The City of Minneapolis requires a fixed $10,000 bond for a residential specialty contractor license — the license for a contractor or remodeler who works on properties with four or fewer living units in one trade: excavation, masonry, carpentry, interior finishing, exterior finishing, drywall and plaster, or general installation. Ours is $100 flat — the application collects no credit information.
















A City license bond is the simplest thing in surety. Here is the entire process:
Business details and an effective date. That is the application — no financials, and the application collects no credit information.
City license bonds like this are among the bond types that issue right after purchase. At most, 1–2 business days.
Your executed bond arrives by email, ready to file with your residential specialty contractor license application. Wet-ink original mailed on request.
The City of Minneapolis licenses residential specialty contractors — a contractor or remodeler who owns or operates the business, negotiates the contracts, and works in a single trade (excavation, masonry, carpentry, interior finishing, exterior finishing, drywall and plaster, or general installation) on properties with four or fewer living units — and conditions that license on a fixed $10,000 surety bond. The bond is a consumer-protection guarantee: it stands behind the contractor completing licensed work to code and honoring the terms of the homeowner’s contract.
It is a three-party arrangement: you (the principal), the surety carrier, and the City of Minneapolis (the obligee), with harmed homeowners as the protected party. If a licensed residential specialty contractor violates the City’s licensing ordinance or leaves a homeowner with a covered loss, the City — or the homeowner, through the City’s process — can recover against the bond.
It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. Note that a State of Minnesota Residential Building Contractor licensee does not need this City license, and roofers hold a State license instead; this bond is specific to City-licensed single-trade residential specialty work.
These are the actual issuing fields — the application collects no credit information for this bond.
Start the application →$100 flat, soft pull only, bond often issued in the same sitting. Free until issued.