What New York licenses, and what it does not.

In New York City the work is controlled by the permit and the code rather than by an HVAC contractor license, because the Department of Buildings does not issue one. That does not mean nothing is licensed. The gas connection runs under the gas rules, oil-fired equipment brings the installer license, and the filing and permit for the work go through the professionals the code requires. Other cities and counties set their own rules, and some upstate jurisdictions do license mechanical contractors. The address of the job decides, which is why we ask for it before the quote.

It is the credential Local Law 150 of 2016 created. The law requires anyone performing gas work to hold either a Department-issued Master Plumber license or a Qualification for Gas Work. A full qualification lets the holder perform gas work under the direct and continuing supervision of a licensed Master Plumber, and it does not expire. A limited qualification requires personal and immediate supervision by a full qualification holder or a Master Plumber, and it expires five years after issuance and cannot be renewed. For an HVAC shop the practical question is whether the gas is done in house under a master plumber or subcontracted.

Class A Oil Burning Equipment Installers are licensed to install any type of oil-burning equipment. Class B installers are licensed to install oil-burning equipment that uses domestic grade fuel oils from one to four, which covers ordinary residential and small commercial burners. Both carry a three-year term, and the Department’s insurance guidelines apply to the license. For a coverage review the class tells us the scale of the oil work, and oil brings its own questions about spills and the tank that a refrigerant-side shop never faces.

For the licenses it issues, the Department’s licensing insurance guidelines ask for general liability with each occurrence at its published minimum, a workers’ compensation certificate on one of the accepted forms, and a disability certificate carrying the policy number and the federal employer identification number. Each must show the license or tracking number, the business name and address matching Department records, and the Department’s licensing unit as certificate holder, scanned as separate documents. A company with no employees may file an affidavit of exemption instead of the workers’ comp and disability certificates.

Only for the plumbing and gas work. Many HVAC shops in the city work the refrigerant side and the sheet metal themselves and bring in a licensed master plumber for the gas piping, and others employ one. The choice is a business decision with a licensing consequence and an insurance consequence: when a sub does the gas, their certificate goes in your file before the job and their limits matter to you, and when an employee does it under a qualification, the payroll and the class code change. We ask which arrangement you use at the quote.

Yes, and that is the trap. New York has no state contractor license, so each city and county sets its own rules, and the published New York City requirements do not carry to Westchester, Nassau, Buffalo, or Rochester. What does carry statewide are the three coverages the Workers’ Compensation Law requires of virtually every employer: workers’ comp, disability benefits, and Paid Family Leave. So the licensing answer is local and the employer answer is statewide, and we confirm the local one against the issuing office before a quote.