Contractor License ($5,000) Bond - City of Arnold, MO in Missouri

Brief Summary

Check your trade before you buy anything. Arnold ties the $5,000 surety bond to the specialty licence, and the City names three trades for it: electricians, plumbers and drain layers. A general contractor framing, roofing or remodeling in Arnold applies for a business licence with an application, a fee and proof of insurance, and the City does not list a bond for that. If you are in one of the three trades, the bond is one of four items alongside the application, a copy of an existing licence, and the fee.

Arnold Code Section 500.020(K) provides that no contractor shall engage in any work requiring a building permit without the entity performing the work first having obtained a license from the Building Commissioner and paying the designated fee approved by City Council via resolution and maintained by the Building Commissioner. That licence stands in lieu of an otherwise required business license and runs for the annual license year. The City's Building Permits and Inspections page adds the specialty layer: an electrician, plumber or drain layer must also obtain a specialty license, which requires an application, a copy of an existing license, a fee, and a $5,000 surety bond to the City of Arnold. The ordinance itself does not print a bond amount.

We can help with all Missouri bonds!

How to Apply for a Contractor License ($5,000) Bond:

• Establish which licence you need. The $5,000 bond attaches to the specialty licence for electricians, plumbers and drain layers, not to a general business licence.
• If you are not in one of those three trades, apply for a business licence with the City Clerk's Office. That takes an application, a fee and proof of insurance.
• If your work requires a building permit, obtain the contractor licence from the Building Commissioner before starting, under Section 500.020(K).
• Call Community Development at 636-282-2378 for the current licence fee. The fee is set by City Council resolution and is not printed in the code.
• Confirm with the department which existing licence they will accept a copy of, before assembling the specialty application.
• Confirm the current bond amount and the acceptable bond wording with the department. The code names no amount and no form.
• Legal business name exactly as it will appear on the City application.
• Owner or principal information and authorization for a credit review.
• Complete the bond application, review the quoted premium, and pay it.
• Have the bond written for $5,000 and made payable to the City of Arnold.
• File through the City's myGov portal.
• Diary the licence year. It runs September 1 through August 31, and statements are due prior to September 1 each year.

Detailed Information About the Missouri Contractor License ($5,000) Bond:

The bond belongs to three trades, not to contractors generally

This is the whole point of the page, so it goes first.

The City of Arnold's own guidance splits contractors into two groups. Anyone doing work in the City applies for a business license with the City Clerk's Office, and that takes an application, a fee, and proof of insurance. No bond appears in that list.

Then the specialty layer. If you are an electrician, plumber or drain layer, you also need a specialty license with the City, and that one requires an application, a copy of an existing license, a fee, and a $5,000 surety bond to the City of Arnold.

So a roofer, a framer, a general remodeler or a concrete contractor working in Arnold is looking at the business license. An electrical, plumbing or sewer lateral contractor is looking at the specialty license and the bond. Buying a $5,000 bond because a listing said Arnold requires one, when you are not in one of those three trades, is money spent on nothing.

The amount does not tier

$5,000 flat, as the City states it. It does not scale with contract value, revenue, number of employees or how many permits you pull in a year.

What is worth knowing is where the figure comes from. Chapter 500 of the Arnold Code does not print a bond amount anywhere, and it names no bond form. The $5,000 is a departmental requirement published by Community Development rather than a number written into the ordinance, which means it can be changed without a code amendment. Confirm the current figure and the acceptable bond wording with the department before you have anything issued.

What the ordinance actually says

Section 500.020(K) is the licensing hook. No contractor shall engage in any work requiring a building permit without the entity performing the work first having obtained a license therefor from the Building Commissioner and paying the designated fee approved by City Council via resolution and maintained by the Building Commissioner.

Two things follow from that sentence.

First, the trigger is work requiring a building permit. If your work needs a permit, you need the license before you start, not while the job is running.

Second, the fee is not in the code. It is approved by City Council resolution and held by the Building Commissioner, so there is no published figure to quote. Anyone giving you a specific dollar amount for the Arnold contractor license fee is guessing. Call Community Development at 636-282-2378 and get the current number.

The same subsection provides that the contractor license stands in lieu of an otherwise required business license, for the annual license year. That matters for budgeting, because it means you are not paying twice.

The license year, and the date that catches people

The license year in Arnold runs September 1 through August 31 under Section 605.110. A business starting mid year runs from its start date through the following August 31.

Section 605.140 requires the revenue or square footage statement to be filed prior to September 1 of each year. That is a single fixed deadline for everybody rather than an anniversary of your own start date, which is the part people get wrong when they diary it as twelve months from issue.

What the general business license costs

Useful for comparison even though the contractor license replaces it.

Under Section 605.130 a retail business pays $1.00 per $1,000 of annual revenue, and a non retail business pays $0.06 per square foot of building space. There is a $100.00 annual minimum and a $50,000.00 annual maximum. A business starting after March 15 pays 50 percent of the annual fee for that first partial year.

The copy of an existing license

The specialty license application asks for a copy of an existing license, which means Arnold is layering its permission on top of a credential issued elsewhere rather than testing you itself. The City's page does not name the issuing authority it accepts, so ask Community Development which license they want to see before you assemble the application. Turning up with the wrong one is the most common way to lose a week here.

A copy of that credential does not replace the bond. It sits alongside it in the same list of four items.

Which codes you are building to

Section 500.010(A) adopts the 2021 editions of the International Building Code, International Residential Code, International Plumbing Code, International Mechanical Code, International Fire Code, International Energy Conservation Code, International Fuel Gas Code, International Property Maintenance Code, International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, and International Private Sewage Disposal Code, together with the 2020 edition of the National Electrical Code.

Worth checking against what you are used to if you work across several municipalities in the area, because adoption dates are not uniform.

How to file

Arnold runs license and permit applications through its myGov portal, linked from the Building Permits and Inspections page. The business license itself goes through the City Clerk's Office. The contractor license under 500.020(K) comes from the Building Commissioner. Those are two different desks, so ask which one you are dealing with when you call.

Eligibility and Requirements for a Missouri Contractor License ($5,000) Bond:

• A $5,000 surety bond to the City of Arnold for the specialty licence.
• The specialty licence applying to electricians, plumbers and drain layers.
• An application, a copy of an existing licence, and a fee, alongside the bond.
• A business licence from the City Clerk's Office for contractors generally, with an application, a fee and proof of insurance.
• A licence from the Building Commissioner before any work requiring a building permit, under Section 500.020(K).
• A fee approved by City Council resolution and maintained by the Building Commissioner rather than printed in the code.
• The contractor licence standing in lieu of an otherwise required business licence for the annual licence year.
• A licence year of September 1 through August 31.
• Statements filed prior to September 1 of each year.
• Business name on the bond matching the City application exactly.

Missouri Contractor License ($5,000) Bond FAQs:

Official and Additional Resources for the Missouri Contractor License ($5,000) Bond: