How to check a Pennsylvania contractor's license in two minutes

"Are you licensed?" is the first question most homeowners ask, and the honest answer in Pennsylvania is more complicated than yes or no. Pennsylvania does not license general contractors or roofers the way it licenses electricians or plumbers in some other states. What it does is require them to register with the Attorney General under the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, and that registration is what the "PA" number on a truck or an estimate means.

Mine is PA125031. Here is what that number does and does not tell you, how to check it, and what else to check before you sign anything.

What the PA HIC number is

The Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, usually called HICPA, took effect in 2009. It requires anyone who does more than $5,000 a year of home improvement work in Pennsylvania to register with the Office of Attorney General, carry at least $50,000 of liability insurance, and put their registration number on every advertisement, estimate and contract. The number looks like PA followed by digits.

Registration is not a test of skill. There is no exam. What it means is that the contractor has given the state their legal name, address, business form and insurance information, has paid the fee, and is on the record. If something goes wrong, the state knows who they are and the Attorney General's consumer protection office can act. Unregistered contractors are operating illegally and you have fewer protections if things go badly.

How to check it

Go to the Attorney General's Home Improvement Contractor search at hicsearch.attorneygeneral.gov. Search by the number, the business name or the owner's name. The result shows the registration number, the business name and address, the registration status and the expiration date.

Check four things:

1. The number on the estimate matches the number in the search.
2. The business name in the search matches the name on the estimate and the contract. A number registered to a different company is a problem.
3. The status is active and the expiration date is in the future. Registrations renew every two years.
4. The address is real. A registered contractor with a Pennsylvania address is a lot easier to find in a year than one with a PO box in another state.

That takes two minutes. If a contractor cannot give you a number, or the number does not come up, or it comes up under a different name, stop.

What HICPA requires on the contract

The law also says what a home improvement contract must contain for any job over $500. If the contract is missing these things, it is not enforceable against you, which is a protection for you and a sign of whether the contractor knows the rules. A compliant contract includes:

• The contractor's name, address, phone number and HIC registration number
• The date the contract was signed
• A description of the work and the materials, including brands and quantities where that matters
• The total price
• Approximate start and completion dates
• The down payment amount, and for jobs over $5,000, a down payment of no more than one third of the contract price plus the cost of any special-order materials
• A notice of your right to cancel within three business days
• The contractor's liability insurance coverage amount
• The toll-free number for the Attorney General's consumer protection office

The three-day right to cancel is real. You can cancel a home improvement contract for any reason until midnight of the third business day after signing, and the contractor must return any deposit within ten business days. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court confirmed in 2026 that you can cancel by any method that actually reaches the contractor in time, not only in writing.

What else to check

The registration is the floor. These are the rest of the checks that take ten more minutes.

Insurance. Ask for a certificate of insurance issued to you from the contractor's insurance agent, not a photocopy of an old one. The certificate shows the carrier, the policy dates and the coverage amounts. For a roof, you want general liability of at least $500,000, more is better. If the contractor has employees, they need workers' compensation coverage; if they have none and use subcontractors, those subs need their own.

Reviews, in context. Google, HomeAdvisor, Nextdoor, Facebook and the Better Business Bureau all have reviews. A small company will have a handful; a big one will have hundreds. Read for what they say, not the count. Repeated complaints about the same thing, no-shows, unfinished work, surprise charges, are the signal. A single bad review with a reasonable response from the owner is normal.

Local address and history. A contractor who has been in the county for years has suppliers, inspectors and past customers who know him. After a storm, out-of-state crews work the neighborhoods with magnetic signs on rental trucks; they are registered, sometimes, and they will be gone when the roof leaks.

References you can call. Ask for two recent jobs like yours and call them. Ask whether the price changed, whether the schedule held, and whether the site was clean.

Permits. Ask who pulls the permit for the job. The contractor should, in their name. A contractor who asks you to pull the permit as the homeowner is usually avoiding the inspector knowing who did the work.

Red flags

Any one of these should end the conversation:

• No HIC number, or one that does not match the business
• A price that is only good if you sign today
• A request for the full price, or more than a third, up front
• An offer to waive your insurance deductible on a storm claim, which is illegal in Pennsylvania
• A contract with blanks in it or one that does not name the materials
• A contractor who will not show you insurance
• Pressure to sign an "authorization" or "assignment of benefits" at the first visit

What a good estimate looks like

A good estimate names the materials by brand and product, breaks out the scope in enough detail that you could compare it with another estimate line by line, states the price and what would change it (decking replacement per sheet, for instance), gives a workmanship warranty term, carries the HIC number, and does not expire at midnight. It is the start of a written contract, not a sales document.

Why I am telling you this

Because the rules protect the contractors who follow them as much as they protect homeowners. Every unregistered roofer who shingles over an old roof for cash makes the next homeowner suspicious of the registered one who tears it off. Check the number, check the insurance, read the contract. Then hire whoever you trust.

Fox Gables Construction is PA125031, insured through Frederick Mutual, since 2011. Look it up.