New York City Building Department Update – Home Improvement Contractors Require License

In order to further protect the Health, Safety and Welfare of homeowners, on 11/15/05, the Department of Buildings issued Operations Policy & Procedure Notice 03/05 requiring home improvement contractors to possess a Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Home Improvement Contractor’s (HIC) License.

This has been established to ensure that all home improvement work is being performed
by licensed contractors. The license requirement will apply to work performed in 1, 2, 3, or 4 family dwellings, individual co-ops, condos, or rented apartments if the person hiring the contractor is the owner or tenant of the dwelling or unit. An HIC license is not required when the work is being performed by a licensed tradesperson and the work is exclusively within their craft for which they are currently licensed.

By using licensed contractors, the homeowner has a greater degree of assurance that the work being performed will be according to the best practices of the industry. If a contractor carries a license, any complaints with the Better Business Bureau will be easier to track since the contractor must use the business name that is licensed – rather than changing the name of the company often to avoid liability.

If you are performing a major improvement project, consider retaining an Architect who can not only recommend quality contractors, but will oversee the project to be sure the work is being performed according to code.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 14th, 2007 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Architecture, Residential Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “New York City Building Department Update – Home Improvement Contractors Require License”

  1. Harry Zahn Says:
    December 22, 2007 at 11:21 pm | Reply

    very informative post.

  2. Michael Says:
    April 14, 2008 at 4:20 pm | Reply

    Pete,

    Thanks for your comment. The intent of this post is to be informative, and provide a link by which an interested party can further research the subject to learn about the “fine details.” Simply click on the link in the post for clarification.

    I don’t see anything in the post that is specifically “not true”, as a matter of fact, I believe the post is reinforcing what you state above. It is quite obvious that HIC being “Home Improvement Contractor” would not be applicable to Commercial or Governmental buildings.

    Any interested parties are encouraged to visit the Department of Consumer Affairs website at the link above.

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