Utah contractor license renewal — 6 hours of CE, one shared deadline, and a new hour for landscape contractors

Last reviewed October 4, 2026 · read from Utah DOPL's own pages and H.B. 313 (2026), linked at the foot

Utah is one of the easier states to calendar, because every contractor license shares one expiration date. The Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL) says contracting licenses expire November 30 of odd-numbered years. The last such date was November 30, 2025 (passed), so the next is November 30, 2027. That date is our arithmetic from DOPL's statement; DOPL's pages we read do not print "2027."

The renewal at a glance

Item	What DOPL says
Expiration	November 30 of odd years, for every contracting license
Continuing education	6 hours per two-year cycle, of which at least 1 hour is energy conservation (DOPL contractor renewal sheet, version v.20230822)
Core vs. professional	DOPL's continuing-education page: "Three hours must be 'core' education. Three hours may be either 'core' or 'professional'." The same page says a "maximum of 3 hours may be completed online."
Live instruction	DOPL's contractor renewal page says at least 3 of the 6 hours must be live, and that live webinars qualify. The 2023 renewal sheet we read does not mention this.
Multiple licenses	Per DOPL, each course applies to all licenses you hold
Renewal fee	The 2023 sheet showed $119 and said fees change each July 1. DOPL's web page now sends you to its fee schedule, so treat $119 as a stale data point and check the schedule.
Insurance	The 2023 sheet asks for an unexpired general liability certificate ($300,000 minimum) plus workers' compensation coverage or a waiver
Reminders	Notices are emailed at least 60 days before expiration, with reminders around September 1 of the renewal year
How to file	DOPL says contractor renewals cannot be completed on a mobile device; use a desktop or laptop

What is new: a landscape-work hour (H.B. 313, 2026)

H.B. 313 amends the contractor chapter (Utah Code Title 58, Chapter 55). As enrolled, it requires specialty contractors who do landscape work to complete at least one hour per two-year renewal cycle covering either water-conservation landscaping or fire-risk-management landscaping, and it has DOPL identify which specialty classification covers landscape work. The bill states: "This bill takes effect on May 6, 2026."

[Inference] What it may mean for the cycle ending November 30, 2027. The cycle that closes in 2027 began after the 2025 renewal and the bill took effect partway through it. The sources we read do not say whether DOPL will count the new hour for this cycle or start it with the next one, or how it fits within the 6 hours (alongside the energy-conservation hour, or on top). The 2023 DOPL sheet predates the bill. If you hold a landscape-related specialty classification, ask DOPL before choosing courses.

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If you miss November 30

The DOPL renewal sheet lays out three tiers. Within 30 days after expiration, you renew by paying the renewal fee plus a $20 reinstatement fee. After 30 days and within two years, the renewal fee plus $50. After two years, the sheet says you submit a new application rather than a reinstatement. It also warns that practicing beyond expiration is "unlawful and punishable as a criminal offense." Those dollar figures come from the same 2023 sheet as the $119 fee, so confirm current amounts on DOPL's fee schedule.

A checklist you can calendar now

Pencil in November 30, 2027 as the hard stop; aim to finish hours well before DOPL's early-September reminder.
Plan the 6 hours to satisfy all of DOPL's published rules at once: at least 3 live (no more than 3 online), at least 3 "core," and at least 1 in energy conservation.
If you do landscape work, confirm how the H.B. 313 hour applies to you.
Check that the general liability certificate on file will not expire before you renew, and that workers' compensation coverage or a waiver is current.
Reserve a desktop session for the renewal itself.

What we could not reconcile

We could not retrieve the rule text (Utah Admin. Code R156-55a) or the statute section on renewal; the state's rules site returned only a redirect. The hours above rest on DOPL's own published pages, not on a reading of the rule.
DOPL describes the 6 hours three ways: a renewal sheet (1 hour in energy conservation), a renewal page (at least 3 live), and a CE page (3 core + 3 core-or-professional, maximum 3 online). They are compatible if you plan for all three at once, but we have not seen a DOPL statement that says so, and we do not know whether the energy-conservation hour counts as "core."
The 3-live-hours requirement appears on DOPL's web page but not on the 2023 sheet. We follow the web page because it is the more recent, but we cannot confirm the date it was last changed.
Current fee amounts, and whether any exemptions or inactive-status options apply to you, are not covered here.

Sources

Utah DOPL — Contractor license renewal (November 30 of odd years, 6 CE hours with 3 live, reminders, no mobile renewal)
Utah DOPL — Contractor continuing education (core/professional split, 3-hour online maximum)
Utah DOPL — Contractor renewal sheet (v.20230822) (energy-conservation hour, fee, insurance, reinstatement tiers)
Utah H.B. 313 (2026), enrolled (landscape-work CE hour; effective May 6, 2026)