What North Dakota requires of your website, phones and email

Federal law covers North Dakota like everywhere else: the TCPA for calls and texts and CAN-SPAM for email. For those, read our TCPA explainer and the guide to recording business calls. Below is only the North Dakota layer on top. It is general information as of October 2026, not legal advice, and we link the statute for each item so you can read it yourself.

Your texts are covered by the telemarketing chapter

North Dakota's chapter on telephone solicitations defines the term as "any voice, text, or other electronic communication over a telephone line" meant to encourage a purchase of goods or services. A marketing text from your CRM is therefore a telephone solicitation under state law, not a lighter category. The definition has exclusions that matter to a service business. It does not include a communication to a subscriber who gave prior express written consent, or one sent by someone with whom the subscriber has an established personal or business relationship. It also excludes a call whose only purpose is to set a later face-to-face meeting, but that exclusion does not cover a text message.

The statute defines an established business relationship as one based on the consumer's purchase, rental or lease of your goods or services, or a financial transaction with you, within the 24 months before the call. A customer you serviced last spring qualifies. Someone who filled out a quote form and never hired you does not qualify under that definition, so get written consent on the form (a checkbox that names texting, with your business name) before you send marketing texts. Our text templates assume that consent is in place.

The chapter's other rules, as published at ndlegis.gov:

• Hours. No telephone solicitation before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. at the subscriber's location (51-28-05). Federal hours run 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. too, but state law measures at the customer's location, which matters if you text a number with an out-of-state area code.
• Do-not-call. No solicitation of a subscriber who has been on the Attorney General's list or the national registry for at least 31 days (51-28-06). The Attorney General may designate the national registry as the state list (51-28-09).
• Identification. At the start of a solicitation call the caller must state a true first and last name, a phone number, city and state, and the business name (51-28-07).
• Recorded messages. A prerecorded or synthesized voice message needs the subscriber's consent, or a live operator who obtains consent first (51-28-02). That is the clause to read before an AI voice calls a lead back.

Enforcement has teeth. A person who receives a violating solicitation may sue for actual damages or up to $2,000 per violation, whichever is greater, plus costs and attorney's fees (51-28-11), within one year (51-28-12). The Attorney General can seek civil penalties of up to $2,000 per violation, and each call or message is a separate violation (51-28-17, 51-28-19). A list of 400 customers texted outside the window is 400 potential violations.

Caller ID, call tracking and AI receptionist numbers

Two separate sections touch your phone setup. Section 51-28-08 bars a solicitor from knowingly blocking a subscriber's caller identification. Section 51-28-08.1 goes further: it is unlawful to knowingly cause a caller ID system to transmit misleading or inaccurate information with intent to defraud or cause harm, or to display a number the caller does not own or have the owner's consent to use. A person who receives such a call can recover actual damages or between $5,000 and $10,000 per violation, whichever is greater, and the violation is also a class A misdemeanor.

For a service business the practical rule is simple. Make outbound calls and texts from numbers you own or have permission to use. Call-tracking numbers, a business line and an AI receptionist's callback number are all fine when they are provisioned in your name or on your account. Do not borrow a local-looking number you have no rights to in order to raise answer rates. Our phone systems and AI receptionist work covers setup on numbers you control.

Recording calls: one party must consent

North Dakota's interception statute, N.D.C.C. 12.1-15-02, makes interception a felony but lists a defense when the person was a party to the communication or one party gave prior consent, as long as the recording was not made to commit a crime or other unlawful harm (statute text). You may record a call you are on. Callers from all-party-consent states can create exposure under their own law, so a short spoken notice when a recorded line connects is still our standard advice. The same logic applies to an AI receptionist that records and transcribes. See the state table for neighboring states.

Sales made by phone or away from your shop carry a cancellation right

Chapter 51-18 regulates "personal solicitation sales" of consumer goods and services. The definition covers a sale where the seller solicits by telephone or in person and the buyer's agreement or offer is given somewhere other than the seller's place of business. Prior negotiation at a fixed business location takes a transaction out of the definition. If your crew sells a driveway wash after knocking on doors, or your estimator closes at the kitchen table after a cold call, the chapter applies. Its main rules (chapter text):

• The buyer may cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing (51-18-02). A buyer 65 or older purchasing a product priced over $50 gets until midnight of the fifteenth business day.
• The agreement is not enforceable unless it is in writing, dated and signed, with the statute's conspicuous notice and a duplicate notice of cancellation form attached (51-18-04). You must also tell the buyer orally about the right to cancel.
• No charge to a card or bank account and no advance payment until you have an original copy of a compliant contract back from the buyer (51-18-04.2). This affects online deposits taken at the door.
• An agreement that violates the chapter is void (51-18-04.3), and a violation is a class B misdemeanor and a violation of the state consumer protection chapter 51-15 (51-18-09).
• Exceptions include sales under $25, and sales where you offer a full refund for a cancelled service on request within 15 days, disclosed orally and in writing (51-18-08).
• If the buyer cancels after you have done work that altered their property, you restore it (51-18-07).

The statute does not mention website forms. Whether a booking made on your site counts as made at a place other than your place of business is a question for the Attorney General's consumer protection division, and we do not answer it for you. A customer who requested the service, you who quote at their house, and a signed contract in their hand is the situation to plan for.

License line, permit numbers and the warranty notice

A North Dakota contractor license is required when the cost, value or price per job exceeds $4,000 (N.D.C.C. 43-07-02). An unlicensed contractor above that line is guilty of a class A misdemeanor and may not maintain a court claim related to the contracting business. Read the full route in our North Dakota contractor license guide.

The chapter does not have a general advertising rule. We searched the text of chapter 43-07 and found no sentence requiring a license number on websites or ads. It does require the number in two places: a contractor applying for a building permit must give the permit official the license number, which is entered on the permit (43-07-24), and bids on public contract projects must show the license information in the bid envelope (43-07-12). Showing the number on your site is still a trust signal, and it costs nothing, but state law does not make you do it.

Section 43-07-26 adds a notice duty that belongs in your completion paperwork. Before an owner can sue over a defect in an improvement to a dwelling worth more than $2,000, the owner must give the contractor written notice and a chance to respond, and the contractor must give the owner written notice of those requirements when the job is complete. Add that notice to your invoice or completion email template. The service contract guide covers the rest of a contract.

Sales tax: labor and materials on separate lines

The Office of State Tax Commissioner says most services are not taxed in North Dakota. For repair contractors it states that repair labor is not taxable while the parts and materials in the repair are, and its contractors page uses a furnace motor replacement as the example: labor untaxed, motor taxed. A 2017 Tax Commissioner newsletter says mowing, thatching and aerating lawns is generally not taxable. The rate on retail sales is 5% as listed on the Tax Commissioner's site in October 2026.

What that means for your website and invoices: itemize labor and materials on separate lines, and make sure your online payment or invoicing tool can tax the parts line without taxing the labor line. A flat "service call" amount blended with parts invites a question in an audit. If you sell taxable goods you need a sales and use tax permit through ND TAP. For neighboring states, use the sales tax table.

What this means for your setup

Website. Put the consent language for texts next to the phone field on every quote form, name your business in it, and store the timestamp. List your license number if you hold one, as a trust signal. Keep prices and tax lines separate on any online invoice. A website built to your forms can store consent with each lead.

Phone line. Own your numbers. Train staff to give a name, number, city and business at the start of any outbound sales call, and keep the 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. window in the customer's time zone.

AI receptionist. Inbound answering falls outside the solicitation rules. An AI voice that calls leads back by prerecorded or synthesized voice needs the consent in 51-28-02, so collect it on the form. Add a recording notice to the greeting.

Email. Chapter 51-28 covers messages over a telephone line, not email, so your email program follows CAN-SPAM. Keep email and text lists separate and honor opt-outs on both. Business email on your own domain keeps replies out of spam folders.

Statutes change each legislative session. Confirm anything you rely on with the North Dakota Attorney General's consumer protection division and the Secretary of State, and see our North Dakota startup guide for the rest of your setup.

Frequently asked questions