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Delaware bonds out-of-state contractors as a percentage of the contract

Every other bond on this site is a flat figure. Delaware charges a percentage. A non-resident contractor performing work in Delaware must post a surety bond equal to 6% of the contract price, required by the Division of Revenue where a single contract, or the total value of contracts in a calendar year, reaches $20,000. The bond has to stay in force or the license is revocable.

A percentage bond scales with the job, which changes the calculation for out-of-state businesses working here. A $200,000 project carries a $12,000 bond obligation, not a fixed filing fee, and the annual aggregate means several smaller contracts can cross the threshold together.

Separately, any contractor conducting business activity in Delaware must register with and obtain a business license from the Division of Revenue, with different packages for resident and non-resident contractors. The distinction between the two runs through the whole system.

Say whether you are resident here, because the state cares

Delaware sorts contractors into resident and non-resident and treats them differently, which makes it one of the few markets where saying you are locally based carries a specific regulatory meaning rather than a vague appeal to community. A Delaware-resident contractor is in a materially simpler position than an out-of-state one, and that is worth stating plainly on pages targeting Delaware towns.

If you are the out-of-state business, be accurate about it and get the bonding right. The threshold catches an annual aggregate, so a business doing several modest Delaware jobs across a year can cross $20,000 without any single contract approaching it. That is an easy thing to miss and an expensive thing to miss.

The state is three counties and behaves like three markets. Wilmington and northern New Castle County sit in the Philadelphia metro's orbit; Kent County around Dover is its own smaller market; and Sussex County on the coast has resort seasonality that neither of the others shares.

Nearby metro

Northern Delaware competes in the Philadelphia metro, which has its own licensing requirement.

Sources: Delaware Division of Revenue — contractors, resident and non-resident. Regulatory detail is provided for orientation and is not legal advice.