All states › Michigan (LARA, Bureau of Construction Codes)
Most summaries of Michigan's residential builder and maintenance & alteration (M&A) contractor continuing education say one thing: 21 hours per three-year cycle if you are newer, 3 hours if you are not. That is true, and it leaves out the clause that decides whether a newer licensee can catch up at the end of the cycle.
The statute, MCL 339.2404b(2)(a)(i), requires "at least 3 hours of activities that demonstrate continuing competency in each calendar year, during the first 6 calendar years of licensure." It sits beside the 21-hour cycle total. It does not replace it. That clause has a practical consequence. For a licensee in those first six years, hours done in 2027 do not satisfy the 2026 minimum. Our reading of the text is that a calendar year with fewer than three hours cannot be fixed later in the same cycle. The statute asks for three hours in each year, not three hours per year on average.
The statute sorts licensees by when they were first licensed and how long they have held the license. Here is how LARA's continuing-competency flyer lays it out, checked against the statute:
| Your situation | What you owe | Source |
|---|---|---|
| First licensed on or after January 1, 2009, within your first 6 calendar years of licensure | 21 hours per 3-year cycle, including at least 3 hours in each calendar year. LARA's flyer breaks the 21 into 1 hour codes and laws, 1 hour safety, 1 hour changes in construction and business-management laws, and 18 hours of "other topics" | MCL 339.2404b(2)(a); LARA flyer |
| First licensed on or after January 1, 2009, licensed more than 6 years | 3 hours per cycle: 1 codes/laws, 1 safety, 1 construction and business-management law changes | MCL 339.2404b(2)(d); LARA flyer |
| First licensed (or a qualifying officer) before January 1, 2009 | 3 hours per cycle: 1 codes, 1 safety, 1 legal issues | MCL 339.2404b(2)(c)–(d); LARA flyer |
| Newer licensee who got the license without the 60-hour prelicensure course under the 2014–2016 18-month relicensure exemption | The first-year hours of the first cycle must include 1 hour codes, 1 hour safety and 1 hour legal issues | MCL 339.2404b(2)(b) |
| Any licensee disciplined by the department for violating the act or rules | In addition: 3 to 21 hours in the next complete cycle, as set by department order, including 1 codes / 1 safety / 1 legal | MCL 339.2404b(3) |
To check your original issue date, use LARA's license lookup in Accela (linked below). If you are unsure which row applies, your first-licensed date is the first thing to confirm, before you buy any course package.
Consider a newer licensee who does no CE in the first two years of a cycle and then takes a 21-hour online package in the spring before renewal. The cycle total is met. The per-year minimum is not. Two of the three calendar years in that cycle had zero hours, and the statute required at least three in each.
At renewal the licensee states that the requirement has been met. LARA's flyer says nothing is sent to the department up front; documentation "will be requested if a licensee is selected for an audit." Under MCL 339.2404b(8), the department "may audit a predetermined percentage of licensees who renew," and "failure to comply with the audit or the requirements results in the investigation of a complaint initiated by the department." So the cost of a short year does not show up on the renewal screen. It shows up later, in an audit, with a date on each certificate.
The statute measures the per-year rule in calendar years ("the first 6 calendar years of licensure"). LARA's flyer describes the 21-hour requirement across two 3-year license cycles, and cycles end May 31. The two measures need not line up, for example if your license was first issued partway through a cycle. Nothing we read says whether the year of first issuance counts as calendar year one. That is an open question, and we are not guessing the answer. If your first license was issued mid-cycle, confirm your count with BCC.
R 338.1564 lists the qualifying activities and what each one earns. The most useful for working contractors:
| Activity | Credit | Proof if audited |
|---|---|---|
| BCC-approved code update course, department-approved fire or workplace safety course, or a course approved by another state's builder board or by a national, regional or local home builder association | 1 hour per qualifying hour of attendance | Letter or certificate showing your name, hours, sponsor or approving organization, and date(s) |
| Seminar, workshop, in-house course or technical presentation by a trade association, manufacturer, supplier, government agency, risk-management or consulting entity | 1 hour per qualifying hour | Certificate or letter from the sponsor with name, sponsor and date(s) |
| Company-sponsored training designed to develop professional skills in your area of practice | 1 hour per qualifying hour | Certificate or letter naming you, the company, the subject and date(s) |
| Distance-learning course meeting R 338.1566 (learning objectives, per-module assessment, remediation, completion documentation) | 1 hour per qualifying hour | Certificate from the sponsor |
| Passing the department's comprehensive (licensing) examination | 5 hours | Proof of passing score |
| College or university course | At least 15 hours per semester credit (12 per quarter credit) | Transcript |
| School-sponsored mentoring program | 2 hours per qualifying hour | Letter or certificate from the school |
| Publishing an article as an expert in a trade journal or regional magazine | 5 hours | Copy of the publication and the acceptance letter |
| Attending a state Residential Builders' and M&A Contractors' Board meeting or a State Construction Code Commission meeting; participating in an ICC or BCC code hearing | 1 hour per qualifying hour | Documentation satisfactory to the department |
How an hour is measured. R 338.1564(4) sets the unit: 50 minutes of continuous instruction = 1 hour, plus a half-credit for every additional 25 minutes after the first hour. Meals and breaks do not count. A "two-hour" lunch seminar with 80 minutes of actual instruction earns 1.5 hours, not 2.
Topics for the non-mandatory hours. R 338.1564(2) requires hours to be "relevant to the licensed occupation." The listed topics include the prelicensure competency areas (business management and job costing, design and building science, contracts and risk, marketing and sales, project management), the M&A trades, the building contract fund requirements for money received from customers (MCL 570.151), accounting and taxes, personnel management, customer service, land use, life safety, green building, zoning, and mold, lead or asbestos mitigation.
Keep your own records. R 338.1564(3) puts the documentation duty on the licensee, and LARA's flyer sets retention at at least 5 years. The audit proof column above is what a certificate needs to show. A receipt from an online course vendor that leaves off your name or the hours is not the document the rule describes.
Michigan's per-year rule is hard to track by hand for newer licensees: a 21-hour cycle total, a 3-hour floor in each calendar year, three required topics, and five years of certificates to keep. LicenseLedger tracks each year's hours against its December 31 cutoff and the cycle against May 31.
See how it works →LARA's builder FAQ says a corporation, LLC or partnership "is considered a new legal 'person'" and needs its own company license. The FAQ also says "the law requires an individual to hold an Active individual builder license or maintenance & alteration contractor license to serve as the Qualifying Officer" for that company license.
Continuing competency is an obligation of the individual licensee, so the qualifying officer's CE status and individual license are what keep the company's arrangement intact. Two rules follow from that:
What we are not saying: we found no rule that automatically suspends a company license because its qualifying officer is short on CE hours, and we do not claim one exists. The chain above is our reading of how the pieces connect. It is not a stated LARA procedure.