Michigan General Contractor License: What Applies and What Does Not
What Michigan requires of a contracting business in 2026, what the LLC has to file first, and where the license and the entity are two separate steps.
By Edmond Hui · Last updated: September 2026
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Michigan general contractor licensing at a glance
| State credential required for this work? | Yes, with conditions |
| What they are called | Residential Builder License, Residential Maintenance and Alteration Contractor License |
| Who issues it | Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Bureau of Construction Codes |
| Must the business itself be licensed? | Yes |
| A figure appears in the rules, with conditions | $600, see below |
Does a contracting business need a license in Michigan?
Michigan issues the Residential Builder License and the Residential Maintenance and Alteration Contractor License for general contractors.
Michigan licenses residential builders and residential maintenance and alteration contractors under article 24 of the Occupational Code, administered by the Bureau of Construction Codes within the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. MCL 339.2403 exempts a person working on one undertaking or project whose aggregate contract price for labor, material and other items is less than $600, and that exemption is unavailable where a project is divided into smaller contracts to evade the act. Commercial general contracting outside the residential definitions carries no equivalent statewide license.
The contracting business itself must be licensed or registered, not only the people doing the work.
A corporation, limited liability company or partnership is treated as a separate legal person and files its own company license application in addition to the qualifying individual's license.
This records what Michigan publishes, not a determination about your business. Scope, thresholds and local requirements are set by the issuing body, so confirm with them before you bid or file.
Source: Frequently Asked Questions, Residential Builder (RB), Michigan Bureau of Construction Codes. Verified 2026-09-03.
What the LLC has to do first
Where the state licenses the company rather than only the individual, the LLC has to exist before the license application can name it.
The entity filing is separate from anything the license requires. In Michigan it is made with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, Corporations Division. File directly with the state here. The order matters wherever the license is issued to the company rather than to a person: the entity has to exist before an application can name it.
Forming an LLC as a contracting business in Michigan covers the filing itself, step by step.
Insurance Michigan general contractors are asked to show
General liability cover is the item most often demanded before a contractor license application is accepted or a job is awarded, and the certificate has to name the entity that holds the license.
We do not publish Michigan premium figures for this trade, so nothing here is a quote. Our business insurance guide for general contractors covers what each policy does and does not pay for.
This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state licensing board publishes for this trade, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you whether your own work needs a licence: that turns on the scope of the job, the value of the contract, and the city or county you work in, which commonly adds its own registration on top of the state's. Confirm your own position with the board named on this page and with your local building or business licensing office before you bid or start work.
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Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC
Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.