How to check if a contractor is licensed in Ontario
Short answer: Ontario does not have a single province-wide licence for general contractors. If someone tells you they are a "licensed contractor in Ontario", the useful question is licensed by whom, and for what. Only certain kinds of work are licensed, and each kind has its own regulator and its own public register.
This surprises most homeowners, and it is the reason a renovator can legally advertise without any provincial licence at all.
What is actually licensed in Ontario
1. New-home builders and vendors — HCRA
If you are buying a newly built or pre-construction home, the builder or seller must hold a licence from the Home Construction Regulatory Authority (HCRA). Building or selling a new home in Ontario without one is illegal.
This is the licence with the strongest consumer protection behind it, and the one you can check most easily.
Search the Ontario builder register →Look up an HCRA-licensed builder by name or licence number
You can also search the official Ontario Builder Directory directly. Always confirm final status there before you sign anything.
2. Renovations and additions — usually not licensed provincially
Work on a home you already own generally does not make it a "new home", so the contractor doing your kitchen, basement or addition usually needs no HCRA licence. That does not mean nothing applies — it means the checks move elsewhere:
- Your municipality. Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga and many other cities run their own contractor licensing, and in some of them a licence is required even to advertise. Check your city's licensing page for the trade you are hiring.
- Compulsory trades. Regardless of who holds the contract, certain work must be performed by certified tradespeople.
- Building permits. Structural, electrical and plumbing changes normally need a permit from your municipality. A contractor who suggests skipping it is telling you something important about how they work.
3. Electrical work — ESA
Electrical work must be done by a Licensed Electrical Contractor, licensed by the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA). Every licensed contractor has an ECRA/ESA licence number that belongs on their quotes, invoices and vehicles.
Ask for that number and verify it on ESA's contractor lookup, or call ESA at 1-877-372-7233. A certified electrician working for an unlicensed company is not the same thing as a licensed contractor.
4. Gas, heating and fuel work — TSSA
Fuel-related work — gas lines, furnaces, water heaters, fireplaces — may only be carried out by contractors registered with the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA). Registered fuels contractors are the only businesses legally authorized to do this work in Ontario, and they are responsible for employing properly certified technicians.
Checks that apply to any contractor
- WSIB clearance certificate. If a worker is injured on your property and the contractor has no coverage, you can be exposed. Ask for a current clearance certificate.
- Liability insurance. Ask for the certificate, not a verbal assurance, and check that it is still in force.
- A written contract with scope, price, payment schedule and start and finish dates.
- The business name matches. The name on the licence, the quote and the invoice should be the same legal entity.
Check whether a builder has lost their licence
HCRA can revoke a builder's licence or refuse to grant one. Those decisions are public, but they sit spread across thousands of individual entries in the official register, so they are easy to miss. We aggregated them: 3,966 Ontario records — 2,229 revoked and 1,737 refused, across 561 municipalities.
Ontario builders with a revoked or refused licence →Searchable by city
Some of these names are decades old and long defunct; others are recent. The register does not publish a reason for each decision, and status can change — treat the list as a prompt to ask questions, not as a verdict, and confirm anything you find on the official register.
Red flags
- Will not give you a licence or registration number, or the number does not match the business name.
- Wants a large cash deposit up front, or a discount for paying cash with no contract.
- Offers to do the work without a permit "to save you money".
- Claims to be "fully licensed" but cannot say which regulator issued the licence.
- Pressure to sign today.
Where to start
Buying a new build? Start with the Ontario builder lookup and check the revoked and refused list. Renovating? Start with your municipality, then verify the specific trades — ESA for electrical, TSSA for gas. Hiring in Quebec instead? Use the RBQ licence lookup.
For the province-by-province version of this guide, see how to verify a contractor's licence in Canada.
This guide is general information, not legal advice, and licensing rules change. CheckContractors.ca aggregates official open data and is not affiliated with the HCRA, ESA, TSSA, WSIB or any government body. Always confirm current status on the official register before you sign a contract.