Using Someone Else's License in New York: What It Costs You

Somebody told you it’s fine. Maybe a buddy said he does it all the time, or a GC offered to let you pull permits under his name while you sort out your own license. It’s not fine. It’s illegal, and it exposes two people instead of one.

Can you use someone else’s contractor license in New York?

No. If a city or county requires contractors to be licensed, you cannot legally use another person’s license to pull permits, sign contracts, advertise yourself as licensed, or perform work under their credentials. Both the person borrowing the license and the person lending it can face penalties.

Can you work under another contractor’s license in New York?

No. Any jurisdiction that licenses contractors requires the licensed individual or business to actually perform and supervise work under that license. Using another person’s credentials is not a lawful substitute, regardless of any private arrangement between the parties.

New York City is where this is most explicitly written down. Under NYC Administrative Code Section 28-401.16, no license holder may authorize, consent to, or permit the use of their license by any other person. No unlicensed person may hold themselves out as licensed, directly or indirectly, through signs, cards, stationery, or any other means. Both sides of the arrangement are prohibited.

That covers the full range. Using someone else’s license number on an estimate or invoice counts as “any other manner.” It doesn’t need to be a formal written agreement to be a violation.

What license lending actually means

License lending is when an unlicensed contractor operates under the credentials of a licensed one. That can look like a lot of things: pulling permits in a licensed contractor’s name, putting a licensed contractor’s name on a contract when they’re not actually running the job, or paying a license holder a flat fee to use their number on estimates and invoices. The arrangement gets called different things. The legal problem is the same.

In New York, licensing is handled at the local level. There’s no single statewide general contractor license, so the rules vary by county and municipality. What doesn’t vary is the underlying requirement: the license holder is the one who has to actually do or supervise the work.

Borrowing a license isn’t subcontracting

These two things get confused. They’re not the same.

A licensed GC hiring a licensed subcontractor is legal. The sub holds their own credentials, performs work within their licensed scope, and is accountable under their own license. That’s the system working as intended.

A licensed GC allowing an unlicensed contractor to use their license number on permits and contracts is not subcontracting. The unlicensed party isn’t covered by the GC’s license. They’re misrepresenting themselves as licensed, and the GC is enabling it. Both are exposed.

The test is straightforward: does the person actually performing the work hold the license required by that jurisdiction for that scope of work? If not, it’s license lending, whether you call it something else or not.

Why contractors do it anyway

The pitch is usually simple: you do the work, the licensed contractor puts their name on it, you split whatever fee they charge for the arrangement. For someone who hasn’t gotten licensed yet, it looks like a shortcut that keeps the jobs coming in.

The licensed contractor assumes legal responsibility for the work. If something fails inspection, causes damage, or results in a complaint, their name is on the permit and their license is at risk. That’s not a favor to a friend.

And for the unlicensed contractor doing the actual work, the arrangement is more fragile than it looks. The moment something goes wrong, the licensed party has every incentive to cooperate with investigators and point directly at you.

What happens when it falls apart

The consequences come from multiple directions.

You can’t collect. In B&F Building Corp. v. Liebig, 76 NY2d 689 (1990), New York’s Court of Appeals held that an unlicensed home improvement contractor cannot enforce a contract or recover in quantum meruit, even when the work was fully performed and the homeowner has paid a substantial amount. That principle has been applied consistently by appellate courts across every department since. If the homeowner refuses to pay, there’s no legal path to recover. You did the work for free.

That result doesn’t change because you believed you were covered by someone else’s license. The court looks at who actually holds the required license, not at the private deal you made with someone who does.

The licensed contractor loses their license. Under NYC Administrative Code Section 28-401.19, the Department of Buildings can suspend or revoke a license and impose fines up to $25,000 per violation for authorizing another person to use that license. Counties that license contractors have their own disciplinary and enforcement authority under their local licensing ordinances. A license that took years of experience and exam preparation to earn can be gone in a single proceeding.

Criminal exposure is real. Some New York jurisdictions classify certain unlicensed contracting violations as Class A misdemeanors, carrying up to a year in jail. Depending on the facts, prosecutors may pursue charges beyond unlicensed contracting, including fraud-related offenses where misrepresentation or deception is involved.

Subcontractors get pulled into it. In Kamco Supply Corp. v. JMT Bros. Realty, LLC, the Appellate Division, First Department confirmed that where an unlicensed GC’s contract is unenforceable, there are no funds due and owing from the owner to the GC, and a subcontractor’s mechanic’s lien claim falls with it. Depending on the circumstances, your own valid license may not protect your payment rights if the GC above you wasn’t properly licensed. Their problem becomes your problem.

Can a homeowner hire an unlicensed contractor in New York?

Technically, a homeowner can hire whoever they want, but where a license is required, doing so creates practical problems that outlast the job.

An unlicensed contractor can’t pull permits in jurisdictions that require one, so the work proceeds without required inspections. If something fails later, there’s no inspection record to fall back on, and the homeowner owns the problem. Depending on policy language and the cause of loss, insurance coverage for damage arising from unpermitted or unlicensed work can also get complicated in ways the homeowner won’t discover until they file a claim.

There’s also the paper trail at sale. Unpermitted work can surface during a buyer’s inspection or title review. It may need to be disclosed, it can affect financing, and it may have to be corrected at the seller’s expense before closing.

Homeowners hunting for a deal by hiring unlicensed tend to find out what they paid for eventually.

The subcontractor angle matters

A lot of trade contractors wind up in license-related trouble not because they borrowed a license themselves, but because they took work from a GC who was operating without one.

Verify that the general contractor is properly licensed in the jurisdiction before you start work. In NYC, look up registrations through the Department of Buildings. In Nassau County, it’s the Office of Consumer Affairs. In Westchester, the Department of Consumer Protection. In Suffolk, the Division of Consumer Affairs.

Five minutes of verification can protect your lien rights on a job worth tens of thousands.

If your license is being used without your knowledge

It happens. Someone gets access to your license number, puts it on permits or contracts without your involvement, and the first you hear about it is a violation notice. The minute you suspect it, report it to the relevant licensing authority. Delay makes it look like consent.

In NYC, contact the Department of Buildings directly. Document when you learned about the unauthorized use and every step you took to address it.

Keeping your paperwork straight

Every job you run should have your license number on it from the start. In Cinderblock, your license information is stored once and automatically appears on every estimate and invoice, reducing the risk of using outdated or incorrect licensing information.

The license belongs to the person who earned it.