Landscape Contractor Licensure in N.C.?

Landscape Contractors in North Carolina may be required to obtain licenses if a bill currently in the state legislature becomes law.

The North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association (NCNLA) is advocating passage of legislation working its way through North Carolina’s government that would establish licensure for landscape contractors.

The bill, SB 447, unanimously passed the state senate and currently sits in the North Carolina House finance committee. Ross Williams, NCNLA executive director, said North Carolina government schedules a short session every other year, and that the next short session is in May 2012.

“They will meet for about six weeks, so that does not give us a lot of time for passage, but hopefully it will get through the finance committee and on to a vote in the full house (during the session),” he said.

The license is designed to raise the professional level of the landscape industry in North Carolina. Williams said an increase in professional standards will increase the performance of landscape contractors and the perception of landscape contractors among residents.

“We place a high value on landscape contractors and we want our customers to have that same feeling,” he said.

Williams said the goal for licensure is not to alienate current landscape contractors with many years of experience. Landscape contractors who are currently registered in the state will be grandfathered into the new license without the requirement of testing. The license also provides for appropriate exemptions for overlapping trades, like grass cutting, as well as exempting individuals that perform landscaping work below a $2,500 per year per customer threshold.