Can you hire a tech with a criminal record for in-home work?
What ban-the-box law lets you ask, how the EEOC's individualized assessment runs, what covers the in-home risk, and where the WOTC stands.
Yes — hiring a felon for HVAC or plumbing work is a process question, not a dead end.
The federal guidance we verified has each record weighed individually — the nature of the crime, the time elapsed and the nature of the job — plus an individualized assessment of the candidate.
What ban-the-box law lets you ask, how the assessment runs, what the in-home risk options are, and whether a tax credit still exists are the working pieces this page sets out.
What do ban-the-box laws allow you to ask?
What you may ask is set by two layers, and this page's research confirmed one of them.
The federal layer governs how the answer is obtained and what stays out of your questions.
If a screening company will produce the background report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires a written disclosure first — in a stand-alone notice that is not part of the job application — so the criminal-history question on your application and the order for the report are two separate steps.
And the FTC's guidance to employers warns not to ask any medical questions before a conditional job offer has been made — medical questions stay out of screening until the offer is in hand.
The layer we cannot map for you is the state and city one.
"Ban-the-box" and "fair chance" are the everyday names for laws that limit at which point in the hiring process an employer may ask about criminal history — and state ban-the-box, fair-chance licensing and reference-immunity laws were not researched for this page, so we will not guess which jurisdictions restrict what, or how far into the process each one pushes the question.
Treat the sequence as a build order.
Draft the application question, confirm with your state labor department or an employment attorney where a fair-chance law lets that question sit, and only then decide when the stand-alone disclosure goes out and the report gets ordered.
The timing those laws add to the report itself is covered in our guide to running a background check on an HVAC technician.
How does the EEOC individualized assessment work?
The EEOC's guidance on arrest and conviction records says a targeted criminal-record screen should consider at least three things — the nature of the crime, the time elapsed and the nature of the job — plus an individualized assessment of the candidate.
Individualized is the operative word: the assessment weighs this person's record against this job.
For a service shop, make the assessment concrete and make it written.
For each candidate with a record: what the offense was, how long ago it happened, how it relates to work inside customers' homes, and what the candidate says about it when asked.
A short written note per candidate also keeps the process consistent — between two applicants with similar records, and between the people doing the hiring.
Then connect the assessment to the report that prompted it.
When a decision rests on a background report from a screening company, the candidate must get a copy of the report you relied on and the Summary of Your Rights Under the FCRA before you take the adverse action, and the adverse action notice after — orally, in writing or electronically.
That pre-decision step is what puts the report in the candidate's hands before the decision is final, so run the assessment while it is open.
How do you manage in-home customer risk?
The third factor in the EEOC's screen — the nature of the job — is what makes in-home service its own case.
The job sends a tech into customers' homes, around belongings, children and home security.
Write the job's actual duties down and screen against that list: it anchors the scope of the report you order and the assessment of whatever comes back.
The worry that makes a second-chance hire feel different for an in-home shop is the one you cannot interview away.
Two of the answers are concrete rather than guesswork: the documented individualized assessment above, and a federal program to check the hire against — the Federal Bonding Program in the next section.
Two boundaries keep the rest honest.
Whether a criminal record affects the licence your tech needs is a question for the state board that issues the licence — fair-chance licensing rules were not researched for this page, so ask the board before you assume the record blocks the credential.
And customer-facing disclosure is the same story: our research covered the federal hiring process and did not reach any duty to tell customers about an employee's record — whether your state or city adds one, an employment attorney can tell you.
What is the Federal Bonding Program?
The Federal Bonding Program is a U.S. Department of Labor program, created in 1966.
It provides employers with free fidelity bonds of $5,000, with no deductible, covering the first six months of a hired at-risk job seeker's employment.
For a shop weighing a second-chance hire, that makes the program worth a phone call — with a caveat our facts leave open.
The bond covers an at-risk job seeker's first six months, and our research did not establish who the program counts as at-risk, or whether a candidate with a record qualifies.
The program's official site is bonds4jobs.com, run by its contractor for the Department of Labor — ask there before you plan around the bond.
Plan around the terms our research verified: a $5,000 limit, a $0 deductible and the first six months of employment.
What the bond responds to for a specific hire, and how a claim is filed, were not part of that research — confirm coverage with the program before you count on it for a particular placement.
Which tax credit applies?
The federal credit to check is the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) — and two things decide whether it helps your hire: whether the credit is even authorized for the hire date, and whether the candidate meets a qualifying category.
Start with the authorization, because it lapses.
WOTC applies only to eligible hires who began work on or before December 31, 2025; as of the IRS page updated July 20, 2026, the credit had not been extended, and the Department of Labor states WOTC is authorized until December 31, 2025.
Treat it as lapsed after 2025 unless Congress extends it — Congress has revived past lapses retroactively, so check the IRS and DOL pages before you build a hiring plan around the money.
Then the value and the mechanics.
WOTC is generally worth up to $2,400 per eligible hire, with up to $24,000 in wages counted for certain qualified veterans, for hires through 2025.
Form 8850 must be completed by the offer date and filed with the state workforce agency within 28 calendar days of the start date — one of those deadlines lands at the offer itself, so the form belongs in your offer process, not after it.
On eligibility, our facts carry the credit's value, dates and form, and they name one qualifying category — certain qualified veterans — but not the full list of groups the IRS uses.
We will not paraphrase a list we do not have: whether a candidate with a record meets a WOTC category is answered on the IRS's WOTC page and by your state workforce agency.
There is also training money to know about: WIOA on-the-job training contracts reimburse employers up to 50% of a trainee's wage — up to 75% where a governor or local workforce board allows.
It gets its own treatment — contract mechanics included — in our guide to the apprenticeship tax credit.
Everything up to the offer — sourcing, pay plans, interviews — is our guide to hiring HVAC and plumbing techs.
This page is employer career and business information, not legal advice. The rules here come from the FTC, the EEOC, the U.S. Department of Labor and the IRS, and state and city law adds more — confirm what applies to your company with an employment attorney and the relevant agency before you act.
The second-chance hire, step by step
- Confirm with your state labor department or an employment attorney where a fair-chance law lets the criminal-history question sit — our research did not cover the state lists.
- Ask no medical questions before a conditional job offer.
- If a screening company runs the report, disclose first in a stand-alone written notice that is not part of the job application.
- Assess every record individually and in writing: nature of the crime, time elapsed, nature of the job.
- Before declining on a report, give the candidate the report copy and the Summary of Your Rights Under the FCRA; the adverse action notice follows the decision.
- Check the Federal Bonding Program — a free $5,000 bond, no deductible, first six months — and confirm with the program that your hire qualifies, before the first call.
- If Congress extends WOTC, check the IRS terms that come with the extension before relying on the old mechanics — Form 8850 was completed by the offer date and filed with the state workforce agency within 28 calendar days of the start date while the credit ran through 2025.
Questions employers ask
Can a felon get an HVAC or plumbing license?
That is the state licensing board's question, not the federal hiring process this page covers.
Our research did not include how state boards review convictions when they issue licences, so we cannot tell you which states restrict what.
Before you assume a record blocks the credential your tech needs, ask the board that issues it in your state — and have the candidate ask before they apply.
What exactly does the Federal Bonding Program bond?
Fidelity.
The U.S. Department of Labor created the program in 1966, and it provides employers free fidelity bonds of $5,000 with no deductible covering the first six months of an at-risk new hire's employment.
What the bond responds to for a specific hire, and who the program counts as at-risk, were not part of our research — confirm eligibility and coverage details with the program at bonds4jobs.com.
Can I still claim WOTC on a hire who started in 2025?
WOTC applies only to eligible hires who began work on or before December 31, 2025, and the filing rule is strict: Form 8850 must be completed by the offer date and filed with the state workforce agency within 28 calendar days of the start date.
For a 2025 hire, that window closed months before this page's October 2026 publish date — under the rule as written, there is no filing left to make.
Our facts do not say whether a missed filing can be revived, and Congress has revived the credit itself after past lapses, so ask the IRS or your state workforce agency.
Do I have to tell customers that my tech has a criminal record?
Our research for this page covered the federal hiring process — disclosure to the applicant, the EEOC assessment, bonding and tax credits.
It did not reach any customer-disclosure duty, and state or local law we did not research could add one — an employment attorney can tell you whether yours does.
Ask before your tech's first call.
More hiring resources
Ready to post the opening?
Write the ad, post the job, and run the sequence above on who applies — the assessment written down, the notices in order, the program checked before the first call.