Florida Handyman License: What You Actually Need (2026)

Florida issues no statewide handyman license: “handyman” is not a state contractor category, so there is no exam or application. What Florida regulates is the work itself, through two independent gates: whether the scope falls inside one of the contractor categories in Fla. Stat. 489.105(3), and whether the work requires a building permit under s. 553.79. Neither question answers the other, and they are decided by different bodies.

Where the line falls

Each list below names the rule that applies to that scope. None of them states that a particular job may be performed without a license or a permit.

Scopes 489.117(4)(a)1 names as ones a local government may not require a license for

489.117(4)(a)1 bars a local government from requiring a license for these scopes. It does not address state licensure and it does not affect permits; paragraphs (4)(a)2–3 below preserve some local licensing. The statute’s own examples include:

• painting; flooring; cabinetry
• handyman services
• pressure washing; caulking; plastering; stuccoing
• driveway or tennis court installation

Work where a local registration may still apply

Scopes 489.117(4)(a)2–3 let a local government keep licensing where it did so before 1 January 2021:

• veneer, including aluminum or vinyl gutters, siding, soffit or fascia
• fence installation and erection
• rooftop painting, coating and cleaning above three stories
• any licensed scope, in a county with an area of critical state concern (s. 380.05)

Work reserved to a state-licensed trade

The trade categories in 489.105(3)(d)–(p), plus chapter 489, Part II:

• roofing; sheet metal; plumbing; mechanical
• Class A, B and C air-conditioning
• pool and spa construction and servicing
• underground utility and excavation; solar; pollutant storage
• electrical and alarm (Part II, under the Electrical Contractors’ Licensing Board)

Is there a handyman license in Florida?

No. Fla. Stat. 489.105(3) enumerates 17 contractor categories, (a) through (q), and none is “handyman” — so there is no application or examination for one. The statute goes further, naming handyman services among the scopes a local government may not license either:

“A local government … may not require a person to obtain a license … for a job scope which does not substantially correspond to the job scope of one of the contractor categories defined in s. 489.105(3)(a)-(o) and (q) … job scopes for which a local government may not require a license include, but are not limited to, painting; flooring; cabinetry; … handyman services; … pressure washing; stuccoing; caulking …” (Fla. Stat. 489.117(4)(a)1)

A job therefore never turns on a handyman license. It turns on two questions, answered by two different bodies: does the scope fall inside a contractor category, and does the work require a building permit.

What work requires a licensed contractor

Fla. Stat. 489.105(3) holds the categories: Division I — (a) general, (b) building and (c) residential, the three Division I license classes — then the (d)–(p) trade classes and (q) specialty, covered under trade and specialty license classes. Each is held statewide or for one jurisdiction; see certified or registered contractor.

A certified specialty category established by board rule is a voluntary statewide category and creates no mandatory statewide licensing requirement (489.113(6)(a)) — and a local government may still license such a scope, because 489.117(4)(a)1’s preemption does not reach scopes corresponding to a certified specialty category; see trade and specialty license classes.

Electrical and alarm-system contracting is not in that list of 17 at all. It sits in chapter 489, Part II, under the Electrical Contractors’ Licensing Board, and 489.505(12) reaches “electrical wiring, fixtures, appliances, apparatus, raceways, conduit.”

Chapter 489 also places a duty on people who already hold a license — what a licensed contractor must subcontract, subject to the exceptions in 489.113(3)(a)–(g):

“A contractor shall subcontract all electrical, mechanical, plumbing, roofing, sheet metal, swimming pool, and air-conditioning work, unless such contractor holds a state certificate or registration in the respective trade category, however:” (Fla. Stat. 489.113(3), followed by the exceptions in (a) through (g))

That is an obligation on the licensee, not a list of trades an unlicensed person is separately forbidden to touch.

Fla. Stat. 489.128(1)(a) provides: “For purposes of this section, if a state license is not required for the scope of work to be performed under the contract, the individual performing that work is not considered unlicensed.” That sentence is scoped to s. 489.128 — it does not make any particular job lawful.

The building-permit line

Fla. Stat. 553.79(1) makes it “unlawful … to construct, erect, alter, modify, repair, or demolish any building within this state without first obtaining a permit therefor from the appropriate enforcing agency.” The Florida Building Code lists work exempt from permit at section 105.2; this page names that section and makes no claim about its contents, because under Fla. Stat. 553.80(1) local governments enforce the Code and may adopt rules granting an owner of a single-family residence exemptions from it.

For a scope a local government may not license, 489.117(4)(a)1 adds that it “may not require a state or local license to obtain a permit for such job scopes” — which removes the license as a precondition, not the permit, and 489.127(1)(h) makes it a prohibited act to commence or perform work requiring a building permit under part IV of chapter 553 without the permit in effect (quoted at penalties for contracting without a license).

This page does not tell you whether your job needs a permit. Only the building department for the jurisdiction where the work is done can answer that, and its answer governs.

Task by task: which rule applies, and who decides

This table lists which rules apply to each task. It does not say whether a particular job needs a license or a permit — that depends on the actual scope, the contract, and the local building department’s determination, and this page cannot make it for you.

Task	Which rule applies	Who decides
Repaint an interior room	No 489.105(3) category covers painting; 489.117(4)(a)1 names “painting” as a scope a local government may not license, subject to (4)(a)2–3.	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.
Install flooring	Same 489.117(4)(a)1 list; no 489.105(3) category corresponds.	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.
Set decorative tile or stone	Same list: “decorative stone, tile, marble, granite, or terrazzo installation.”	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.
Pressure-wash a house exterior	Same list: “pressure washing.” Rooftop cleaning above three stories is separate, below.	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.
Interior remodeling	Same list, conditionally: “interior remodeling when the scope of the project does not include a task for which a state license is required.”	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.
Install aluminum or vinyl gutters	489.117(4)(a)3, pre-2021 grandfather: “veneer, including aluminum or vinyl gutters, siding, soffit, or fascia,” where the local government imposed the requirement before 1 January 2021.	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board; any surviving pre-2021 requirement, the local government that imposed it. Permit: the local building department.
Install siding, soffit, or fascia	489.117(4)(a)3, pre-2021 grandfather: the same “veneer … siding, soffit, or fascia” clause, where the local government imposed the requirement before 1 January 2021.	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board; any surviving pre-2021 requirement, the local government that imposed it. Permit: the local building department.
Install or erect a fence	489.117(4)(a)3, pre-2021 grandfather: “fence installation and erection,” where the local government imposed the requirement before 1 January 2021.	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board; any surviving pre-2021 requirement, the local government that imposed it. Permit: the local building department.
Clean a rooftop above three stories	489.117(4)(a)3, pre-2021 grandfather: “rooftop painting, coating, and cleaning above three stories in height,” where the local government imposed it before 1 January 2021.	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board; any surviving pre-2021 requirement, the local government that imposed it. Permit: the local building department.
Replace a toilet in place	Plumbing is a category: 489.105(3)(m) is “unlimited in the plumbing trade,” and plumbing is not on 489.117(4)(a)1’s list.	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.
Replace a roof covering	Roofing is a category: 489.105(3)(e) is “unlimited in the roofing trade.”	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.
Install a swimming pool	Categories (j)–(l) cover pool and spa construction, and servicing.	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.
Install central air-conditioning	489.105(3)(f) is unlimited; (g) is “limited to 25 tons of cooling and 500,000 Btu of heating in any one system.”	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.
Replace a ceiling fan	Electrical work is chapter 489 Part II (ECLB), not CILB. 489.505(12) reaches “electrical wiring, fixtures, appliances, apparatus, raceways, conduit.” Nothing in 489.103, including its $2,500 minor-work provision, reaches Part II (see 489.503).	Scope: DBPR and the relevant board. Permit: the local building department.

Because a table can be scrolled or stacked on a phone, the third column is restated here. Scope — whether work falls inside a contractor category, and which — is for DBPR and the relevant board: the CILB for chapter 489, Part I, the Electrical Contractors’ Licensing Board for Part II. Permits are for the local building department, whose determination governs. Where a pre-2021 local trade license survives, the local government that imposed it says whether it still applies.

The $2,500 minor-work exemption — and its two exceptions

The figure is $2,500, and it arrives with conditions. Fla. Stat. 489.103(9) exempts:

“Any work or operation of a casual, minor, or inconsequential nature in which the aggregate contract price for labor, materials, and all other items is less than $2,500, but this exemption does not apply:”

“(a) If the construction, repair, remodeling, or improvement is a part of a larger or major operation … or in which a division of the operation is made in contracts of amounts less than $2,500 for the purpose of evading this part or otherwise.”

“(b) To a person who advertises that he or she is a contractor or otherwise represents that he or she is qualified to engage in contracting.”

The figure is the aggregate contract price for labor, materials and all other items, not a labor charge. Exception (a) addresses one job written as several smaller contracts; under (b), advertising as a contractor removes the exemption whatever the job is worth.

Section 489.103 opens “This part does not apply to:”. This is an exemption from Part I of chapter 489 — the CILB licensing part. It is not an exemption from the building-permit requirement in s. 553.79, from the separate electrical and alarm licensing part (ch. 489 Part II), or from 489.127(1)(h), which prohibits commencing work requiring a building permit under part IV of chapter 553 without the permit in effect.

Building on your own property: the owner-builder exemption

Section 489.103(9) is not Florida’s only exemption. The other one most people meet turns on who owns the property rather than on how small the job is — and it applies to the owner, not to the person being paid.

Fla. Stat. 489.103(7)(a)1 reaches owners acting as their own contractor who provide “direct, onsite supervision themselves of all work not performed by licensed contractors,” within limits the statute sets on building type, the owner’s own use, and cost. Proof of sale or lease within 1 year after completion “creates a presumption that the construction was undertaken for purposes of sale or lease” — an evidentiary presumption applied in an enforcement action, not a date after which sale is permitted.

Florida requires the local permitting agency to give an owner-builder a disclosure statement to sign before the permit issues. Items 4 through 8 and the closing warning are reproduced below; the full 12-item text is in Fla. Stat. 489.103(7)(c). The version your building department gives you governs — this copy is for reading, not for signing.

4. I understand that I may build or improve a one-family or two-family residence or a farm outbuilding. I may also build or improve a commercial building if the costs do not exceed $75,000. The building or residence must be for my own use or occupancy. It may not be built or substantially improved for sale or lease, unless I am completing the requirements of a building permit where the contractor listed on the permit substantially completed the project. If a building or residence that I have built or substantially improved myself is sold or leased within 1 year after the construction is complete, the law will presume that I built or substantially improved it for sale or lease, which violates the exemption.

5. I understand that, as the owner-builder, I must provide direct, onsite supervision of the construction.

6. I understand that I may not hire an unlicensed person to act as my contractor or to supervise persons working on my building or residence. It is my responsibility to ensure that the persons whom I employ have the licenses required by law and by county or municipal ordinance.

7. I understand that it is a frequent practice of unlicensed persons to have the property owner obtain an owner-builder permit that erroneously implies that the property owner is providing his or her own labor and materials. I, as an owner-builder, may be held liable and subjected to serious financial risk for any injuries sustained by an unlicensed person or his or her employees while working on my property. My homeowner’s insurance may not provide coverage for those injuries. I am willfully acting as an owner-builder and am aware of the limits of my insurance coverage for injuries to workers on my property.

8. I understand that I may not delegate the responsibility for supervising work to a licensed contractor who is not licensed to perform the work being done. Any person working on my building who is not licensed must work under my direct supervision and must be employed by me, which means that I must comply with laws requiring the withholding of federal income tax and social security contributions under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) and must provide workers’ compensation for the employee. I understand that my failure to follow these laws may subject me to serious financial risk.

Licensed contractors are regulated by laws designed to protect the public. If you contract with a person who does not have a license, the Construction Industry Licensing Board and Department of Business and Professional Regulation may be unable to assist you with any financial loss that you sustain as a result of a complaint. Your only remedy against an unlicensed contractor may be in civil court. It is also important for you to understand that, if an unlicensed contractor or employee of an individual or firm is injured while working on your property, you may be held liable for damages. If you obtain an owner-builder permit and wish to hire a licensed contractor, you will be responsible for verifying whether the contractor is properly licensed and the status of the contractor’s workers’ compensation coverage.

Quoted from Fla. Stat. 489.103(7)(c). Items 7 and 8 are the state’s warning to owners, reproduced for reading — this page makes no assertion of its own about an owner’s liability or insurance coverage. Whether the exemption is available for a particular project is decided by the local permitting agency.

That last obligation is a verification step: see how to check a contractor’s license before hiring.

Fla. Stat. 489.103(7)(b) adds that the subsection “does not exempt any person who is employed by or has a contract with such owner and who acts in the capacity of a contractor,” and that the owner “may not delegate the owner’s responsibility to directly supervise all work to any other person unless that person is registered or certified under this part and the work being performed is within the scope of that person’s license.” Under (7)(c) the owner must personally appear and sign the permit application, and a violation lets the local permitting agency withhold final approval, revoke the permit, or pursue a remedy for unlicensed activity.

Subparagraphs (7)(a)2–4 add three narrow branches: emergency shake or shingle repair, solar work under a federal rooftop-solar grant program — where the owner must still use a licensed electrical contractor for the wiring — and completing a permit a listed contractor substantially completed. And 489.103 sits in Part I — wiring has its own owner provision, on its own terms, in Fla. Stat. 489.503(6).

What still applies when no state license does

Local contractor licensing, largely preempted. For a scope that does not substantially correspond to a state category, 489.117(4)(a)1 provides that the person “is not required to register with the board.” Two carve-outs survive: (4)(a)2, for a county including an area of critical state concern, and (4)(a)3, the grandfathered trades above — both limited to requirements imposed before 1 January 2021. Whether a particular local requirement survives is a question for the local government that imposes it. A local license is also never a substitute where the scope does require state licensure: Fla. Stat. 489.13(1) treats that work as unlicensed contracting regardless of any local construction license or certificate of competency, and treats work outside the geographic scope of a registration as unlicensed activity.

Things that are not a license. Fla. Stat. 489.127(1) provides: “A business tax receipt issued under the authority of chapter 205 is not a license for purposes of this part.”

Obligations that come with employing people. Employing workers rather than working alone brings separate employment obligations that chapter 489 does not itself set out; disclosure item 8 above is where they surface on the face of this statute.

Forming a business entity does not affect whether a license is required; a business organization is licensed only through a qualifying agent (489.119), and a ch. 205 business tax receipt “is not a license for purposes of this part” (489.127(1)).

Advertising: the line most people miss

Advertising cuts both ways. Under Fla. Stat. 489.127(1)(f) it is a prohibited act to “[e]ngage in the business or act in the capacity of a contractor or advertise himself or herself or a business organization as available to engage in the business or act in the capacity of a contractor without being duly registered or certified” — the prohibition attaches to the representation, so it can be broken by a listing or a truck decal with no job attached. Pointing the other way, 489.103(9)(b) withdraws the minor-work exemption from “a person who advertises that he or she is a contractor.” How any particular wording reads is for DBPR and, ultimately, a court.

If the line gets crossed

Chapter 489 attaches consequences on two tracks — the criminal classifications in 489.127(2) and administrative action under 489.13 — and separately affects whether a contract or a lien is enforceable. This page states no classifications and no figures; those, and what a homeowner risks by hiring someone unlicensed, are set out on penalties for contracting without a license.

When a job falls inside a licensed contractor category

The question then becomes which category, and what qualifying under it involves. Start with what qualifying for a state license takes, and see Florida’s contractor license structure for how the classes fit together.

Work performed under a licensed contractor’s supervision

The statute also carries a supervision route. Fla. Stat. 489.117(4)(d) provides that a person not required to register or be certified under 489.105(3)(d)–(o) may perform contracting services on single-family residences, including a townhouse as defined in the Florida Building Code, without a local license, if under the supervision of a certified or registered general, building or residential contractor — and that “supervision shall not be deemed to require the existence of a direct contract” between them. Subsection (4)(e) is the parallel provision for pool and spa work, and 489.113(2) lets an uncertified subcontractor work under a certified or registered person’s supervision, provided the work is within the scope of the supervising contractor’s license, the supervising contractor is responsible for the work, and the supervised subcontractor is not engaged in work that would require a license under any of the categories in 489.105(3)(d)–(o); the subsection also does not affect any local construction licensing ordinance. Whether a given arrangement meets those conditions is for the supervising licensee and the local building department.

Common questions

What can a handyman do without a license in Florida?

The statute answers by scope, not by job title. Fla. Stat. 489.117(4)(a)1 names painting, flooring, cabinetry, pressure washing, plastering, stuccoing, caulking, driveway installation, decorative stone and tile work and handyman services among scopes that do not substantially correspond to a state category. Permit requirements apply independently of that list.

What does Florida law require of an owner who pulls the permit?

Fla. Stat. 489.103(7) reaches owners acting as their own contractor who provide direct, onsite supervision themselves of all work not performed by licensed contractors, within the limits the subsection sets — the one-family, two-family and farm-outbuilding branch, the $75,000 commercial cap, the not-for-sale-or-lease condition and the 1-year presumption.

What does the owner-builder disclosure say about hiring unlicensed workers?

Item 6 states that the owner “may not hire an unlicensed person to act as my contractor or to supervise persons working on my building or residence,” and item 8 that an unlicensed person working on the property “must work under my direct supervision and must be employed by me.”

What is the maximum a handyman can charge in Florida?

Fla. Stat. 489.103(9) exempts work of a casual, minor or inconsequential nature where the aggregate contract price for labor, materials and all other items is less than $2,500 — with two express exceptions in the same subsection: work that is part of a larger operation or divided into smaller contracts, and any person who advertises as a contractor.

Does that $2,500 provision cover electrical work?

No. Section 489.103 opens “This part does not apply to:”, so every exemption in it is scoped to chapter 489, Part I. Electrical and alarm contracting sits in Part II under the Electrical Contractors’ Licensing Board, whose own provisions are in 489.503, and none of them is a dollar threshold of that kind.

This page summarizes Florida law and is general information, not legal advice. It does not state whether any particular job requires a license or a permit. Verify scope with the Florida DBPR and the relevant board, and permits with the local building department.

Last verified: 2026-07-27