Moving to South Carolina as a residential contractor: every state's rule

South Carolina licenses residential builders statewide through the Residential Builders Commission, a separate body from the Contractor’s Licensing Board that handles commercial work. A residential builder is anyone who constructs or superintends the construction, repair or improvement of a residential building not over three floors high and with no more than sixteen units in any single apartment building, where the undertaking costs more than $5,000. Unlike the commercial license, this one is held by the person: the $15,000 surety bond must name the individual as principal and cannot be in a company name, and you may only put a company on your license if you own at least 51 percent of it, otherwise the company applies for its own residential business Certificate of Authorization. Entry needs one year of residential building experience within the past five years, a credit report, the bond and both parts of the PSI examination. The technical part can be waived three ways: a current South Carolina General Contractor license in the Building (BD) or Limited Building (LB) classification, a current examined license held a year or more in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi or North Carolina, or the NASCLA Commercial General Building Contractor exam passed within the past three years. A license issued on any of those waiver routes is a limited one that does not allow the holder to perform the mechanical trades.