SC general contractor bonds.
$1,600 flat.

South Carolina lets a licensed general contractor skip the net-worth financial statement by filing a surety bond with the Contractor’s Licensing Board instead. This page issues the $80,000 bond amount, and ours is $1,600 flat — the price you see is the price at checkout. The application includes a credit consent, but it authorizes a soft credit pull only — a soft inquiry that never affects your score.

Filed with the SC Contractor’s Licensing Board in place of the net-worth financial statement under §40-11-262
Fixed amount, fixed price — the $80,000 bond, $1,600, no quote round-trip
Runs to September 17 — a term running to September 17, so one filing can span a biennial licence renewal
A-ratedA.M. Best carriersInstantunderwriting processTo Sep 17fixed expiry date
Trusted by industry leaders
NYCEDC
BDG
Capital
McKinney
Terra
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Triple Five
Georgetown
NYCEDC
BDG
Capital
McKinney
Terra
JLL
Triple Five
Georgetown
How it works

Three steps. One sitting.

A contractor bond filed in place of financials is about the simplest thing in surety. Here is the entire process:

NOW · ONLINE

Apply online

Entity details, years in business, an effective date, and the term you want. No balance sheet, no CPA review, no scavenger hunt for schedules.

RIGHT AFTER CHECKOUT

Pay & e-sign

Contractor bonds like this are among the thousands of bond types that issue right after purchase. If a check ever runs it is a soft pull that will not touch your score. At most, 1–2 business days.

SAME DAY

File with the Board

Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to attach to a new license application or a renewal packet. Wet-ink original mailed on request.

About this bond

What it is and who needs it.

What the contractor bond actually guarantees

South Carolina licenses general contractors through the Contractor’s Licensing Board, an agency of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (LLR). A license is required once the total cost of construction exceeds $10,000, and every licensee is slotted into a license group that caps what it may bid or take per job.

The group is normally proved with a financial statement showing minimum net worth or working capital. Section 40-11-262 gives an applicant a second route: file a surety bond written by a surety authorized in South Carolina and skip the financial statement entirely. That is the filing this page issues — a bond in place of a balance sheet, which is why contractors who do not want to hand the state audited financials use it.

The bond names the State of South Carolina as obligee and runs for the benefit of anyone damaged by the contractor’s breach of the contracting laws. It must be continuous for as long as the license is held, it supplements rather than replaces any bid, performance, or payment bond a project requires, and cancellation takes 30 days’ notice. If the bond ever comes off, the licensee has 10 days to prove the net worth for its group or the license is subject to suspension.

It is not insurance for you. If the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. The Board may also require an increased bond after a finding of a violation — proportional to how serious or repeated the offence is — and may reduce it again after a year once the violations are cured. We track your expiry and notify you at 60 and 30 days so the filing never lapses.

S.C. Code Ann. §§ 40-11-260, 40-11-262Section 40-11-260 sets the license groups and their minimum net worth or working capital; Section 40-11-262 lets an applicant file a surety bond in the same amount as the net worth for the applicant’s license group in place of a financial statement. Under the table now in force, the general contractor bond requirement is $20,000 for Group One (bid limit $100,000), $60,000 for Group Two ($400,000), $150,000 for Group Three ($1,000,000), $250,000 for Group Four ($3,000,000), and $350,000 for Group Five (unlimited). The $80,000 amount on this page does not match any group’s current net-worth figure — Section 40-11-262 also lets the Board require an increased bond after a finding of a violation, and some contractors carry $80,000 from a filing made before their group’s current figure. Confirm the amount on your Board correspondence before you buy — if your renewal calls for $60,000, buy the $60,000 Group 2 bond linked below instead.

You need this bond if you’re

Applying for a general contractor license and would rather file a bond than hand LLR a financial statement
Renewing a license whose existing $80,000 bond is expiring or being non-renewed by the current surety
Coming into South Carolina from another state and qualifying for a license group here for the first time
Reinstating a lapsed license that needs a fresh continuous bond on file before the Board will act

One application, issued instantly.

These are the actual issuing fields — entity details, your effective date, and a one-time consent that authorizes a soft credit pull only.

Start the application →
FAQ

Common questions.

How much is the South Carolina general contractor bond?The premium for the $80,000 amount is $1,600 flat — set by our carrier’s rate book, the same for every contractor who files it. Choose a a term running to September 17 at checkout; the a term running to September 17 are simply multiples of the annual figure.
Do I pay the $80,000?No. You pay $1,600. The $80,000 is the surety’s maximum liability if a valid claim is made against the bond — it is not a deposit, and nobody holds your money.
How fast will I have the bond?Contractor bonds like this are among the thousands of bond types that issue right after purchase — most contractors finish the application and have the executed bond in the same sitting. At most, 1–2 business days.
Is there a credit check?The application includes a credit consent, but it authorizes a soft credit pull only — a soft inquiry that never affects your score. No hard inquiry ever runs on this bond, and your price does not move at checkout.
Should I file $80,000 or $60,000?Section 40-11-262 ties the bond to the net worth for your license group, and the Group Two requirement under the current table is a $60,000 bond. The $80,000 amount does not match any group’s current net-worth figure — it may reflect an increased bond the Board required after a violation, or a filing simply carried forward at that amount. Read your Board correspondence: file the amount it names, and buy the <a href="/bonds/south-carolina/general-contractor-group-2-bond">$60,000 Group 2 bond</a> (linked below) instead if that is the number.
Related bonds

Other South Carolina bonds.

Your license group, proved without a balance sheet.

$1,600 flat, soft pull only, bond often issued in the same sitting. Free until issued.

Your price$1,600
Apply now →