South Carolina Contractor License Fees
The 5 verified whole-dollar state fees South Carolina publishes — the CLB initial licence and biennial renewal, and the three Residential Builder (RBB) stages. Every figure below was surfaced from the official llr.sc.gov URL because that host returned a 20-second timeout to this project's fetcher and to a real browser on 2026-10-05; the statute behind the cycle and the thresholds was read in full from scstatehouse.gov. Municipal permit fees are not state fees, and the residential surety bonds and the CLB bond-in-lieu are priced separately below.
01 State fees vs local fees vs bonds
- $350 initial, $135 renewal — the CLB General or Mechanical licence fee and the on-time biennial renewal. S-SC-CLB-FEES
- $135 / $220 / $220 — RBB application, licence and renewal; the renewal TERM in months is NOT_VERIFIED. S-SC-RBC-LICENSURE
- The CLB bond is variable — § 40-11-262 lets an applicant post a bond "in the same amount as the net worth for the applicant's license group" instead of the financial statement, so there is no single CLB bond figure to publish. S-SC-40-11
- Local fees — no South Carolina municipal code or permit schedule was opened; every city rate stays LOCAL_AUTHORITY_REQUIRED.
02 Track 1 — CLB commercial fees (surfaced from the official llr.sc.gov host)
| Fee | Amount | Kind | Charged by | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLB general or mechanical contractor — initial licence fee SC CLB fee schedule verbatim (surfaced from the official llr.sc.gov host — fetcher + browser both timed out on 2026-10-05): 'General and Mechanical Contractor Initial License Fee $350.' Whole-dollar. Surfaced, not machine-read. | $350 | application | South Carolina Contractor's Licensing Board (CLB) — under LLR | S-SC-CLB-FEES |
| CLB general or mechanical contractor — renewal fee (on or before 10/31) SC CLB renewals page verbatim (surfaced from the official llr.sc.gov host — timeout): 'General Contractor licenses renewed on or before October 31, 2026: Fee is $135.' Whole-dollar. Late tiers $235/$285/$335 are reported (in the requirement's conditionJson), not confirmed here. | $135 | renewal | South Carolina Contractor's Licensing Board (CLB) — under LLR | S-SC-CLB-RENEWALS |
Biennial cycle and the 90-day retroactive grace are machine-read from § 40-11-250; the 10/31 even-year (General) and odd-year (Mechanical) expirations come from the CLB pages. S-SC-40-11
03 Track 2 — RBC residential builder fees (surfaced from llr.sc.gov/res)
| Fee | Amount | Kind | Charged by | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential Builder (RBB) — application fee SC RBC licensure page verbatim (surfaced from the official llr.sc.gov host — fetcher + browser timed out): 'RBB Application Fee, $135.00'. Whole-dollar. Surfaced, not machine-read. | $135 | application | South Carolina Residential Builders Commission (RBC) — under LLR | S-SC-RBC-LICENSURE |
| Residential Builder (RBB) — licence fee SC RBC licensure page verbatim (surfaced): 'RBB License Fee, $220.00'. Whole-dollar. Surfaced, not machine-read. | $220 | license | South Carolina Residential Builders Commission (RBC) — under LLR | S-SC-RBC-LICENSURE |
| Residential Builder (RBB) — renewal fee SC RBC licensure page verbatim (surfaced): 'RBB Renewal Fee, $220.00'. Whole-dollar. A $50 late and $480 reinstatement are reported from secondary index (conditionJson of REQ-SC-RBC-FEE-001). The renewal TERM in months is NOT_VERIFIED, so no RBC renewal row is seeded. | $220 | renewal | South Carolina Residential Builders Commission (RBC) — under LLR | S-SC-RBC-LICENSURE |
04 Surety bonds (residential) and the CLB bond-in-lieu
| Bond | Amount | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| BOND-SC-SPECIALTY-LICENSED-001 | $10,000 | REPORTED, not machine-read: a $10,000 surety bond applies to a LICENSED residential specialty contractor (plumber/electrician/HVAC) when the work is $5,000+. The $5,000+ trigger is stated verbatim on the official LLR specialty application-instructions page (surfaced); the $10,000 amount is corroborated but not machine-read (research §O). | S-SC-RBC-SPECIALTY |
| BOND-SC-SPECIALTY-REGISTERED-001 | $5,000 | REPORTED, not machine-read: a $5,000 surety bond applies to a REGISTERED residential specialty contractor (siding, masons, drywall, carpenters, stucco, painters, solar) when the work is $5,000+. The official LLR res/pub page states a '$5,000' surety bond (surfaced); the pairing to the registered tier is corroborated (research §O). | S-SC-RBC-SPECIALTY |
| BOND-SC-RBB-001 | $15,000 | REPORTED, not machine-read: a $15,000 surety bond is required for the Residential Builder / RBB credential. llr.sc.gov/res timed out for the fetcher and the browser on 2026-10-05, so the amount comes from the official host's indexed content plus corroborating surety-bond sources; treat as reported until LLR is machine-readable (research §O). | S-SC-RBC-RESBUILDER |
All three amounts are reported — surfaced from the official LLR pages whose host timed out, corroborated but not machine-read. The CLB track's bond (if elected) equals the group's net worth under § 40-11-262, so it is published as a rule, not a figure. S-SC-40-11
Rhode Island's fee conflict exists because two official pages disagree; South Carolina has no fee conflict — its caveat is retrieval: llr.sc.gov did not answer the fetcher or the browser on 2026-10-05, so the figures above are the official pages' indexed content. The threshold and cycle behind them are machine-read from the Code. S-SC-40-11
05 Withheld on purpose — never guessed
- CLB late-renewal tiers — surfaced only from a secondary index; kept reported, never confirmed. The on-time $135 is published from the official URL. S-SC-CLB-RENEWALS
- RBC renewal term (months) — not published on any page read; NOT_VERIFIED, so no renewal row is seeded for the RBC track.
- Municipal permit and inspection fees — no South Carolina city rate was opened; LOCAL_AUTHORITY_REQUIRED.
- Exam and re-exam fees — PSI scheduling fees were not machine-read on 2026-10-05; NOT_VERIFIED.