Nebraska: contractors register, but no state license tests them. Here's what that means.

Nebraska CONFIRMS the master correlation and is its cleanest example. It has no competency license, only a workers'-comp-tied registration whose own statute refuses to endorse contractor quality. Instead, it stacks protection onto the house:

• The seller form asks point-blank whether the chimney is damaged, and lists fireplace and wood-stove cleaning "including chimney."
• The CO law fires at sale.
• The CO law also fires at any permitted indoor appliance replacement or repair.

The oddball worth the page: because every CO trigger includes "has a fireplace," a hearth home in Nebraska can't be sold, or get a permitted stove swap, without an operational CO alarm on each habitable floor.

Nebraska has no state general-contractor or home-improvement competency license. Instead it runs a registration, and the statute itself says what that registration is not. Under the Contractor Registration Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 48-2101 to 48-2117, contractors and subcontractors doing business in Nebraska must register with the Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) (STATE LAW).

The Act is candid: "It is not the intent of the Legislature to endorse the quality or performance of services provided by any individual contractor" (§ 48-2102). What registration actually involves:

• Fee: by statute, a fee "not to exceed forty dollars" per application or renewal (§ 48-2107). NDOL announced the annual fee rose to $40.00 effective August 1, 2026, up from $25.
• Workers'-comp proof: contractors with one or more employees must file a current Workers' Comp certificate (ACORD 25) naming NDOL as holder.

So chimney sweeping, repair, relining, and rebuilding require registration but no exam, no bond, no trade test. Public lookup: dol.nebraska.gov/conreg/Search. Cities may add their own requirements. NOT YET CONFIRMED Omaha and Lincoln contractor licensing not confirmed.

As explicit as it gets: the statute itself disclaims vouching for competence. Registration proves a workers'-comp certificate and a $40 fee, not that anyone can read a flue. There is no state exam or trade credential for chimney work at all. Individual certifications (NCSG CCP/CCR; CSIA CCS, C-DET) and an independent audit are the only real competence signal. "Registered with the state" here means far less than a homeowner assumes.

Nebraska has a mandatory statutory disclosure that names the chimney. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-2,120 requires "each seller of residential real property" (one to four dwelling units) to give the buyer a written disclosure of the property's condition, subject to exemptions in subsection (6) such as foreclosures and certain family transfers (STATE LAW). Subsection (4) lists what the statement must cover:

• appliances, electrical, heating and cooling, water and sewer;
• improvements and material defects, and hazardous conditions;
• title conditions;
• and (k) "information relating to compliance with the requirements for a carbon monoxide alarm as provided in sections 76-604 and 76-605."

The Nebraska Real Estate Commission's Seller Property Condition Disclosure Statement (form dated 4/2017) carries these hearth lines:

• "Is there presently damage to the chimney?"
• "Fireplace / Fireplace Insert", "Gas log (fireplace)", "Gas starter (fireplace)"
• "Wood-burning stove ___ year installed (if known)"
• "Cleaning of fireplace, including chimney" and "Cleaning of wood-burning stove, including chimney"
• "Carbon Monoxide Alarm (___ number)"

Disclosure is on the seller's actual knowledge. No inspection is mandated at transfer; NFPA 211 Level 2 stays a NATIONAL STANDARD. This is a real, named chimney disclosure.

Nebraska offers three instruments:

• (1) Consumer Protection Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 59-1601 et seq.). Bars unfair or deceptive acts affecting the public interest; private right of action and AG enforcement.
• (2) Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act (§ 87-301 et seq.). Under § 87-303 a court may grant injunctions and other equitable relief, and "may award attorneys' fees to the prevailing party" where the defendant "willfully engaged in the trade practice knowing it to be deceptive." These remedies add to common-law and other statutory remedies.
• (3) Home Solicitation Sales Act (§§ 69-1601 to 69-1607). Covers a sale, lease, or rental of consumer goods or services of $25 or more solicited away from the seller's place of business (§ 69-1601). The buyer may cancel "until midnight of the third business day after the seller has given notice to the buyer" (§ 69-1603). Caveat: § 69-1601 excludes maintenance visits the buyer requested. The door-knock chimney scare-sale is covered; the sweep the homeowner called is not.

Complaints: the AG's Consumer Protection Division (protectthegoodlife.nebraska.gov).

The AG's Consumer Protection Division pursues home-solicitation and deceptive-trade abuses under ch. 59, ch. 87, and the Home Solicitation Sales Act, all of which reach the door-knock "we noticed your chimney" pitch. No NE chimney-sweep-specific enforcement action has been confirmed. Use patterns, not names.

The Nebraska State Building Code adopts the 2018 IBC and 2018 IRC, with listed exclusions (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 71-6403, as amended by Laws 2019, LB 348). Under § 71-6406, counties, cities and villages may adopt either the state code or a code that "conforms generally" with it. If a political subdivision does not adopt an approved code within two years of a state code update, the state building code applies there, except to farm construction. Enforcement is local. Where a building department exists (Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island), chimney relines, rebuilds and solid-fuel appliance installs are generally permit work. Rural areas may enforce little (LOCAL). The standard local-variance disclaimer applies.

No statewide burn-ban or wood-stove emission regime. Wood and pellet heat is common in a cold plains climate, but there is no NE-specific stove rule. Not a material content section.

The Carbon Monoxide Safety Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 76-601 to 76-607 (Laws 2015, LB 34), sets three triggers. Each one fires only if the dwelling has a fuel-fired heater or appliance, a fireplace, or an attached garage:

• New construction (§ 76-603): single-family and multifamily dwellings built on or after Jan 1, 2017 need a CO alarm on each habitable floor, or where the adopted building code specifies.
• Sale or transfer (§ 76-604(1), § 76-605(1)): the seller of a single-family dwelling, or of a unit in an existing multifamily dwelling, offered for sale or transfer on or after Jan 1, 2017, must ensure an operational CO alarm is on each habitable floor.
• Permitted interior work (§ 76-604(2), § 76-605(2)): if the owner makes any interior alteration, repair, fuel-fired appliance replacement, or addition that requires a permit on or after Jan 1, 2017, the owner must ensure an operational CO alarm is installed. This does not apply to exterior alterations.

The permit trigger is directly chimney-relevant: a permitted indoor stove or insert replacement or hearth repair triggers the CO-alarm duty. Section 76-605(3) separately bars disabling a CO alarm except for maintenance. The sale trigger is cross-referenced on the disclosure statement at § 76-2,120(4)(k).