How do I check if a plumber is actually licensed in Arizona?
Take the contractor's six-digit ROC license number to the Arizona Registrar of Contractors contractor search at azroc.my.site.com. You can search by number or by company name. It returns license status, classification, bond information, and complaint history, free. For residential plumbing the classification you want to see is R-37, R-37R, CR-37, or C-37. It takes about thirty seconds.
The classifications, and why the right one matters
“Licensed” isn’t one thing in Arizona. The ROC issues separate residential, commercial, and dual licenses by scope of work, and a license in the wrong classification doesn’t cover your job. Per the ROC's own classification list:
- R-37 Plumbing, Including Solar: specialty residential, covering the R-37R subclassifications.
- R-37R Plumbing. The residential plumbing subclassification.
- C-37 Plumbing: specialty commercial.
- CR-37 Plumbing. A dual license permitting both the commercial C-37 and residential R-37R scopes.
A general contractor's or handyman's license isn’t a plumbing license. This is the distinction almost nobody checks, and it’s the one that matters when there’s a claim.
What else the search shows you
- Status: active, suspended, canceled, expired.
- Bond: whether one is on file and current. Bonds lapse quietly.
- Complaint and disciplinary history: public, free, and the section most people don’t know is there.
- How long the license has been held.
The cheapest test in the whole process
Ask for the ROC number before anyone comes out. A contractor who has it ready is used to being asked. One who deflects, sends a photo of a truck, or offers a business license instead has answered the question. The number costs them nothing to give and takes you half a minute to check.
You should run exactly this check on whoever you’re considering, including us.
If something is wrong
The Registrar operates a complaint process for licensed contractors, and it remains available to you regardless of what any contract says. That process is a real consumer protection and it’s one of the strongest arguments for using a licensed contractor over an unlicensed one, whatever the quote difference is.
Arizona Registrar of Contractors, license classifications (roc.az.gov/license-classifications) and contractor search (azroc.my.site.com).
Where this page cites a utility, permit or housing figure for a specific town, it’s that town’s published data. Your own city’s water report applies to your tap and your city’s building department sets your permit rules; ask us which apply to your address.
While we are here.
What if the plumber is unlicensed but cheaper?
You lose the ROC complaint process, you likely lose the bond, permits become complicated, and unpermitted work surfaces at resale. Arizona also limits what unlicensed persons may contract for. The discount is real and so is what it’s buying you out of: make the trade knowingly rather than by accident.