Roofing Company Contracts, Licenses and Bonds

Whether a roofing company needs a license depends on the state: California, Florida and Minnesota license roofers in different ways, and a Texas trade group describes the state as unregulated. Beyond licensing, a roofing company may need building permits where the local authority requires them, a surety bond on some public jobs and insurance that matches each customer contract. This guide is for the buyer who inherited the licenses, open contracts and bonds and needs to know what to verify and what may have to be reissued. It gives general information, so confirm each rule with your state board and with counsel.

The short answer

Roofing licensing is set by each state and sometimes by city or county. California, Florida, Minnesota and Texas each handle it differently.
Customer contracts ask for specific endorsements, and a certificate does not prove the endorsement exists.
Anti-indemnity and insurance-claim marketing rules limit what a contract or a salesperson can promise, and those rules vary by state.
Do not assume a license, its qualifier (the individual the license depends on) or the bonds simply carry over in a sale. Plan for a second qualifier and new paperwork with the surety (the company that issues the bond).
Bonds are not insurance for you. The surety expects to be repaid.

Which licenses, permits and bonds does a roofing company typically need?

There is no national roofing license. Each state decides whether roofers need one, what work triggers it and who must hold it, and some cities and counties add their own rules. Four examples show how different the rules are. Verify yours with your state licensing board and local building department.

Roofing license examples by state and what to verify
State	How the state handles it	What to verify
California	Roofing is classification C-39, defined as installing products and repairing surfaces that seal, waterproof and weatherproof structures. A licensed contractor keeps a $25,000 contractor's bond. A C-39 licensee must carry workers' comp whether or not it has employees	The qualifier (the named individual the company's license depends on), the bond, the license status and the current license threshold
Florida	Roofing contractors are certified (statewide) or registered (only where registered). The roofing scope includes installing, repairing and designing roofing, waterproofing and coating systems, and a business qualifies through an individual qualifying agent	The license category, the qualifier and local registrations
Minnesota	A person who contracts to do roofing work on residential real estate must be licensed as a residential roofer, residential building contractor or residential remodeler, and residential contracts must be in writing	Which license classes cover your work, and the written contract content
Texas	A roofing trade group describes the state as unregulated, and runs its own voluntary licensing program. The Insurance Code limits how a contractor deals with insurance claims	Whether any state or city license applies, since a trade group page is not a regulator

Permits and old materials. Ask your local building department whether reroofing needs a permit. Also ask about rules on old roofing materials that may contain asbestos: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classes asphalt roofing products with more than 1 percent asbestos as a nonfriable asbestos-containing material, and whether a tear-off triggers notice or disposal rules is a question for roofing counsel and your state environmental agency.

Bonds. Public roofing work may require performance and payment bonds. A surety bond is not insurance for you: if the surety (the company that issues the bond) pays a claim, it looks to you, and usually to the owners under an indemnity agreement, for repayment. The Small Business Administration (SBA) runs a program that backs bonds issued by participating sureties to eligible small businesses on contracts up to $9 million (non-federal) or $14 million (federal). See surety bonds and surety bonds for roofers.

Insurance minimums on public work. Public contracts can also set insurance minimums. For example, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) section 28.307-2 tells a federal contracting officer to require general liability of at least $500,000 per occurrence on cost-reimbursement contracts, and for fixed-price work on a Government installation FAR 28.306 makes the same coverage the minimum when the insurance clause at FAR 52.228-5 is required. Read each bid's insurance clause.

What do customer contracts ask of a roofer's insurance?

Commercial owners and upstream contractors tend to ask for the same handful of things, with limits set contract by contract. Retail homeowner contracts tend to look different, because state consumer rules can set their terms. Three of the asks need plain words first.

Additional insured: adds the customer to your policy for claims arising from your work.
Primary and noncontributory: your policy pays first and the customer's policy does not share the loss.
Waiver of subrogation: your insurer gives up the right to recover from the customer after paying a claim.

The table lines each ask up with the policy piece that delivers it. Form numbers are examples from the Insurance Services Office (ISO), and those that begin with commercial general liability (CG) are liability forms.

Common roofing contract insurance requirements and the policy piece that delivers each
What the contract asks	What delivers it	Common trap
Additional insured status for ongoing work	An additional insured endorsement for ongoing operations, such as ISO form CG 20 10	A certificate says it is included, but the endorsement is not in the policy
Additional insured status for completed work	A completed operations additional insured endorsement, such as CG 20 37	A carve-out for completed roofing work can leave nothing for the endorsement to attach to
Primary and noncontributory wording	A policy endorsement	Wording added by certificate only
Waiver of subrogation	A waiver endorsement on the policy, sometimes on workers' comp and auto too	The waiver on one policy and not the others
Indemnity and hold harmless	Contractual liability coverage under the insured contract definition	Policy wording that narrows insured contracts
Workers' comp and employers liability	The workers' comp policy	A subcontractor with no policy
Specific limits or an umbrella	Higher general liability limits, or an umbrella	The umbrella does not follow the underlying policy's terms
A manufacturer or workmanship warranty	Not insurance	Treating a warranty as insured
A lease on the yard or warehouse	The property and liability policies, sometimes with the landlord named as an additional insured	Insurance requirements copied from the seller's lease that the new policies do not meet
A lender's name on property	A lender's loss payable or mortgagee clause	Loss payee wording missing from a truck or equipment schedule

Read the yard lease alongside the customer contracts, and check each open job against the policy with check customer contracts against your policies and additional insured, waiver and primary wording for new owners. Our certificate for a general contractor guide covers the paperwork.

Which rules limit what a contract or a salesperson can promise?

Contracts do not always mean what they say, and some states limit them. In plain terms, some states limit how much of a customer's or general contractor's own fault it can push onto you, but the rules have carve-outs, and one of them touches a risk roofers know well, an injury to your own worker. Anti-indemnity statutes limit how much liability a customer or general contractor can push to a roofing subcontractor, and in some states they also limit what additional insured coverage can be required. Texas (Insurance Code sections 151.102 and 151.104) and California (Civil Code sections 2782 and 2782.05) are examples of states with such statutes, and both have exceptions.

The Texas statute does not stop a contract from requiring a subcontractor to indemnify against claims for injury or death of the subcontractor's own employees (section 151.103), and it excludes single-family house, townhouse and duplex work and municipal public works (section 151.105). So for a roofing subcontractor, the statute may leave an indemnity for injuries to its own crew in force, and a fall from a roof is one way such an injury happens. Whether a given clause is enforceable depends on its wording and the facts, so have counsel read the exceptions against each contract. California's rule for subcontracts (section 2782.05) reaches contracts made on or after January 1, 2013, and it has exceptions, including for some residential construction and some owner and public agency contracts.

State consumer rules shape residential and insurance-claim work:

Minnesota: residential roofing contracts, bids and change orders must be in writing with specified content.
Florida: the statute, as summarized on the Legislature's site, bars contractors from offering to waive an insurance deductible in exchange for a roof inspection or a claim, requires notices in roof contracts and gives owners cancellation rights in some cases.
Texas: a contractor may not act as a public adjuster on property where it provides or may provide contracting services, and an insured must pay the applicable deductible.

Violations can bring discipline and fines. These are regulatory exposures that are generally not insured losses. Ask the seller for sales scripts, marketing materials and referral agreements, and have a construction attorney review them before closing. Re-read the current statutes with that attorney before relying on any detail.

What happens to the license and bonds at a sale?

Think of the license, the bond and the permits as items to re-confirm, not assets that arrive with the company. A California license is qualified by one individual and generally does not transfer in a sale. If the company is a California limited liability company, the license carries its own minimum liability insurance and wage bond requirements, and claims that erode the limit can affect the license, so ask the licensing board and your broker how that applies. In Florida, a business whose only qualifying agent leaves has 60 days to name another and generally may not contract in the meantime, though a temporary certificate may cover contracts that were still incomplete when the qualifier left. In an SBA 7(a) loan, the lender must get evidence of the licenses required to operate the business within 90 days after final disbursement. For loans numbered on or after October 1, 2026, the SBA's lending rulebook, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 50 10 8.1, lets a seller stay on as a consultant for up to 24 months in an initial acquisition. Ask your lender and counsel whether a consultant can serve as the license qualifier.

A hypothetical example. The owner who qualifies a roofing company's license leaves a month after closing. In a state that works like Florida, the company has 60 days to name a new qualifier and generally cannot sign new jobs in between, although a temporary certificate may cover contracts still incomplete. Open jobs, a bid on a public project and a surety relationship may all be affected. The surety may want a new indemnity agreement signed by the new owners, and the lender and customers may need to be told. The policies may not change on their face, but ask the carrier whether any licensing condition or exclusion applies to the work. Meanwhile the business is not earning. The fix is to name and train a second qualifier before closing, which is a licensing and deal question for counsel.

On bonds, the seller's personal indemnity to the surety generally survives a sale. A change of ownership often leads to bonds being re-underwritten or replaced, and the surety may ask new owners for a new indemnity agreement, personally and for the company. Ask a surety specialist how your surety handles it. See do surety and license bonds transfer, when the seller holds the contractor license and licenses, permits and registrations when buying a business.

What does a certificate of insurance actually prove?

Not what most contracts assume. On a commercial reroof the owner's contract may ask for additional insured status for completed work, and a certificate can say yes while a designated work exclusion, or a missing completed operations endorsement such as CG 20 37, says no. A certificate of insurance is issued as a matter of information only, and a certificate holder is not automatically an additional insured. The endorsement in the policy, not the certificate, decides who is protected and for what. A certificate inherited from the seller also reflects the seller's policy on the day it was issued.

Keep a copy of every endorsement a contract relies on, not only the certificate, including the completed operations additional insured endorsement a commercial reroof contract calls for.
Reissue certificates in the new owner's name once the new policies are bound.
Build a subcontractor certificate file with dates, and check it each month. See certificate tracking in the first month.
When a requirement exceeds your policy, ask before you sign. See when requirements exceed your policy and why a certificate is not coverage.

For the policies behind these promises, see coverage gaps new owners of roofing companies find and insurance after you buy a roofing company. General contractors face similar clauses, covered in contracts, licenses and bonds for a general contracting company.

Keep reading

Frequently asked questions

Does a roofing company need a license?

It depends on the state. California licenses roofing as classification C-39, Florida licenses roofing contractors by certified or registered category, and Minnesota licenses residential roofers. A Texas trade group describes the state as unregulated, which a regulator should confirm. Check your state board and your city or county.

Will the seller's roofing license transfer to me?

It depends on the state and the deal. A California license is qualified by one individual and generally does not transfer in a sale, and a Florida business whose only qualifying agent leaves has 60 days to name another. Ask your attorney and the licensing board what applies in your state.

Do I need a bond to do roofing work?

Sometimes. California requires a licensed contractor to keep a $25,000 contractor's bond, and public projects can require performance and payment bonds. A surety underwrites the bond, and expects repayment if it pays a claim. Ask a surety specialist about your situation.

Who has to hold the license after I buy the company?

Many states license the business through a named qualifying individual, and a license generally does not simply transfer in a sale. In an SBA 7(a) loan the lender asks for evidence of required licenses within 90 days after final disbursement, and the current SBA rulebook does not say whether a consulting seller can serve as the qualifier. Ask your lender, your counsel and the state board who will qualify the license after closing.

Can a roofing company offer to cover a homeowner's insurance deductible?

Often not, and it carries real risk. Florida's statute bars contractors from offering to waive an insurance deductible in exchange for an inspection or a claim, and Texas requires an insured to pay the applicable deductible. Other states have their own rules. Ask a construction attorney how the law in your state applies, and how any past practice at the company you bought might look.

References

Just bought a business? Get your insurance reviewed.

Send Morrow the declarations pages, loss runs and key contracts you inherited. Morrow can review them against the business you bought, flag gaps and request quotes where it makes sense. Any new terms depend on carrier underwriting.

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This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and not a coverage determination. Coverage depends on the actual policy wording, carrier underwriting, your purchase agreement and your contracts. Ask your attorney and accountant about deal and legal questions.

Contracts, Licenses and Bonds for a Roofing Company