Pennsylvania does not license most construction contractors or their employees, according to the Department of Labor and Industry. What applies instead is a set of registrations. A contractor who does at least $5,000 of home improvement work a year registers with the Attorney General, and each municipality around Conshohocken keeps its own contractor registration tied to the building permit. All of those municipalities have chosen to enforce the state building code themselves.
The state home improvement registration
The Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, Act 132 of 2008, requires contractors who offer or perform home improvements in Pennsylvania to register with the Office of Attorney General. Two groups are exempt: contractors who do less than $5,000 of home improvement work in a calendar year, and retailers with a net worth over $50 million. Subcontractors who never sign a contract with a homeowner still have to register, the Attorney General’s FAQ says.
The act’s definition of home improvement covers work on a private residence and its land. It leaves out the construction of a new home, and the Attorney General’s FAQ says the law does not apply to work on commercial properties.
- Fee: $100 every two years for new and renewal registrations, according to the Attorney General’s registration page, which says a change in the state Fiscal Code raised it. Updates to an existing registration cost nothing.
- Insurance: liability coverage of at least $50,000 for personal injury and at least $50,000 for property damage.
- Your number: the registration number, written as “PA” and digits, has to appear on every advertisement, contract, estimate and proposal.
- Changes: the FAQ says registration information has to be updated within 30 days of a change, such as a new insurance policy.
The Attorney General’s online registration system came back into service on April 24, 2026, after an outage. The office says contractors whose businesses started, or whose registrations expired, after August 8, 2025 could keep working during the outage, and those who had not filed on paper had until June 8, 2026 to register online. Registrations, renewals and updates now go through that system.
The act also sets rules for the contract itself. A home improvement contract over $500 has to be in writing and signed by both parties. On a contract over $5,000, the deposit is capped at one-third of the price, or one-third plus the cost of special-order materials named in the contract. A time-and-materials contract can run no more than 10% over the written initial cost estimate without a change order the owner signs, the FAQ says.
State licenses for particular trades
The Department of Labor and Industry lists the state credentials that do exist:
- Crane operators are licensed by the State Board of Crane Operators at the Department of State.
- Asbestos and lead abatement contractors and workers are certified by Labor and Industry.
- Manufactured home installers are certified under the Manufactured Housing Improvement Act.
Some municipalities license or certify trades themselves, most often electricians and plumbers, Labor and Industry says. The department keeps no record of which ones do, and it sends contractors to the municipality where the work will happen.
Local registration
The state act limits what a municipality can charge a registered home improvement contractor. Section 517.12 says registration with the state precludes a municipal registration fee or license for a home improvement contractor, while leaving municipalities free to require building permits and charge a reasonable fee for them. It keeps in place licensing for electricians, plumbers and other trades that rests on testing or training, and local liability insurance standards adopted before January 1, 2006.
The four municipalities nearest Conshohocken post these requirements, as checked October 3, 2026:
| Municipality | What it posts | Fee on the form or page |
|---|---|---|
| Conshohocken Borough | Separate registration forms for commercial contractors, residential contractors and plumbers, filed with Licenses and Inspections | $90 each; the residential fee is waived for contractors registered with the Attorney General |
| West Conshohocken Borough | A contractor registration form on its Forms & Permits page, updated May 26, 2026 | Could not be verified |
| Plymouth Township | Contractor registration through its online permit portal or a paper form, with separate master plumber, journeyman plumber and fire protection contractor registrations | $100, collected for commercial work and for residential work by a contractor without a state number |
| Whitemarsh Township | Registration required before the township issues a building permit | No fee, except $50 for plumbers |
Conshohocken’s forms ask for more insurance than the state minimum: $100,000 to $300,000 for bodily injury, at least $100,000 for property damage, public liability and products liability, and at least $50,000 for completed operations, with the borough named as certificate holder. A contractor with no employees checks a box saying so, and the form then has to be notarized. The form says a contractor may not have employees do the work unless it has given the borough proof of workers’ compensation insurance.
Plymouth’s form asks for a current certificate of insurance and proof of workers’ compensation, or a signed and notarized waiver. Its registration expires on December 31 of the year it is issued or when the state registration expires. The form also warns that failing to close out permits at the end of a project could lead the township to suspend or revoke a registration.
Whitemarsh asks for proof of workers’ compensation insurance with the township as certificate holder, or its exemption form. A master plumber has to show proof from the institution or municipality that certified them, and a journeyman lists the master plumber they work for.
Upper Merion and Lower Merion run their own code offices as well. Ask each one for its registration form before you pull a first permit there.
The Uniform Construction Code
The Uniform Construction Code is Pennsylvania’s statewide building code, built on International Code Council codes as reviewed by the state’s UCC Review and Advisory Council. A municipality can enforce it with its own staff or a certified third-party agency, or opt out and leave enforcement to the state and to agencies the owner hires.
Labor and Industry’s list of municipalities, revised October 1, 2026, shows that Conshohocken, West Conshohocken, Plymouth, Whitemarsh, Upper Merion and Lower Merion all opted in. In opt-in municipalities, the department says, it has no code enforcement authority, apart from elevators, state-owned buildings and accessibility review where a municipality lacks a certified accessibility inspector. The same list marks each of them with “Amendments,” meaning the municipality carried over local building code provisions that were in its ordinances before July 1, 1999. Labor and Industry says it has no record of what those provisions are, so ask the municipality.
Recent changes to the code, from Labor and Industry’s pages:
- The latest triennial update to the UCC took effect January 1, 2026, after the Independent Regulatory Review Commission approved it on October 16, 2025.
- The 2021 accessibility updates remain blocked by an October 26, 2022 Commonwealth Court ruling, so buildings still have to meet the 2018 accessibility requirements.
- Amendments to the elevator and lifting device rules in Chapter 405 take effect December 20, 2026. Labor and Industry keeps sole jurisdiction over elevators everywhere in the state, along with state-owned buildings.
- The UCC Review and Advisory Council set October 4, 2026 as the deadline for public comments on sections of the 2024 codes, which it is now reviewing.
State law adds a surcharge to every building permit a municipality or third-party agency issues. Act 36 of 2017 raised it from $4.00 to $4.50.
Before your first permit in a new municipality
- Call the code office and ask for its contractor registration form, the insurance limits it wants, and the exact name to put as certificate holder.
- If you employ plumbers or electricians, ask whether the municipality registers or licenses those trades separately.
- Keep your Attorney General number current and on every estimate and proposal, since municipal forms ask for it.
For questions about how the home improvement act applies to a particular contract, talk to a lawyer. For insurance limits, talk to your agent or broker.