New Hampshire trade license reciprocity

New Hampshire issues a statewide Journeyman Electrician license through the Electricians' Board within the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC). A new applicant needs 8,000 hours of service as an apprentice electrician, at least 600 hours of related education, and a passing score on the Prov-administered journeyman exam ($90); the license costs $110 for a two-year term and requires 15 hours of NEC code-change instruction each code cycle. Since May 3, 2024 New Hampshire licenses out-of-state journeymen by endorsement under RSA 310:17 and Plc 313.24 without examination when the origin jurisdiction has substantially similar requirements; OPLC currently lists Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington as qualifying jurisdictions, and requires one year of experience as a licensed journeyman. The Board's application form also still carries an older reciprocity list (Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont at both levels; Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming at journeyman only) whose partner states continue to list New Hampshire; those are recorded here as reciprocity agreements pending confirmation from OPLC. Licensees from other states apply through the traditional application and exam.

New Hampshire issues a statewide Master Electrician license through the Electricians' Board within OPLC; a master may employ other electricians and is the qualifying individual for an electrical business entity. RSA 319-C:7 sets the same statutory qualifications for master and journeyman (8,000 apprentice hours, 600 hours of education and a board-approved exam), and OPLC's endorsement rule Plc 313.24 measures other states' master pathways against 2,000 hours (one year) as a licensed journeyman plus a state master exam. The Prov master exam costs $90 and the license $198 for two years. Since May 3, 2024 masters from jurisdictions OPLC has found substantially similar (Connecticut electrical contractors, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington) are licensed by endorsement without examination after one year of experience as a licensed master; other out-of-state masters apply through the traditional application and exam, for which the Board's form counts experience as a licensed master in another state toward the 2,000-hour journeyman requirement.

New Hampshire does not license journeyman HVAC, air conditioning or refrigeration technicians at the state level, and the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC) has no board for the trade; its Mechanical Licensing Board, despite the name, regulates only fuel gas fitters (installation, service, piping, domestic appliance and hearth technicians, plus trainees), plumbers and mechanical business entities, and offers a voluntary $50 Oil Heating Technician certification under RSA 153:16-b. The plumbing statute expressly exempts plumbing done in connection with the installation of heating, cooling, air conditioning and domestic water heating systems (RSA 153:36, VII), so an HVAC technician needs no plumber license either. No New Hampshire city or town was found to license HVAC technicians; local building departments issue mechanical permits but do not require a personal HVAC credential. What an out-of-state technician does need is a Fuel Gas Fitter license before connecting or servicing natural gas or propane furnaces, boilers or piping: the categories cost $198 for two years ($176 for domestic appliance), require 40 to 140 classroom hours, 1,000 to 2,000 on-the-job hours and a 70% score on the Prov exam, and an out-of-state gas or plumbing license only makes the holder eligible to sit that exam (Saf-Mec 302.14); OPLC's endorsement rule Plc 313.34 covers the gas fitter categories in principle but the qualifying-jurisdiction lists are still 'TBD'. An out-of-state journeyman HVAC license itself has no New Hampshire equivalent to transfer to. Federal EPA Section 608 certification is required to handle refrigerants.

New Hampshire has no master HVAC, HVAC contractor, mechanical contractor or refrigeration license and no statewide general contractor license, so a person or firm may install and service heating, cooling, ventilation and refrigeration equipment without any state credential. The OPLC Mechanical Licensing Board's scope under RSA 153:27-a to 153:38 is limited to fuel gas fitting, plumbing and a voluntary oil heating technician certification; a business that does fuel gas work must hold a Mechanical Business Entity license ($275 for two years) and employ licensed fuel gas fitters, and plumbing performed as part of installing heating, cooling or air conditioning systems is exempt from plumber licensing. The highest person-held fuel credential is the Fuel Gas Service Technician license ($198, at least 2,000 hours of state-approved training and experience plus the Prov exam), which under Saf-Mec 300 qualifies the holder for all other gas fitter categories. New Hampshire has no reciprocity agreement for any of these licenses: an out-of-state license only establishes eligibility for the New Hampshire exam (Saf-Mec 302.14), and the endorsement rule Plc 313.34 requires the origin state to use the same or a later building and fire code edition and lists the gas fitter qualifying jurisdictions as 'TBD'. A master HVAC license from another state therefore gives its holder nothing to transfer to in New Hampshire; the only credentials that matter are the gas fitter license for fuel gas work, federal EPA Section 608 certification for refrigerants, and local mechanical permits. No New Hampshire municipality was found to issue its own HVAC license.

New Hampshire issues a statewide Journeyman Plumber license through the Mechanical Licensing Board in the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification (OPLC). The same board licenses trainee/apprentice plumbers, master plumbers and mechanical business entities, and also regulates fuel gas fitters; it does not license HVAC technicians. The published two-year journeyman plumber fee is $198 (OPLC Mechanical Safety and Licensing Board fee table; Plc 1002.25). Since 3 May 2024, out-of-state journeymen from jurisdictions OPLC has determined substantially similar under RSA 310:17 and Plc 313.34 may be licensed by endorsement without the New Hampshire exam; Plc 313.34 treats a comparable journeyman path as a four-year apprenticeship with 560 instruction hours plus an exam, and the origin code must be the same or a later edition of New Hampshire's building and fire codes. Everyone else uses the traditional route: Mec 302.12 makes an out-of-state plumber license sufficient to sit the New Hampshire plumbing examination (given by Prov); the exam itself is not waived.

New Hampshire issues a statewide Master Plumber license through the same OPLC Mechanical Licensing Board that licenses journeyman and trainee plumbers. The published two-year master plumber fee is $330 (OPLC fee table; Plc 1002.25). RSA 153:28, V lets the board enter mutual reciprocity agreements for plumbers, but the board publishes none. Since 3 May 2024, masters licensed in the jurisdictions OPLC lists under Plc 313.34 (Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont) may be licensed by endorsement instead. Out-of-state masters who are not in a qualifying jurisdiction remain eligible for the New Hampshire plumbing examination upon proof of licensure (Mec 302.12).

New Hampshire issues no residential building, home builder, remodeler or home improvement contractor license. The Attorney General puts it plainly in the state's own consumer alert on home improvement scams: "in New Hampshire, contractors do not need to be licensed." The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification administers every occupational board in the state, and the statute that lists them, RSA 310:2, runs to more than eighty entries without naming a contractor board; the construction-related ones license the specialists rather than the builder - the Electricians' Board, the Mechanical Licensing Board (plumbers and gas fitters), the Board of Home Inspectors, the Board of Septic System Evaluators, the Installation Standards Board for manufactured housing, and the design professions of architect, landscape architect, professional engineer, land surveyor, natural scientist and forester. The Attorney General's own warning list is a useful summary of the work that still needs a license: electrical work, inspections, plumbing, septic, well pump work, asbestos abatement and lead abatement. A remodeler or homebuilder arriving from another state therefore has no New Hampshire credential to apply for and nothing to transfer, and should go straight to the local building department for permits and inspections. Two things still bind an unlicensed residential contractor. Under RSA 359-G, the residential construction defect law, a contractor entering a contract for the construction or improvement of a residence for more than $5,000 must give the owner a conspicuous written notice, in the statutory all-capitals form, of the contractor's right to resolve alleged defects before the homeowner sues; a homeowner must then serve a written notice of claim at least 60 days before filing, and the contractor has 30 days to offer repair, offer money, propose an inspection or reject the claim. Over all of it sits the Consumer Protection Act, enforced by the Department of Justice's Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau, which also enforces the door-to-door sales disclosure rules in RSA 361-B:3.

New Hampshire has no general, commercial, building or unlimited contractor license at any level of government. There is no contractor board, no classification system, no qualifying party, no trade or business-and-law examination, no net worth or financial statement test and no reciprocity list, so an out-of-state general contractor's license transfers nothing here - and equally, nothing is demanded in its place. New Hampshire is not one of the agencies that accept the NASCLA Accredited Examination for Commercial General Building Contractors, because it holds no contractor examination for that exam to stand in for. The occupations title of the Revised Statutes, RSA Title XXX, creates licenses for engineers, land surveyors, foresters, electricians and plumbers, and the statutory roster of licensing boards in RSA 310:2 adds architects, landscape architects, home inspectors, septic system evaluators, natural scientists, professional geologists, manufactured housing installers under the Installation Standards Board, and the Mechanical Licensing Board that licenses gas fitters; no chapter and no board covers building contractors. A commercial builder moving to New Hampshire works directly with the local building department that issues permits and inspects the work, and makes sure the electrical, plumbing, gas fitting, septic, well, asbestos and lead abatement scope is performed by people who hold the matching state licenses. Where a job is work on a residence, the notice and opportunity-to-repair rules of RSA 359-G apply to that contract above $5,000 even though the builder is unlicensed; commercial buildings are outside that chapter, and disputes over them fall back on the contract and the Consumer Protection Act.

New Hampshire licenses home inspectors statewide. The Board of Home Inspectors is one of the boards supported by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, and since January 1, 2010 no one may practice as a home inspector or conduct home inspections in the state without a license from it. There is a single tier: New Hampshire has no apprentice, associate or trainee home inspector grade and never has had one, so there is no junior license to arrive into and no sponsor to find. This is also one of the few construction-side credentials the state issues at all, because New Hampshire licenses no general or residential contractors and regulates the building trades one by one. The license runs two years, every applicant files proof of liability insurance and consents to a state police criminal history record check, and renewal turns on 20 hours of continuing education.