Minnesota licenses residential roofers at the state level, and the register is public. What follows is who must be licensed, the one exemption that gets misused, and the lookup that settles it.
If somebody is roofing Minnesota homes for money, they need a state licence, and you can verify it free in the Department of Labor and Industry lookup. There is a small-operator exemption below $15,000 of annual receipts, but it is not automatic — it requires a certificate of exemption from the commissioner, so “I’m exempt” is still a document somebody should be able to show you.
Yes. The statute is direct about it: a person meeting the definition of a residential roofer must be licensed by the commissioner as a residential roofer, a residential building contractor, or a residential remodeler. Any of those three covers roofing work.
The licence is held by the business, and the state issues it only after a qualifying person has passed the exam and the business has shown proof of insurance. That is the substance behind the number — which is why the number is worth asking for.
Minn. Stat. § 326B.805, subd. 1: “A person who meets the definition of a residential roofer as defined in section 326B.802, subdivision 14, must be licensed by the commissioner as a residential roofer, residential building contractor, or residential remodeler.” Source: Minn. Stat. § 326B.805
The Department of Labor and Industry publishes a free licence and registration lookup. Search by business name or by licence number. It will show you whether the licence is active and what it covers.
Two things worth checking while you are in there. First, that the name on the licence matches the name on the contract — not a similar one, and not a parent company nobody mentioned. Second, that the licence is current rather than expired, which is the usual failure mode for a company that was legitimate once.
Matthews Building Solutions holds Minnesota licence BC807855 and Wisconsin licence 2590-DCFR. Both are yours to check, and you should check them the same way you would check anyone else’s.
Search any Minnesota contractor by name or licence number in the Department of Labor and Industry’s public license and registration lookup. Source: MN DLI License and Registration Lookup
It is real, and it is narrower than it is usually made to sound. The statute exempts a person whose total gross annual receipts for the work that would otherwise require a licence do not exceed $15,000.
The part that gets left out: the exemption is not automatic. To rely on it, a person has to obtain a certificate of exemption from the commissioner. So “I don’t need a licence, I’m under the threshold” still describes a document, and someone genuinely operating that way can show you one.
There is also a plain arithmetic point. A storm-chasing crew signing roofs across several counties is not doing $15,000 of annual business. The exemption is written for someone doing occasional small jobs, and that is not who is knocking on doors in the week after a hail event.
Minn. Stat. § 326B.805, subd. 6(5) exempts “a person whose total gross annual receipts for performing specialty skills for which licensure would be required under this section do not exceed $15,000” — and adds: “To qualify for the exemption in clause (5), a person must obtain a certificate of exemption from licensure from the commissioner.” Source: Minn. Stat. § 326B.805, subd. 6
They are three licence types of increasing breadth, and any of them permits roofing. A residential roofer licence covers roofing. A residential remodeler covers remodelling work on existing homes. A residential building contractor is the broadest and covers new construction as well.
For a re-roof it does not matter which of the three a company holds, so a contractor whose licence says “residential building contractor” rather than “roofer” is not a problem. What matters is that one of them is there, is current, and is in the name on your contract.
This page quotes Minnesota statutes and the adopted Minnesota building code and links to the official text of each so you can read it yourself. It is general information from a licensed contractor, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for reading your own policy. Statutes and codes are amended; the linked sources are authoritative, this page is not. Last reviewed 2026-10-27.
Straight answers to the questions Minnesota homeowners ask before they call anyone.
A Minnesota contractor cannot pay or waive your deductible, cannot interpret your policy for you without a public adjuster license, and must hand you…
Read the guide →Replacement cost pays what it costs to replace the roof. Actual cash value pays that minus depreciation for the roof’s age and condition — and on a…
Read the guide →If you signed a contract to be paid out of insurance proceeds and the claim is then denied, you have 72 hours from being notified to cancel that…
Read the guide →Your policy sets the notice requirement, and separately the standard hail policy in Minnesota statute carries a one-year period to bring suit —…
Read the guide →Costs, materials, timelines, financing, and how we work — across roofing, siding, windows, and gutters.
Read the FAQ →We’ll walk it, photograph it, and give you a written scope that says exactly what is required and why. Retail or insurance.
We’ll walk the roof, photograph what we find, and hand you a written scope that names the code requirement behind every line. Yours to keep, whoever does the work.
We measure the work by how it holds up — and by what clients say once we're gone.