is their permit.
- HVACR contractors: State Board of Examiners of Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Contractors.
- Architects and professional engineers: their own boards. When an addition needs sealed drawings, this is who seals them.
- New home builders: registered with the Department of Community Affairs under the New Home Warranty program, not with Consumer Affairs, but only for building a new house.
A general contractor like us holds the 13VH registration and brings in licensed electricians and plumbers for their parts of a kitchen, bathroom or basement. Each of them pulls their own permit under their own license. Ask who they are; you can look them up too.
What the law puts on your contract
Any home improvement over $500 has to be in writing, signed by both sides, and so does every change to it (N.J.S.A. 56:8-151, N.J.A.C. 13:45A-16.2). Between the statute and the regulation, the contract must state:
- The contractor's legal name, business address and registration number, and the name and address of whoever sold or negotiated the job.
- A description of the work and the principal products and materials: make, model, size, grade or quantity where it applies. If a brand was promised, it goes in writing.
- The total price, including any finance charges. On a time-and-materials job, the hourly rate and everything else that moves the price.
- The dates, or the period, within which the work starts and finishes.
- Any warranty or guarantee on products, materials, labor or services.
- A copy of the contractor's commercial general liability insurance certificate and the phone number of the insurer.
- The cancellation notice, in at least 10-point bold type: you may cancel for any reason before midnight of the third business day after you receive a copy, and your money comes back within 30 days.
- The Division of Consumer Affairs toll-free number, 1-888-656-6225, in bold capitals on every invoice, contract and letter (N.J.A.C. 13:45A-17.11(f)).
Where the 13VH number has to appear
State regulation (N.J.A.C. 13:45A-17.11) requires the registration number on every advertisement, business document, contract and letter to a customer, and the certificate itself displayed at the contractor's place of business. Work vehicles have to carry the company name and “HIC reg. #” plus the number on both sides, in letters at least an inch high. If the number is missing from the estimate, that alone is a reason to look the company up before you go further.
What stands behind the number
Registration is annual. To get, renew or reinstate one, the Division told every contractor in its notice on the 2024 law that three things are now checked (Division of Consumer Affairs notice):
- Commercial general liability insurance of at least $500,000 per occurrence ($1,000,000 for home elevation contractors). This was already the rule.
- Workers' compensation insurance, unless the business is exempt under the workers' compensation law. New in 2024.
- A compliance bond, letter of credit or other security, sized to the contracts the business takes on. New in 2024, under N.J.S.A. 56:8-142:
| Minimum bond | For a single contract | Or contracts in the last 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | under $10,000 | under $150,000 |
| $25,000 | $10,000 to $120,000 | $150,000 to $750,000 |
| $50,000 | over $120,000 | $750,000 or more |
A 400-square-foot addition (about $160,000 at our published rate) puts a contractor in the top tier on its own. A $15,000 basement or a $12,000 bathroom sits in the middle one. You can ask any contractor which tier they are bonded at and who issued the bond.
The 2024 licensing law, and where it stands
On January 8, 2024 the Governor signed P.L.2023, c.237. It did three things: renamed and tightened the registration law (the Contractors' Business Registration Act, which added the workers' compensation and bond rules above), created the Home Improvement and Home Elevation Contractor Licensing Act for individual contractors, and set up a nine-member State Board of Home Improvement and Home Elevation Contractors inside the Division of Consumer Affairs.
The timing is written into the act itself:
- The registration changes took effect immediately. The Division's notice to contractors says the insurance, workers' compensation and bond requirements apply to every registration, renewal and reinstatement now.
- Education and the board's other machinery (sections 7, 8 and 14 through 20) became effective on the first day of the 25th month after enactment, which is February 1, 2026.
- The license requirement itself (section 9: no individual may perform home improvement services unless licensed by the board) “shall remain inoperative until the first day of the sixth month next following the promulgation by the board of the rules and regulations” (section 5b). Until the board adopts rules and six months pass, there is no individual license to check.
- Contractors registered five years or more on the act's effective date are licensed on application without the exam, when their registration comes up for renewal (section 12).
- Exempt from the license: licensed electricians, plumbers, architects and engineers working inside their profession; new home builders on new homes; anyone earning at most $1,500 per contract and $25,000 a year from home improvement work.
Checked October 12, 2026: the Division's contractor pages still describe registration, and we found no adopted board rules and no individual license to look up. So the 13VH business registration is still the thing to check. When the board's rules are adopted, the six-month clock starts and we will update this page with the date.
Red flags, and what to do about them
- No 13VH number on the estimate, the card or the truck. Registered contractors are required to show it everywhere.
- The lookup says Expired, Suspended or Not Found, or the name on the result is not the name on the paper.
- The address on the estimate is a P.O. box or does not match the state's record.
- No written contract offered for a job over $500, or a contract with no start and finish dates.
- No insurance certificate in the contract, or a certificate the insurer cannot confirm when you call the number on it.
- A request to sign a certificate of completion, or to make the final payment, before the work is finished. N.J.A.C. 13:45A-16.2(a)6.v makes that an unlawful practice.
If a contractor is not registered, do not sign and do not pay. Working as a home improvement contractor without registering violates the Contractors' Business Registration Act, and the act makes some violations a crime of the fourth degree. The Division's Home Improvement Contractors unit lists (973) 424-8150 on its contractor page, and the toll-free 1-888-656-6225 is the number every registered contractor must print on its paperwork.
In Essex County: the registration is state, the permit is local
Registration is a state matter and the lookup is the same whether you live in Bloomfield, Montclair, Glen Ridge or Nutley. The permit is not. Each municipality's construction official issues the permit for a deck, a basement, an addition or any new electrical or plumbing, and the permit application names the registered business doing the work and the licensed trades doing theirs. Our Bloomfield page walks through that town's zoning permit and construction permit in order; the full list of towns we work in covers Essex, Union and Passaic counties.
Two local habits worth keeping: ask the town's construction office whether a permit was pulled on the contractor's last job near you, and ask the contractor which code edition your plans are drawn to, since New Jersey moved to the 2024 building code on August 17, 2026.
Check us first
AB Contracting & Design LLC is registered with the Division of Consumer Affairs as 13VH11431800, at 65 Newark Ave, Unit 1, Belleville, NJ 07109. Search that number or our name on the state's lookup. On any job over $500 the law requires a written contract with that number, the start and finish dates, the price and a copy of the liability certificate, and that is the contract you get from us.
Kitchen remodeling in Essex County, with what a job includes