All currently licensed NJ Landscape Irrigation Contractors recently received a letter by mail notifying them of the following changes to the regulations affecting your certification:

1. They will be assessing a LATE FEE of $300.00 beginning with the 2022 certification renewal cycle. This assessment will be done on March 1, 2022 to any certification not renewed for either not submitting a renewal application and renewal fee by that date or for lacking the proper number of required continuing education credits (CECs) by that date. Please make every effort to renew your certification in a timely manner and avoid any such assessment.
2. There is a new CEC requirement that will affect each renewal cycle. There will still be a total of 16 CECs required each cycle, with at least 8 of those CECs in water conservation topics. The new requirement is that 2 of the CECs will need to be related to NJ BUSINESS LAW/OR BUILDING CODES. IANJ will be adding courses of this nature to their class roster over the coming year to make sure this requirement can be fulfilled before the January 2022 renewal date.

The Business CEC change was instituted for two reasons. First, the Board felt that certified landscape irrigation contractors needed to be up to date on these topics. Second, the Board no longer will administer the examinations required to achieve certification. The Irrigation Association’s Certified Irrigation Contractor examination will now be required. Obviously, this does not directly affect those who are already licensed, but the Board thought it would be good information to share, should you have employees that are seeking certification in the future.

Should you have any questions regarding this notice, please contact the Licensing Division of the DCA office by email at LIC@dca.nj.gov or by calling (609) 984-7834.