Tennessee contractor license requirements

Tennessee regulates contracting through a state-level general contractor license. This page lays out exactly what Tennessee requires: the licensing agency, who must be licensed, experience, exams, fees, the financial responsibility mechanism, and reciprocity, every figure sourced and dated below.

Who must be licensed in Tennessee

Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors (BLC) is the licensing authority. State license required for construction contracting above the Board’s monetary thresholds.

Experience and qualification

No fixed statewide years requirement; financial qualification (CPA-reviewed or audited statement, or the new Contractors’ Surety Bond option from July 1, 2026) sets the monetary limit instead.

License classes

• General Contractor (General Contractor, monetary-limit tiers): Bond scales with the license’s financial limit.

Exam

The Tennessee Business and Law exam is required for all applicants, plus a trade exam for some classifications. PSI has administered the trade exam; Prov becomes the new provider for trade exams scheduled on or after July 1, 2026.

Fees

• License fee: $250
• Business and Law exam fee: $57

Financial responsibility

Tennessee uses surety bond ($500,000 to $1,000,000) as its financial-responsibility mechanism. $500,000 if the financial limit is $1.5 million or less; $1,000,000 if over $1.5 million. From July 1, 2026, a new Contractors’ Surety Bond option is available as an alternative to a CPA-reviewed or audited financial statement.

Reciprocity and the NASCLA exam

Tennessee accepts the NASCLA Accredited Examination for the commercial building classification, confirmed against NASCLA’s own participating-agencies list. If you already hold a NASCLA credential from another participating state, it can satisfy Tennessee’s trade exam requirement (any state-specific business and law exam is still required). See the NASCLA exam explained and contractor license reciprocity for the full picture, and the 50-state comparison for which other states accept it.

Official source

Verify everything at the source: Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors (BLC), www.tn.gov. The NASCLA participating-agencies determination above is drawn from NASCLA’s own list, nascla.org, confirmed 2026-07-24.

Sources: Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors (BLC) (www.tn.gov, reviewed 2026-07-28); NASCLA participating state agencies list (nascla.org, confirmed 2026-07-24). Fee, bond, and experience figures are compiled from the agency's published requirements and current industry compliance guides as of 2026-07-28; treat any figure not independently reconfirmed against a fetched primary-source page as reported pending the next freshness review, per this site's standard practice.