Idaho trade license reciprocity

Idaho issues a statewide Journeyman Electrician license through the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL) on behalf of the Idaho Electrical Board, under Idaho Code Title 54, Chapter 10 and IDAPA 24.39.10. Idaho Code 54-1007(6) lets the administrator sign reciprocal agreements with states whose qualifications are at least equal to Idaho's, and Idaho participates in the multi-state National Electrical Reciprocal Alliance (NERA) agreement as well as a separate bilateral agreement with Oregon. Journeymen from those states are licensed without examination on proof of an active license obtained by examination. Everyone else applies on the standard route, where out-of-state hours count toward the 8,000-hour (with a four-year program) or 16,000-hour experience requirement and the Idaho journeyman exam (PSI) must be passed. DOPL was re-evaluating its reciprocal agreements in late 2025, so the partner list may change.

Idaho issues a statewide Master Electrician license through DOPL on behalf of the Idaho Electrical Board. Idaho Code 54-1007(3) qualifies anyone who has worked as a licensed journeyman for at least four years to apply for a master license, and since House Bill 153 a master licensee is automatically issued a journeyman license at no extra cost. The only signed master-level reciprocity agreement is the 2006 bilateral agreement with Wyoming; the multi-state NERA agreement covers journeymen only. For other states, the master application offers a 'Reciprocity Pathway' based on a License Verification Form from the origin state showing licensure by examination, at least four years as a journeyman, and an active master license, but the instructions warn that a passing exam score may still be required before issuance. Applicants who do not qualify that way use the experience pathway (four years as a licensed journeyman) and pass the Idaho master exam administered by PSI.

Idaho issues a statewide HVAC Journeyman certificate of competency through the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Board at the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL); a journeyman works in the employ and under the direction of a licensed HVAC contractor. A new applicant pays a $35 application fee and qualifies either by completing 576 hours of instruction at a board-approved apprenticeship program plus 8,000 hours of supervised installation work while registered as an Idaho apprentice, or by documenting 16,000 hours of supervised HVAC installation work, and in both cases must pass the PSI-administered journeyman exam ($75) within a year of applying; the license costs $150 and renews for $75 every three years. DOPL also issues Specialty Journeyman and Limited Heating Specialty Journeyman certificates for hearth appliances, oil furnaces and gas piping. The HVAC board's FAQ states that Idaho has no reciprocal licensing agreement for HVAC. An out-of-state journeyman can instead use Idaho's universal licensure statute (Idaho Code 67-9409), under which the board must license a person holding a current, unrestricted license elsewhere who demonstrates competency, but may still require the Idaho exam; the HVAC application form itself offers no endorsement box, so applicants should contact DOPL before filing. EPA Section 608 certification is required nationwide to handle refrigerants.

Idaho has no master HVAC title; its highest credential is the HVAC Contractor certificate of competency, which is issued as a card in the name of the individual who passes the board's contractor examination and is therefore mapped here to the master level (an HVAC business must hold or employ a certificate holder, and Specialty Contractor and Limited Heating Specialty Contractor certificates cover gas piping, hearth appliances and oil furnaces). An individual applicant must already hold an active Idaho HVAC Journeyman license, or a business applying as an entity must employ at least one Idaho-licensed HVAC journeyman. The applicant pays a $35 application fee, passes the PSI-administered HVAC contractor exam ($75, using the DOPL Contractors' Business and Law Reference Manual as a reference), provides a $2,000 compliance bond, and pays the $225 license fee; the certificate renews for $150 every three years. Idaho's HVAC board states that it has no reciprocal licensing agreement. A contractor licensed in another state may apply under Idaho's universal licensure statute (Idaho Code 67-9409), which requires the board to license a person with a current, unrestricted out-of-state license who demonstrates competency, but allows it to require the Idaho exam; since DOPL publishes no separate procedure for HVAC, applicants should expect to take the contractor exam. EPA Section 608 certification is required nationwide to handle refrigerants.

Idaho issues a statewide Plumbing Journeyman certificate of competency through the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL) on behalf of the Idaho State Plumbing Board under Idaho Code Title 54, Chapter 26 and IDAPA 24.39.20. A new applicant needs either 8,000 supervised hours plus 576 hours of board-approved instruction or 16,000 supervised hours, and must pass the IAPMO-based Idaho journeyman exam administered by PSI before applying. Journeymen licensed by examination in Montana, Oregon or Washington may use the form's Reciprocity Pathway and are licensed without retesting. Everyone else applies as an initial applicant; hours earned in any jurisdiction count toward the experience requirement, but the Idaho exam must be passed. The certificate runs three years, and the Board has set no continuing-education requirement.

Idaho has no master plumber title. The level above journeyman is the Plumbing Contractor certificate of competency, which Idaho Code 54-2611 defines as a person ('any person, or a member, representative or agent of a firm') who has passed the contractor examination; the contractor application confirms 'a plumbing contractor may be licensed as an individual', so it is treated here as the master-equivalent credential. IDAPA 24.39.20.100.03 requires the applicant to hold an active Idaho Plumbing Journeyman certificate, pass the Board-designated contractor exam (60% business and law, 40% code and sizing, 75% to pass), and file a $2,000 compliance bond; the initial certificate fee is $147 for a three-year term. A contractor may represent only one business at a time. No out-of-state contractor or master license is reciprocated at this level: the form has no reciprocal application type and the Montana, Oregon and Washington agreements cover journeymen only.

Idaho does not license residential building contractors; it registers them. Under the Idaho Contractor Registration Act, anyone who takes on a construction job worth more than $2,000 in labor and materials must be registered with the Idaho Contractors Board, which the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses (DOPL) administers, and that registration is the only statewide credential a homebuilder or remodeler needs. Registration carries no trade examination, no business and law examination, no experience or apprenticeship requirement, no bond, no net worth test and no qualifying party: an individual registers in their own name, and a partnership, LLC or corporation registers as a business and lists the people who own it, with nobody having to demonstrate competence on the company's behalf. What the applicant must produce is insurance, an ownership list and an honest history: a general liability certificate of at least $300,000 single limit, workers' compensation coverage or a written statement of why it is not required, and sworn answers about any felony conviction and about any contractor license or registration denied, surrendered, suspended or revoked in any state. Applicants pick a single construction type code, such as 002 General Residential Builder or 003 General Remodel Builder, but DOPL says plainly that the code chosen does not limit the work performed. Registration does not authorize plumbing, electrical or HVAC work, which are separately licensed trades whose licensees are exempt from registering, and Idaho Code 54-5213 bars cities and counties from running their own contractor registration or licensing programs, so there is nothing local to add on top.

Idaho has no general, unlimited or commercial building contractor license for private work. Commercial building sits under the same Idaho Contractors Board registration as houses: the applicant picks construction type 001 General Commercial Builder instead of a residential code, and DOPL states that the code chosen does not limit the work performed, so the two levels of this page are one credential with one set of requirements. Registration is issued on proof of general liability insurance of at least $300,000 single limit, workers' compensation coverage or a statement of why it is not required, an ownership list and sworn answers about felony convictions and prior license discipline, with no examination, no experience requirement, no bond, no net worth test and no qualifying party, however large the project. There is one genuine license above registration, but only where public money pays for the work: the Public Works Contractors License Board licenses contractors under Idaho Code Title 54, Chapter 19 for state or local public works projects estimated at $50,000 or more, in four types (Heavy, Highway, Building and Specialty Construction) and classes from D up to Unlimited that set the maximum a contractor may bid, and that license does require a written examination passed at 70%, three contractor references, detailed work history and a financial statement meeting the net worth and working capital figures for the class. DOPL's own answer is that people doing private residential or private commercial contracting do not need the public works license and should register as a general contractor instead, and a public works licensee who also takes private work registers with the Contractors Board without paying the registration fee.

Idaho issues no home inspector license, certificate or registration. The Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses publishes the full roster of what the state does regulate: in building, construction and real estate, architects and landscape architects, the building code program, contractors, damage prevention, drinking water and wastewater professionals, electrical, the elevator program, factory built structures, geologists, the HVAC board, industrial safety, liquefied petroleum gas safety, logging safety, plumbing, professional engineers and land surveyors, public works contractors, real estate appraisers and the Real Estate Commission; alongside nineteen health professions and a further fourteen occupational licenses from accountancy and acupuncture through morticians, outfitters and guides, shorthand reporters and social work. Home inspection is on none of those lists. Two Idaho credentials are close enough to be mistaken for one, and neither is. The first is contractor registration: under the Idaho Contractor Registration Act it is unlawful to engage in the business of, or hold yourself out as, a contractor without registering, but a contractor is defined by performing construction, meaning building, altering, repairing, adding to, moving, excavating, wrecking or demolishing, and examining a house and writing a report is none of that. The registration is also not an examined credential; the application asks for proof of worker's compensation coverage, a general liability policy of at least $300,000 single limit covering construction operations, a statement of the type of construction undertaken and a fee the statute caps at $150 a year, and the chapter provides for no examination, no experience and no education at all. The second is section 39-4108 of the Idaho Building Code Act, which requires state and local government building inspectors to hold an International Code Council building inspector or plans examiner certification. That is a condition of public employment in code enforcement, issued by a private code body rather than by Idaho, and it says nothing about a private inspector working for a buyer. Idaho's universal licensure statutes do not help either, and it is worth knowing why. Section 67-9409 requires a licensing authority to set up a route for someone holding a current, valid and unrestricted license in another state, and section 67-9414 adds a route for four years of experience earned where the occupation was unlicensed, but both run through an Idaho licensing authority for the occupation, and there is none for home inspection. An inspector arriving from another state therefore has nothing to apply for, nothing to transfer and no examination to sit, and because Idaho holds no home inspector examination the National Home Inspector Examination has nothing to stand in for here; any "certified" designation an inspector advertises comes from a private trade association rather than from the state. What binds an Idaho home inspector instead is general law. The Idaho Consumer Protection Act makes it unlawful, where a person knows or in the exercise of due care should know, to cause a likelihood of confusion about the approval or certification of a service, to represent that a person has qualifications or a license that he does not have, or to represent that a service is of a standard, quality or grade it is not; a buyer who suffers an ascertainable loss may void the agreement or sue for actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater, with restitution, an injunction and discretionary punitive damages, and an elderly or disabled buyer may recover an enhanced penalty of $15,000 or treble damages. Idaho has enacted no statutory standard of care for home inspectors, so the written inspection agreement and ordinary contract and negligence law set the duty owed. One Idaho statute does give the inspection report a defined role: under section 55-2511 of the Property Condition Disclosure Act, delivering a report or opinion prepared by someone hired to inspect the property in connection with the proposed sale is enough to relieve the seller of liability for disclosure information outside the seller's personal knowledge, and the expert who writes it may state in writing which required disclosures the information covers and is then responsible for nothing beyond those items. The adjacent credentials an Idaho inspector is most likely to need alongside are the contractor registration for any repair work, the electrical, plumbing and HVAC credentials for the trades that fix what a report finds, the Public Works Contractors License Board's examined license for public works, and the professional engineer, architect, real estate appraiser and real estate licenses for the neighboring professional opinions.