Approved Vendor File · Kentucky Licensing
Verifying a Kentucky HVAC Vendor: What Your Own Staff May Legally Do
Kentucky licenses HVAC contractors by statute, and the same statute draws a precise line between what an in-house maintenance employee may do and what requires a licensed master HVAC contractor. The line is not “anything complicated.” It is a six-item list of equipment, written into KRS 198B.650, and it is the most useful thing a property manager can know before the next mechanical call.
Is HVAC a licensed trade in Kentucky?
Yes. Master HVAC contractors, journeyman mechanics and apprentices are all licensed or certified by the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction.
KRS 198B.650 defines “Department” as the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, and defines a “master heating, ventilation, and air conditioning contractor” as a contractor “who is licensed by the department to advertise and practice heating, ventilation, and air conditioning contracting in this Commonwealth.” A “journeyman heating, ventilation, and air conditioning mechanic” is licensed “to perform heating, ventilation, and air conditioning work under the supervision, direction, and responsibility of a master heating, ventilation, and air conditioning contractor.”
Worth flagging, because it causes real confusion in vendor files: the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction homepage, read on November 1, 2026, describes the agency as one that “licenses/certifies plumbers, electricians, boiler contractors, sprinkler and/or fire alarm contractors and building inspectors” — a sentence that does not mention HVAC at all. The statute is unambiguous that HVAC licences exist and that the department issues them. Do not conclude from that homepage sentence that HVAC is unlicensed in Kentucky.
Can our own maintenance staff work on the HVAC?
For routine maintenance, yes, under a defined statutory role — but that role explicitly stops short of major repairs.
KRS 198B.650 defines a “maintenance person or maintenance engineer” as “a person who is a regular and bona fide employee of a property owner, property lessor, property management company, or firm, not in the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning business that has jurisdiction of property where the routine maintenance of heating, ventilating, and air conditioning is being performed, provided the maintenance shall not include major repairs.”
Three conditions are doing work in that definition, and all three have to hold: the person is a regular and bona fide employee, the employer is not itself in the HVAC business, and the employer has jurisdiction of the property. A contractor you bring in is not your maintenance person. Neither is a staffing-agency temp, on a plain reading of “regular and bona fide employee.”
“Major repair” is not a judgement call in Kentucky. It is a list of six things, and it means complete replacement.
What counts as a major repair?
The complete replacement of a furnace, condensing unit, heat pump, fan coil unit, chiller system, or heating boiler system not covered by KRS Chapter 236.
That is the statutory definition, verbatim in substance from KRS 198B.650: “Major repair” means the complete replacement of any of the following heating, ventilation, or air conditioning equipment: (a) Furnaces; (b) Condensing units; (c) Heat pumps; (d) Fan coil units; (e) Chiller systems; or (f) Heating boiler systems not covered by KRS Chapter 236.
| Work | Status | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Routine maintenance by in-house staff | Permitted for a statutory maintenance person | KRS 198B.650(11) |
| Complete replacement of a furnace, condensing unit, heat pump, fan coil unit, chiller or heating boiler | Outside the maintenance-person role | KRS 198B.650(11), (12) |
| Practising HVAC contracting generally | Requires meeting the licensing requirements | KRS 198B.656(4) |
Note the word complete. The statute defines major repair by full replacement of a listed unit, which means the useful question on a work order is not “how big is this job” but “is a listed piece of equipment being replaced in its entirety.” That is a question a property manager can answer from a quote, without a mechanical background.
What does the statute prohibit outright?
Claiming a licence you do not hold, and practising HVAC contracting without meeting the licensing requirements.
KRS 198B.656 prohibits a person from claiming to be or advertising as a master HVAC contractor, a journeyman HVAC mechanic or an apprentice, or using “any title, designation, or abbreviation likely to create the impression” of that licensure, without holding the valid licence or certificate. Its subsection (4) is the broad one: “A person shall not practice heating, ventilation, and air conditioning contracting, unless that person has met the requirements of KRS 198B.650 to 198B.689.” KRS 198B.670 repeats the advertising prohibition for master contractors specifically.
The same section also records what the licence buys the holder: a valid master licence entitles that person “to practice heating, ventilation, and air conditioning contracting, including the obtaining of any necessary permits in connection with the practice,” and makes them “primarily responsible for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning work performed.” That responsibility clause is the reason the licence number belongs in your vendor file — it identifies who is accountable for the work.
How to verify an HVAC vendor before the work starts
Verification is a document exercise, and it takes minutes. Do it once per vendor, at onboarding, and re-check at renewal rather than at the moment of an outage.
- Ask for the master HVAC contractor licence number and the name exactly as licensed, not the trading name on the van.
- Check it against the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction licence search and verification service. Its published contact number for licensing questions is (502) 573-0365.
- Confirm the licensed individual is the person who will be responsible for the work, since the statute makes the master contractor primarily responsible for it.
- For work carried out by a journeyman, identify the supervising master contractor. The journeyman licence is defined by working under a master’s supervision, direction and responsibility.
- Record who is pulling the permit. A valid master licence includes obtaining necessary permits in connection with the practice.
- Separate scopes on the same site: routine maintenance your own employee may perform under the maintenance-person definition, versus any complete replacement of listed equipment.
How this fits a multi-building maintenance file
Across a portfolio, the HVAC question repeats at every building with different equipment and different answers, which is exactly where a single line in a vendor file saves an argument later. The pattern worth adopting is the one we use for the other licensed trades: one row per vendor, the licence type named in the statute, the number, the licensed name, the verification date, and the renewal date. It takes the same shape as the electrical licence check and the plumbing licence and insurance check, so one file format covers all three trades. Our approved vendor page sets out what we ask for, and how we price explains how scopes get quoted.
Questions that follow
Does a licensed plumber or electrician cover HVAC work?
No. Kentucky licenses these trades under separate statutory schemes — HVAC under KRS 198B.650 to 198B.689, electrical and plumbing under their own chapters. A licence in one trade is not authority to practise another, and KRS 198B.656 prohibits practising HVAC contracting without meeting its requirements.
Our maintenance tech replaced a condensing unit last season. Was that allowed?
On the face of the statute, a complete replacement of a condensing unit is a “major repair” under KRS 198B.650(12), and the maintenance-person definition in the same section applies only where “the maintenance shall not include major repairs.” That is a question for your own counsel on your specific facts, but it is the sort of thing worth finding before an insurer or an inspector does.
Who is responsible if HVAC work fails — the technician or the licence holder?
The statute speaks to accountability for the work rather than to civil liability: KRS 198B.656(1) makes the holder of a valid master HVAC contractor’s licence “primarily responsible for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning work performed.” Liability between parties will also turn on your contract, so keep the licensed name and the contracting entity consistent in your paperwork.
Statutory text read from the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission on November 1, 2026. Central Property Services and Central Roof Repair are both owned by Marcos Gil; roofing work is handled by Central Roof Repair, not by Central Property Services. This is general information on Kentucky licensing statutes, not legal advice.
Last updated November 1, 2026.
By Marcos Gil, REALTOR® — Keller Williams Commonwealth · KY Real Estate License No. 296259 · Call or text (859) 310-1209.