How to Check Whether Your Roofer Is Actually Licensed

This is the single most useful thing a Colorado homeowner can understand before hiring a roofer, and it is almost never explained properly.

The thing that does not exist

Colorado has no statewide roofing license. Licensing is handled entirely by individual cities and counties, each with its own classification, its own requirements and its own paperwork. “Licensed in Colorado” describes a credential that is not issued by anyone.

This is not a loophole or an oversight. It is simply how the state is structured: building regulation is a local function, and each jurisdiction decides whether and how to license the trades working inside it.

The consequence is that a contractor can be thoroughly, legitimately licensed and still be completely unlicensed for your particular job.

What the local picture actually looks like

Here are the authorities we work under, and what each requires. These are within about half an hour of each other.

Twelve authorities. Twelve different answers. The same trade, on houses a few miles apart.

The four questions

1. Which authority issues my permit?

Ask this first, and ask it of the contractor rather than answering it for them. It is a competence test as much as an information request.

A contractor who works your area regularly answers immediately. One who hesitates, or who assumes your mailing address is your jurisdiction, has told you something important.

Remember that a Littleton mailing address frequently is not Littleton. The Post Office applies the name across three counties, and only ZIP 80120 sits completely inside city limits. How to work out which authority covers you →

2. Are you licensed by that specific authority?

Not licensed generally. Licensed by the body that will issue your permit.

If the answer is no, that is not automatically disqualifying — licenses can be obtained — but it means a delay, and it means they have not worked your area much. Both are worth knowing before you sign.

3. Can I see the certificate, and when does it expire?

Licenses lapse. Littleton's expire annually on December 31, with renewal opening 90 days before. A license that expired in January is not a license in March.

Ask for the document, check the date, and check the name on it matches the company on your contract. Those are frequently different entities, and the one doing the work is the one that needs the license.

4. Will your own crew install it, or a subcontractor?

This matters more than people expect, because several jurisdictions license down the chain.

Columbine Valley requires that subcontractors employed for any part of the work be licensed by the Town individually, and will not issue a permit to a homeowner for work performed by unlicensed contractors. Sheridan requires individually hired contractors to hold city licenses. Centennial requires any subcontractor used to independently hold a city license.

A great deal of roofing in this metro is subcontracted. The company that sells you the roof is frequently not the company on your roof, and in those jurisdictions the arrangement has to be licensed all the way down.

How to actually verify it

Do not rely on a logo on a van or a PDF forwarded by the salesperson.

• Call the building department. They will confirm whether a contractor holds a current license. City of Littleton Permit Center: 303-795-3751. Arapahoe County: 720-874-6600. Douglas County: 303-660-7460. Sheridan: 303-438-3302. Parker: 303-841-1970. Lone Tree: 720-390-5211.
• Ask for insurance direct from the insurer. A certificate of insurance sent by the broker, naming you or your property, is worth more than a forwarded file.
• Check the permit once work starts. Littleton and Wheat Ridge both require the permit to be displayed visible from the street. If there is no permit posted, there may be no permit.

What licensing does not tell you

Worth being balanced about this. A license proves somebody filed paperwork, carried insurance and in some jurisdictions passed an exam. It does not prove the crew on your roof nails six times instead of four.

In Cherry Hills Village and Lone Tree, where no roofing license exists, quality control runs through permits and inspections instead. That is a legitimate model, and it is why Cherry Hills Village mandates a mid-roof inspection on every reroof.

So treat licensing as a floor rather than a recommendation. Above it, the questions worth asking are about the work: what fastening pattern, what underlayment coverage, what happens if the deck needs sheathing, who meets the inspector.

The one absolute

Whatever else you conclude about a contractor, there is a single disqualifying answer.

If they offer to cover, waive or absorb your insurance deductible, walk away. That is insurance fraud, the claim is submitted in your name, and a company willing to defraud your carrier is not a company whose warranty means anything.

More on what a roofer can and cannot do on a claim →