Storm-Chaser Contractor Registration Laws: What Louisiana Requires, and Where the Rest of the Country Stands

Louisiana’s Out-of-State Contractor Registration Requirement

Louisiana RS 37:2175.1 requires any out-of-state contractor performing post-storm restoration work to register with the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors before soliciting work in the state. The law was enacted following Hurricane Katrina, when a wave of unregistered out-of-state crews followed the storm into Louisiana and left homeowners with little recourse once the crews moved on. Separately, Louisiana Act 422 requires a specialized state-issued license for any residential roofing project valued at $7,500 or more, a threshold low enough that most full roof replacements clear it.

For a company planning to work Louisiana after a hurricane, both requirements apply before the first door gets knocked, not after the first contract gets signed.

Minnesota’s Licensing Law Is Not a Storm-Chaser Statute

Minnesota is frequently named in the same breath as Louisiana in storm-chaser warnings, but the underlying law is not the same kind of thing. Minnesota Statutes Sections 326B.802 through 326B.885 require anyone performing residential roofing work in the state to hold a residential roofer or residential building contractor license, administered by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, with complaints routed to that agency or the state Attorney General.

That is a general contractor-licensing framework, not a provision written specifically for itinerant, post-storm operators. An attorney warning Minnesota homeowners about storm chasers cites this statute because it is the regulatory backdrop that catches an unlicensed storm chaser the same way it catches any unlicensed roofer working the state, not because Minnesota passed a Louisiana-style, storm-chaser-named law.

Why the Distinction Between the Two Laws Matters

Calling Minnesota’s general licensing statute a storm-chaser law overstates what it does, and understates what Louisiana’s law does. Louisiana wrote a registration requirement aimed specifically at out-of-state contractors following a storm. Minnesota did not; it applies its ordinary residential-contractor license to everyone equally, in-state or out, storm-driven or not. A company that treats the two as interchangeable is likely to under-prepare for Louisiana, where a specific, storm-triggered registration step exists, and over-assume Minnesota has a comparable named requirement it does not.

What to Check Before Working a Storm in a New State

1. Does the state have a named, out-of-state or itinerant-contractor registration requirement, the way Louisiana does under RS 37:2175.1, or only a general residential-contractor license that applies to everyone?
2. Is there a dollar threshold, like Louisiana’s Act 422 $7,500 trigger, above which a specialized license kicks in?
3. Who administers the requirement, a state licensing board or a department of labor, and where do complaints route?
4. Does the requirement apply before soliciting work, or only before signing a contract? Louisiana’s applies before the first solicitation.

The broader state-by-state contractor licensing picture beyond storm-specific registration is covered in the site’s general licensing guide, linked below.

The Honest State of the Research on This Topic

Louisiana is currently the only state confirmed to have a named, citable storm-chaser registration statute. Other states, including Florida, Texas, California, Colorado, Wyoming, Maryland, Oregon, Arizona, and New York, are referenced in storm-chaser warnings as having general licensing frameworks that apply to itinerant contractors, but without a specific statute number tying it to storm-chasing the way Louisiana’s RS 37:2175.1 does. This guide does not claim a fully mapped 50-state table of storm-chaser-specific laws exists, because one was not found. What is confirmed is Louisiana’s law, and Minnesota’s general licensing backstop as an illustration of how a non-storm-specific statute still catches unlicensed storm chasers in practice.

Sources

The external data in this guide draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.

• National Storm Authority, storm restoration licensing requirements by state
• Aaron Hall, Attorney, Minnesota roofing contractor storm chaser laws

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