There is no phone number here.

A Home Improvement Contractor licence is checkable by name, in a city dataset that does not block automated requests.

What to check. Whether the person or company named on the paperwork holds a current Home Improvement Contractor licence issued by the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and whether the name on that licence is the name on the paperwork.

“No person shall solicit, canvass, sell, perform or obtain a home improvement contract as a contractor or salesperson from an owner without a license therefor”

Administrative Code § 20-386 defines “home improvement” as construction, repair, replacement, remodeling or alteration to land or a building used as a residence, and defines the building it applies to as one containing no more than four residences or dwelling units[AC 20-386]. A one- or two-family house in Richmond County is inside that definition, and so is a roof on one.

Administrative Code § 20-397(5) exempts a home improvement whose aggregate contract price is less than $200, and then closes the exemption in the same sentence: it “does not apply where the work is only part of a larger or major operation… or in which a division of the operation is made in contracts of amounts less than two hundred dollars for the purpose of evasion”[AC 20-397]. A roof is not a sub-$200 job and cannot be split into sub-$200 contracts to become one.

How to check it. Three routes, all free, none of which asks for anything about you. The Department publishes a Check License Status page and a licence search portal. The same records are in the City's open data as the Legally Operating Businesses dataset, identifier w7w3-xahh, which returns results to a plain request and does not bot-block; filter it on business category Home Improvement Contractor and licence status Active.

What a pass looks like. A record exists; its status reads Active; and the licensed name matches the name printed on the estimate and the contract, letter for letter. Administrative Code § 20-393(8) makes operating under any name other than the licensed one a prohibited act, so a mismatch is not a clerical detail. The licence term is two years, expiring on February 28 of odd-numbered years[DCWP LIC], so an expiry date is worth reading as well as a status.

DATA AS OF
2026-04-24

A direct query against that dataset returns 1,239 active Home Improvement Contractor licences with a Staten Island business address, out of 12,892 active citywide and 18,437 in all statuses[w7w3-xahh]. The field is a business address, not a service area: a licensed contractor in Brooklyn may work here, and a Staten Island address in the dataset says nothing about where the work is done.

What a failure means. No record, or a status that is not active, means the largest recovery route in the city is already closed before any work starts — see the fifth check. Operating without the licence is a misdemeanour punishable by up to six months, a fine of up to $1,000, or both, with each violation a separate offence; a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation is also available, and the Department or the police may seize the vehicle used in the unlicensed work[AC 20-401]. Where a violation is wilful or has threatened the owner's health or safety, the commissioner may order the contractor to pay up to three times actual damages (§ 20-401(3)).

The licence is a consumer-protection registration, not a test of roofing skill.

New York State has no statewide roofing contractor licence at all. The New York City licence is obtained by passing a 30-question examination with 21 correct answers, for a $50 fee, and only one principal of the business — a sole proprietor, general partner, corporate officer, principal, director, member, or shareholder of ten percent or more — has to pass it[DCWP LIC]. The application also requires financial responsibility, in the form of a $20,000 surety bond or enrolment in the Home Improvement Contractor Trust Fund for $200, naming the Department as certificate holder.

None of that examines a roof. The licence establishes that a business is registered, bonded or enrolled, and reachable by an enforcement agency. It does not establish that anyone at the business has installed a roof correctly, and it is not evidence of workmanship. The next check is the one that carries money.

§ 20-386 · § 20-387(a) · § 20-393(8) · § 20-397(5) · § 20-401 — New York City Administrative Code [AC 20-387]

Workers' compensation coverage is proved by form number, and an ACORD certificate is not one of the forms.

What to check. That the contractor carries New York State workers' compensation coverage and disability benefits coverage, evidenced on a form the State accepts, and that the general liability coverage exists at the amounts the law names.

“ACORD forms are not acceptable proof of New York State workers' compensation coverage”

Both the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection and the Workers' Compensation Board state it in those terms. The ACORD certificate is the document most often produced at a kitchen table, because it is the document an insurance agency prints on request. The State does not accept it, and the forms it does accept are identifiable by number.

How to check it. Read the number in the corner of the paper against this table. Workers' Compensation Law § 57 governs the compensation coverage and § 220(8) governs disability benefits and Paid Family Leave; both apply to original issuances and renewals, whether the government entity is having the work done or is simply issuing the permit[WCB 57].

What a pass looks like. A C-105.2, U-26.3, SI-12 or SIG-105.2 in the contractor's name, in force on the dates the work will happen, plus a DB-120.1 or DB-155. The Department's model contract requires that the workers' compensation certificate be given to the consumer before work begins[DCWP MODEL], so asking for it is asking for a document the contract already owes you.

Two liability figures are named in law rather than by custom. General Business Law § 771-b sets minimums for a roofing contractor of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per occurrence for bodily injury, and $50,000 per occurrence and in the aggregate for property damage[GBL 771-b]. Separately, a contractor licensed or registered by the Department of Buildings must maintain, for the duration of the licence:

“evidence of a commercial general liability insurance policy in the amount of $1,000,000… together with satisfactory evidence of compliance with the workers' compensation law and the disability benefits law.”

What a failure means. If the crew is uninsured and a worker falls, the question of who pays does not stay between the worker and the contractor. Labor Law § 240(1) imposes liability on “All contractors and owners and their agents, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work”[LAB 240]. Labor Law § 241(6) carries the same exception in the same words. The exception is written with conditions inside it, it is not automatic, and whether it holds in a particular case is a question this page does not answer and cannot answer about your house. What is not conditional is the underlying protection: an insured crew has a carrier standing behind it, and an uninsured one does not.

WCL § 57 · WCL § 220(8) · GBL § 771-b · AC § 28-401.9 · Labor Law §§ 240(1), 241(6) [WCB 57]

A written contract is required, its contents are set by statute, and the City publishes the model to read yours against.

What to check. That there is a written contract at all, and that it contains every item General Business Law § 771 lists. Under General Business Law § 770 a “home improvement contract” is one whose aggregate price exceeds $500; “home improvement” expressly includes roofing; and “owner” covers a homeowner, a co-operative shareholder, a residential tenant and a custom-home purchaser[GBL 770]. Roofing carries a second, narrower requirement of its own: General Business Law § 771-b(1) provides that “Every roofing contractor shall enter into a written contract with an owner,” for “roofing, gutter, downspout or siding services”[GBL 771-b].

How to check it. Open the Department's model contract and Notice of Cancellation and its model estimate beside what you were handed, and read them line by line. Both are PDFs published by the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection for contractors to use, which makes them the City's own statement of what a complete document looks like.

General Business Law § 771 requires a contract in writing, signed by all parties, that carries the contractor's name, address, telephone number and licence number; approximate start and completion dates and any contingencies that would change them; a detailed description of the work and the materials, including cost; the mechanic's lien notice; the Lien Law escrow or bond notice; progress payments stated as dollar amounts tied to specific stages of completion rather than to dates; and notice of the right to cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing. Since 2022-04-23 it must also state the contractor's property and casualty insurance coverage and the insurer's contact information[GBL 771]. The whole document must be legible and in plain English.

The model estimate adds the details that make an estimate readable: the licence number printed at the top of every page, a description of the work with estimated cost, a list of any materials the consumer is supplying, whether brands were discussed, which permits are required and who obtains them, initials on every page, and a warranty line with the instruction “If none, state none”[DCWP MODEL]. The model contract adds itemised materials with quantity, quality, brand, identifying features and estimated price; a per-permit price line; an agreement to clean up; an agreement to use only licensed subcontractors together with the sentence “The Consumer is not responsible if the Contractor fails to pay these subcontractors or supply vendors”; the workers' compensation certificate handed over before work begins; written change orders signed by both parties before the changed work starts; the mechanic's lien and Lien Law § 71-a(4) notices; the complaint notice; and the cancellation legend with a separate Notice of Cancellation form. If the deal was negotiated in a language other than English, the contract is in both languages.

Two documents are owed before signature, not after. Administrative Code § 20-395 requires the contractor to “affirmatively disclose that an estimate in writing of the materials and labor necessary for a specific home improvement job is available”, and a fee for that estimate may be charged only if it was disclosed in advance and itemised in the contract price. The Department's Permit Disclosure form must be given in writing before the contract is signed, listing each permit's type and reason, who obtains it, the estimated fee, and how to verify its status; the Department's own warning is that if the contractor does not have the required Department of Buildings permit, the consumer may be issued a violation and required to pay a fine[DCWP TIPS].

What a pass looks like. Every item above appears, the numbers reconcile between the estimate and the contract, and the payment schedule is a set of dollar amounts attached to stages of completion. On money before work: payments received before substantial completion must be deposited in escrow at a bank located in New York and remain the property of the owner unless a bond, contract of indemnity or irrevocable letter of credit is substituted (Lien Law § 71-a(4), reached through General Business Law Article 36-A). The Department's published guidance to consumers is to pay no more than 25% up front and never in cash[DCWP TIPS].

What a failure means. A missing term is not a formality that can be signed away later. Administrative Code § 20-394 provides:

“No acts, agreements or statements of an owner… shall constitute a waiver of any provisions of this subchapter intended for the benefit or protection of the owner”

Administrative Code § 20-393 lists conduct that is prohibited outright, and four items on that list are worth reading before signing anything: a material deviation from the plans or specifications without the owner's written consent (item 1); wilful or deliberate disregard of the building, sanitary, fire and health laws (item 6); any clause purporting to waive the owner's rights (item 13); and the inducement rule (item 16), under which no gift, bonus, award, merchandise, trading stamps or cash loan may be offered to get the contract, an advertising trinket being permitted only if it is unconditional, worth no more than $2.50, and given once per transaction. The Department adds a fifth, which is specific to this city and widely ignored: “Home improvement contractors are not allowed to arrange or offer financing for a home improvement loan”[DCWP TIPS]. Knowingly misrepresenting a material fact to induce the contract is a misdemeanour, and the owner “may sue and recover… a penalty of five hundred dollars in addition to any damages” (§ 20-396).

GBL § 770 · GBL § 771 · GBL § 771-b(1) · AC § 20-393 · AC § 20-394 · AC § 20-395 · AC § 20-396 · Lien Law § 71-a(4) [GBL 771]

Three three-business-day clocks run from the paperwork, a fourth runs from the insurer's denial, and New York City adds one more.

What to check. Which clock applies to the way this contract was actually signed — at a kitchen table, at a fair, at an office — and when it started, which is not always the day of signature.

How to check it. Read the table against the circumstances of the signing. More than one row can apply to the same contract at the same time.

The fourth clock is the one the trade rarely mentions, because it survives the point at which a homeowner has usually stopped reading. General Business Law § 771-b(3) provides that the owner “may cancel the contract prior to midnight on the third business day after the insured party has received written notice from the insurer that all or any part of the claim… is not a covered loss”[GBL 771-b]. A contract signed in the week after a storm, on the assumption that insurance would pay for it, is cancellable when the insurer says in writing that it will not.

What a pass looks like. The contract carries the cancellation legend and a separate Notice of Cancellation form, in duplicate, as the Department's model contract does[DCWP MODEL]. Under Administrative Code § 20-394.1 the licensee must furnish notice that the owner may cancel “until midnight of the third business day” after signing or after receiving the notice of the right to cancel, whichever occurs later — so a contract that omits the notice does not start the city clock at all.

What a failure means. There is one carve-out from the New York City right, and it has a specific shape: an owner-initiated bona fide emergency, waived by a separate, dated, handwritten statement signed by the owner expressly waiving the right[AC 20-394.1]. A pre-printed waiver inside the contract is not that document, and § 20-394 disposes of it. Where the paperwork was handed over at the door and no cancellation notice in 10-point bold face type came with it, the Personal Property Law obligation was not met either.

GBL § 771(1)(e) · AC § 20-394.1 · PPL §§ 427, 428 · 16 CFR Part 429 · GBL § 771-b(3) [PPL 427]

A complaint goes to the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and the largest recovery route is closed by hiring unlicensed.

What to check first, because it is decided before the work starts. The Home Improvement Contractor Trust Fund is the mechanism that pays a homeowner when a licensed contractor takes the money and does not finish. Its first condition is not about the job:

“You are not eligible for Trust Fund repayment options if you use an unlicensed home improvement contractor.”

CAPS EFFECTIVE
2025-07-18

The eligible circumstances are that a licensed contractor did not complete the job, or owes the owner money. Two caps apply: $40,000 where the fund is invaded after an award, a judgment or a settled summons, and $20,000 through the consumer claims process, which does not require the contractor's cooperation. Both figures took effect on 2025-07-18[6 RCNY 2-224]. Claims are made to the Department through the route its consumer tips describe[DCWP TIPS].

How to file. The Department takes complaints online, with no account required, or by mail at 42 Broadway, New York, NY 10004. Complaint forms are published in twelve languages. The Department resolves complaints through mediation, which is the word that sets the expectation: it is a process for reaching an agreement, not a court that enters a judgment.

What that process produces. In the first four months of fiscal year 2026, 828 complaints across all the industries the Department regulates entered mediation and 808 were resolved, at a median of 32 days against a 28-day target; 40% closed within 28 days against a 50% target, and 86% within 50 days. Consumer restitution over that period was $1,865,670 citywide across every industry the Department covers, and the Department attributes most of the increase to a single employment-agency case[PMMR 2026]. That last clause is why the figure is printed with its scope: it is not a roofing number and it is not a per-complaint average.

The court route, and its ceiling. New York City's Small Claims Court is capped at $10,000[NY COURTS]. The Richmond County Civil Court's Small Claims Part sits at 927 Castleton Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10310. Where a claim exceeds the ceiling, the alternatives are Civil Court with a lawyer, or the Trust Fund — which returns the question to whether the contractor was licensed.

What a failure means, stated precisely. An unlicensed home improvement contractor cannot sue to collect: recovery is forfeited both on the contract and in quantum meruit, and CPLR 3015(e) makes a complaint that does not plead licensure dismissible. Richmond County sits in the Second Department, which applies that rule and construes the licensing requirement strictly[CPLR 3015]. That is a shield, not a sword. It bars the contractor's action for the balance. It is not a rule that money already paid comes back, and no page here will say otherwise; that question is fact-specific and is listed at the foot of this page among the things this page does not establish.

6 RCNY § 2-224 · CPLR 3015(e) · AC § 20-401 · NYC Small Claims Court [6 RCNY 2-224]

What this page does not establish

1. Whether the section numbering in the Administrative Code mirror consulted for the quoted text of §§ 20-386, 20-387, 20-393, 20-394, 20-394.1, 20-395, 20-396, 20-397 and 20-401 matches the City's official codification. The mirror was opened and the wording is reproduced from it; opening the official codified text would settle it.
2. Which subsection of General Business Law § 771-b carries the restriction on deposits taken by a roofing contractor. Subsections (1), (2), (3) and (8) were verified against the statutory text and none of them is that provision, so no subsection is cited for it and no deposit rule is stated from it here. Reading the full section would settle it.
3. The deadlines in Lien Law § 71-a(4) for depositing a payment into escrow and for notifying the owner of the depositary. The day counts in the material consulted came from a secondary summary. Reading § 71-a(4) itself would settle it.
4. The dollar threshold at which Personal Property Law § 426 defines a door-to-door sale. Sections 427 and 428 were read; § 426 was not retrieved.
5. The reporter citation for B & F Building Corp. v. Liebig, the Court of Appeals decision the Second Department relies on for the rule that an unlicensed contractor cannot recover. The rule is taken here from a Second Department decision that applies it; pulling the Court of Appeals opinion would settle the citation.
6. Whether a homeowner can recover money already paid to an unlicensed contractor. The verified rule runs the other way — the contractor cannot sue to collect. No decision on recovery of sums already paid was opened, and the question is fact-specific.
7. Whether the Labor Law § 240(1) exception for owners of one- and two-family dwellings applies in any particular case. The statutory text is quoted above; the two-element test and the commercial-use limitation appear in the material consulted only in secondary summaries, and no appellate decision on them was opened.
8. Whether a homeowner can look up a Home Improvement Salesperson licence. The Administrative Code requires one (§§ 20-386(9), 20-387(a)), but the Department's checklist page for that licence does not resolve and the Legally Operating Businesses dataset returns no records for the category.