Michigan Roofer License, Insurance Certificate and Lien Waiver: How to Verify Before You Sign

Before you sign a Michigan roofing contract, verify three things yourself: the contractor's license through LARA's license lookup, current certificates of general liability and workers compensation insurance, and a lien waiver at final payment so an unpaid subcontractor cannot place a lien on your home. None of it takes more than fifteen minutes.

I am Aaron Scott, licensed Michigan residential builder and owner of Roofing Army. Our own office fields this exact conversation constantly. Of the calls where a homeowner asks about trust and legitimacy, 46 ask us to prove our license and insurance, 24 ask whether our own crew or a subcontractor will be on the roof, and 41 ask outright whether we are a real local company or a storm chaser working a recent storm. Those are good questions. Here is how to actually answer them, for us or for anyone else bidding your roof.

How Do You Verify a Michigan Roofer's License?

Michigan requires a residential builder license or a maintenance and alteration contractor license, issued through the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), for residential work valued at $600 or more, which covers every roof replacement. Our own license, Michigan Residential Builder License No. 262400936, is a useful example of what you should be looking for: search the license lookup at michigan.gov/lara by the contractor's name or license number and confirm three things. The license is active, not expired or revoked. The name on the license matches the company or the individual who signed your estimate, since licenses are held by a qualifying individual, not just a business name. And the license type actually covers roofing; a maintenance and alteration license is issued trade by trade, so a contractor licensed for a different trade is not licensed to put shingles on your house. For the full walkthrough on reading a lookup result and spotting a license that does not match the company in front of you, see our storm chaser red flags checklist.

What Insurance Certificates Should You Actually See?

Ask for two certificates, not a verbal assurance: general liability insurance and workers compensation insurance. Both should be certificates of insurance issued directly by the insurance company, with your name and address listed as the certificate holder, not a screenshot or a document the contractor typed up. Liability insurance covers damage to your property during the job. Workers compensation covers an injury to a worker on your roof, and this is the one homeowners skip at their own risk. Michigan requires an employer with three or more employees, or even a single employee working 35 or more hours a week for 13 weeks or longer, to carry workers compensation coverage, and a roofing crew clears that bar on day one. If a contractor cannot produce current workers compensation coverage and a worker is hurt on a ladder in your driveway, the claim can land on your homeowners policy instead of theirs.

In-House Crew or Subcontractor? Why It Matters

Ask directly whether the people who will be on your roof are the company's own employees or a subcontracted crew. It is one of the most common questions our office hears, and there is a real reason to ask it. A company that sells the job and hands it to whichever subcontracted crew is available that week has less control over workmanship and less accountability when something goes wrong two years later. It also complicates the insurance picture above, since a general contractor's workers compensation policy does not always extend to an independent subcontractor's own crew; ask who specifically covers the people doing the work, not just the company that signed the contract. Roofing Army uses in-house crews only, with a project manager on site for every job.

What Is a Lien Waiver, and Why Do You Need One?

This is the step most homeowners have never heard of, and it is the one that can cost real money after the job is already paid for. Under Michigan's Construction Lien Act, a subcontractor or supplier who was not paid by your roofing contractor can place a construction lien against your house, even if you already paid the general contractor in full. Paying the contractor does not automatically protect you. What protects you is the paperwork.

Before final payment is due, the contractor must provide a sworn statement, a notarized list of every subcontractor and supplier on the job along with what has been paid and what is still owed (MCL 570.1110). The law does not entitle a contractor to collect final payment, or to sue to enforce a lien, until that sworn statement is provided. At the same time, get a waiver of lien matching each payment: a partial waiver for a progress payment, and a full unconditional waiver once the final payment clears (MCL 570.1115), signed by the contractor and, where applicable, the subcontractors and suppliers named on the sworn statement. A waiver cannot legally be required before the work it covers is done, so do not sign one in advance. The sequence matters: pay only as each waiver comes in.

This is a separate protection from the Michigan Builders Trust Fund Act, which makes it a crime for a contractor to spend your payment on something other than the people who worked on your house. We cover that act, and why we never take a deposit in the first place, in our guide to why Roofing Army never takes deposits. The lien waiver matters even on a job with no deposit and full payment on completion, because it protects you from someone further down the payment chain who was never paid at all.

How Do You Know If a Roofer Is a Storm Chaser?

License and insurance checks matter even more right after a storm, when out-of-area crews follow hail and wind damage into Michigan looking for fast insurance work. Out-of-state plates, a demand for a deposit, pressure to sign the same day, and no local address are the classic signs. We wrote a full checklist on spotting one, including what to do if one is already at your door; see storm chaser roofer red flags for the complete list.

Before You Sign: Verify These Five Things

• License. Active Michigan residential builder or maintenance and alteration license, name matches the company, covers roofing. Check it on the LARA license lookup.
• General liability insurance. A current certificate from the insurer, with you listed as certificate holder, not a verbal promise.
• Workers compensation insurance. A current certificate covering everyone who will actually be on your roof, in-house or subcontracted.
• Who installs it. A straight answer on in-house crew versus subcontractor, in writing if possible.
• Lien waiver at completion. A sworn statement before final payment, and a full unconditional waiver of lien once that payment clears.

None of this is paperwork for its own sake. It is the difference between a roof that is actually finished, legally and financially, and one that leaves you holding a lien or a liability claim months later. We answer every one of these questions in writing before a shingle moves, and we never take a deposit, so the only leverage either of us has is doing the job right. If you are comparing bids right now, our guide on questions to ask a roofer before you sign covers the rest of the contract, from ice and water shield coverage to warranty terms. We serve Southeast Michigan from offices in Oxford, Ferndale, and Rochester Hills, and every estimate includes the paperwork above without you having to ask twice.