North Dakota licenses contractors above $4,000 a job and backs it with a consequence most states do not carry: an unlicensed contractor may not maintain any claim, action, suit or proceeding in any court of this state arising from the work. They cannot sue you for the balance. The state also repealed its contractor bond in 1995, so there is no fund and no bond standing behind a job here either.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Auto repair shop labor rateNorth Dakota average | $135 per hour |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
Where a source publishes figures state by state, this page shows the figure for this state rather than a national average. Where no state-level source exists, it shows the national range and the local factors that move a job within it. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
N.D. Cent. Code section 43-07-02 bars a person from engaging in business as a contractor where the cost, value or price per job exceeds four thousand dollars without a license, and adds that such a person may not maintain any claim, action, suit or proceeding in any court of this state related to that business. Acting as a contractor without a license is a class A misdemeanor.
The second half is the part worth knowing. In most states an unlicensed contractor who walks off a job can still sue for the unpaid balance and argue the licensing point separately. In North Dakota the statute removes the forum. That does not give a homeowner money back, but it changes the leverage in a dispute considerably.
Section 43-07-07 sets four classes by contract value. Class A carries no limitation on the value of a single contract project, Class B is capped at five hundred thousand dollars, Class C at three hundred thousand and Class D at one hundred thousand. A Class D holder taking a two hundred thousand dollar job is outside the license, and the class shows on the register before you sign.
The bond provision at section 43-07-11 was repealed in 1995. North Dakota consumers therefore have no state fund to claim against and no contractor bond to reach, which puts more weight on the contractor's own liability insurance than it carries in a state running a recovery fund.
The table above carries the North Dakota figure for auto repair labor, the one cross-trade rate with a per-state source, and it sits a little above the national average. Shop type moves a repair bill further than geography does, and the mechanics under the table set out what else moves it.
Contractor licensing here runs through the Secretary of State rather than a trade board, so the register is the FirstStop contractor search. Check the number, then check the class against the size of your job, because the class ceiling is the part people miss.
With no bond and no fund, insurance is the backstop. Ask for the certificate from the insurer rather than the contractor, and confirm the dates cover the work.
Get the scope and the payment schedule in writing. The bar on an unlicensed contractor suing is useful, but it is a defense rather than a remedy and it does not recover money already handed over.
Where the cost, value or price per job exceeds $4,000. N.D. Cent. Code section 43-07-02 bars acting as a contractor above that figure without one, and makes doing so a class A misdemeanor.
Not here. The same section provides that such a person may not maintain any claim, action, suit or proceeding in any court of this state related to their business as a contractor. It is a defense rather than a remedy, and it does not recover money already paid.
They cap the size of a single contract. Section 43-07-07 sets Class A with no limitation, Class B at $500,000, Class C at $300,000 and Class D at $100,000. A holder taking a job above their class ceiling is working outside the license.
Neither. The bond provision at section 43-07-11 was repealed in 1995 and no state fund replaced it, so the contractor's own liability insurance is the backstop.
At the Secretary of State, which handles contractor licensing here rather than a trade board, through its FirstStop contractor search.