Hawaii Landscaping License: What Applies and What Does Not
What Hawaii requires of a landscaping 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
Affiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Form your LLC with ZenBusiness$0 service fee plus your state's filing fee. Registered agent free for year one.Not sure which service is right? Compare formation services →
Hawaii landscaping licensing at a glance
| State credential required for this work? | Yes, with conditions |
| What it is called | C-27 Landscaping Contractor License |
| Who issues it | Contractors License Board |
| Must the business itself be licensed? | Yes |
| A figure appears in the rules, with conditions | $1,500, see below |
Does a landscaping business need a license in Hawaii?
Hawaii issues the C-27 Landscaping Contractor License for landscapers.
Hawaii licenses landscaping as specialty contractor classification C-27, which covers tree trimming, decorative treatment and arrangement of gardens, lawns, shrubs and trees, drainage and sprinkler systems, rockscaping, ornamental walls and walks. HRS 444-2(4) exempts a project whose aggregate contract price for labor and materials is not more than $1,500, and the exemption does not apply where a building permit is required; the DCCA reprint of chapter 444 posted on files.hawaii.gov still prints the superseded $1,000 figure, while Act 283 of the 2019 session laws raised it to $1,500 effective July 1, 2019. A license is issued to a contracting entity, which HAR 16-77-1 defines to include a limited liability company that has a responsible managing employee in its employ.
The landscaping business itself must be licensed or registered, not only the people doing the work.
This records what Hawaii 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: Hawaii Administrative Rules Title 16 Chapter 77, Contractors, Exhibit A Specialty Contractor Classifications. Verified 2026-09-03.
What the LLC has to do first
Pesticide and herbicide application is licensed separately from landscaping itself in most states, and that license is usually the one a general landscaping business actually needs.
The entity filing is separate from anything the license requires. In Hawaii it is made with the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration 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 landscaping business in Hawaii covers the filing itself, step by step.
Insurance Hawaii landscapers are asked to show
Landscaping work damages what it is next to: irrigation lines, fences, windows and parked cars. General liability is the cover for that, and commercial clients ask for the certificate before the first visit.
We do not publish Hawaii premium figures for this trade, so nothing here is a quote. Our business insurance guide for landscapers 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Formation Services Compared
Forming an LLC in Hawaii?
See how Northwest Registered Agent, Bizee, ZenBusiness and LegalZoom, the formation services we partner with, compare on 3-year cost, BBB rating and Trustpilot score before you choose.
Ready to Form Your Hawaii LLC?
Affiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Form your LLC with ZenBusiness$0 service fee plus your state's filing fee. Registered agent free for year one.Not sure which service is right? Compare formation services →
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.