How to Verify a Roofer's License in Michigan (LARA)

Every year, Macomb County homeowners hire a roofer off a truck flyer, a doorknocker after a storm, or a name a neighbor mentioned, and never once check whether that person is actually licensed to do the work. It is an easy step to skip, because most people do not know the lookup exists, let alone how to use it. It does exist, it is free, it is public, and it takes about as long as reading this paragraph. This guide walks the license verification step on its own, before you get anywhere near comparing quotes, reading contracts, or spotting red flags, because none of the rest of the vetting process matters if the name on the estimate is not actually licensed to sign it.

01 / THE SHORT ANSWERYes, you can check, and you should, every time

Michigan requires contractors performing residential roofing work to hold a license issued through the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, commonly called LARA. The state maintains a public lookup where anyone can search a business or individual name and see whether a license exists, what class it is, and whether it is active, expired, or has been the subject of disciplinary action. Doing this lookup before signing anything is the single cheapest piece of due diligence in the entire hiring process, and it takes about two minutes.

One caveat worth stating plainly: a license is a floor, not a ceiling. It tells you the state has vetted the contractor's qualifications and has a mechanism to discipline them, not that they are the best fit for your job. Licensing is the first filter, and our full hiring guide covers everything that comes after it.

02 / THE LICENSE CLASSWhich license actually covers roofing work

Michigan licenses residential building and remodeling work, roofing included, under its residential builder and maintenance and alteration contractor framework administered by LARA. In practice, a company or individual performing roof replacement, repair, or related residential construction on your home should be able to produce a license number that falls under one of the classifications LARA recognizes for that scope of work. We keep the exact classification names and thresholds sourced rather than paraphrased from memory, because license structure is exactly the kind of detail that is worth getting precisely right rather than approximately right.

What licensing does not cover

Licensing is a state-level credential, separate from local permits, which are pulled per job through your municipality's building department, and separate from insurance, which is a policy the contractor carries rather than a license the state issues. A roofer can be licensed and still be uninsured, or insured and still be unlicensed. Ask for proof of both, and verify each independently rather than assuming one implies the other.

Commercial roofing and large multi-family or industrial projects can fall under separate licensing and permitting rules beyond the residential framework this guide covers. If your job is a homeowner's single-family roof, the residential lookup below is the right tool.

03 / THE LOOKUPRunning the LARA search, step by step

You do not need an account, a fee, or any special access to run this search. The state's license verification tool is built for exactly this use case: a homeowner checking a name before hiring.

1. Get the exact name and, if possible, the license number off the estimate, business card, or truck door. A first-and-last name match is usually enough, but a license number removes any ambiguity between similarly named businesses.
2. Go to the LARA licensing verification search. The exact current URL and search interface are a fast-changing detail we keep sourced rather than guessed, listed below.
3. Search by business name, individual name, or license number. Try the business name first since most residential roofing licenses are held by the company rather than an individual.
4. Open the matching record and confirm the license class matches residential construction or maintenance and alteration work, not an unrelated trade.
5. Check the status field. You are looking for an active, current license, not one that is expired, suspended, or revoked.
6. Scroll for any disciplinary history or complaint notations attached to the record, covered in the next section.

If the search turns up nothing at all under a name that appeared on your estimate, that is not a technicality to overlook. It usually means one of three things: the business is operating under a different legal name than the one on the paperwork, the individual is unlicensed, or the license was allowed to lapse. Any of those is worth a direct question before you sign anything.

04 / THE RESULTReading a record: complaints, lapses, and what they mean

A clean, active license with no history is the result you want to see, but a record with some history is not automatically disqualifying. Context matters.

WHAT YOU SEE	WHAT IT LIKELY MEANS	WHAT TO DO
Active, no complaints	Standard, current standing	Proceed with the rest of your vetting
Activewith a past complaint	A complaint was filed and resolved; outcomes vary widely	Ask the contractor directly what happened and how it was resolved
Expired or lapsed	License was not renewed on schedule	Ask why, and whether a renewal is in progress; treat with caution until resolved
Suspended or revoked	State-level disciplinary action is active	Do not hire; this is a hard stop, not a judgment call

A single old complaint on an otherwise long, active history is a very different signal than a suspension, or a pattern of repeated complaints in a short window. The state's disciplinary process exists precisely so a homeowner does not have to guess; a suspended or revoked license is the one result on this list that should end the conversation outright, no matter how good the estimate looks.

A license number on an estimate means nothing until you have actually looked it up. It takes two minutes, and it is the one check a dishonest contractor cannot talk their way around.

05 / THE UNLICENSED RISKWhat hiring an unlicensed crew actually risks you

Unlicensed roofing crews are not a rare edge case in Macomb County, especially in the weeks after a wind or hail event, when out-of-area crews follow the storm looking for fast cash jobs. The pitch is usually price: an unlicensed crew can undercut a licensed contractor because they carry none of the overhead of licensing, insurance, or accountability. The homeowner absorbs that gap the moment something goes wrong.

• No recourse if the work fails. A licensed contractor answers to a state disciplinary process and, in many cases, a bond. An unlicensed crew that took a deposit and vanished typically leaves you with a civil claim against a name and phone number that may no longer be reachable.
• No verified insurance. If a worker is injured on your roof and the crew carries no workers compensation coverage, homeowners can face real exposure depending on the circumstances. Michigan law and homeowner liability in these situations are a genuinely fact-specific area, and this is not legal advice.
• Warranty exposure. Manufacturer material warranties and workmanship warranties both generally assume a properly licensed, code-compliant installation. Work performed outside that framework can complicate a future warranty claim.
• Insurance claim complications. If the job relates to storm damage, an adjuster and your insurer may have questions about work performed by an unlicensed contractor, on top of everything else covered in our insurance claims guide.

None of this means every low bid is unlicensed, or that licensing alone guarantees good work. It means the license check removes one entire category of risk, cheaply, before you get anywhere near a contract. Our broader look at roofing contractor red flags covers the other warning signs that travel alongside unlicensed operators: cash-only demands, no local address, and pressure to sign the same day.

06 / WHAT COMES NEXTVerify the license, then vet the rest

A license check is the first filter, not the whole process. Once a contractor clears it, the next steps are reading their quote for real scope rather than just a bottom-line number, confirming their local footprint, and putting the right protections into the contract itself. Our step-by-step hiring guide walks that entire sequence, and our contract checklist covers exactly what a real agreement should include once you are ready to sign.

We hold a current Michigan license ourselves, and we expect every homeowner we talk to in Macomb County to check it, not just take our word for it. A contractor who is confident in their standing should never flinch at the question, and one who dodges it has told you everything you need to know.