Tổ chức Doanh nghiệp & Cấp phép

Quy tắc

California licenses contractors in three classes, A General Engineering, B General Building and C Specialty, and a contractor may contract only inside the class it holds, except for work that is incidental and supplemental to that class.

Khi nào áp dụng — và khi nào không

• –Class A is for fixed works needing specialized engineering knowledge: highways, streets and roads, dams, sewers, bridges, pipelines, land leveling and earthmoving.
• –Class B is for a structure built for the support, shelter and enclosure of people or property that needs at least two unrelated building trades; a B contractor may take a prime contract or a subcontract for framing or carpentry on its own.
• –Class C is the specialty group: a contractor whose principal business uses one specialized building trade or craft, listed by CSLB trade by trade, such as C-36 Plumbing Contractor.
• –A specialty contractor may use other crafts on a job only where that work is incidental and supplemental to the craft it is licensed for.

So sánh minh họa

Nhầm lẫn thường gặp

• –The two-unrelated-trades test belongs to Class B. It does not turn a set of unrelated specialty jobs into general building work.
• –A single-trade job does not become general building work because it is on a house. The trade decides the class, not the building type.
• –Incidental and supplemental is a test about how the work relates to the licensed craft. It is not a dollar allowance.

Quy tắc

A license stands on a qualifying individual who has at least four full years of journey-level, foreman, supervisor or contractor experience in the classification within the ten years before the application, and who has passed the required examinations.

Khi nào áp dụng — và khi nào không

• –The four years must be in the classification being applied for, and must fall in the ten years immediately before the application is filed.
• –The qualifier appears on behalf of the entity: an owner or responsible managing employee for an individual, a general partner or RME for a partnership, an RMO or RME for a corporation.
• –A responsible managing employee must be permanently employed by the applicant and actively engaged, which the statute defines as 32 hours a week or 80 percent of the hours the business operates, whichever is less.
• –The qualifier is responsible for supervision and control of the employer's construction operations; lending a name is a cause for discipline and a misdemeanor.

So sánh minh họa

Nhầm lẫn thường gặp

• –Twenty percent and eighty percent are two different rules. Twenty percent is the common ownership needed to qualify a second firm; eighty percent is one half of the actively engaged test for an RME.
• –Being an employee is not being qualified. A replacement qualifier must meet the experience and examination requirements in his or her own right.
• –The experience belongs to the person, not to the company. The entity is the licensee, but the knowledge that supports the license is the qualifier's.

Quy tắc

When the qualifying individual disassociates, the licensee or the qualifier must notify the Registrar in writing within 90 days, and the licensee has 90 days from the date of disassociation to replace the qualifier; miss either and the license is automatically suspended.

Khi nào áp dụng — và khi nào không

• –Both 90-day clocks run from the date of disassociation, not from the day the board finds out.
• –If the notice is late, the suspension and the removal of the qualifier take effect on the date the written notice reaches the board's headquarters office.
• –On a showing of good cause the Registrar may accept one further 90-day extension where the date is disputed, the qualifier has died, or an outside agency delayed the replacement application. For a disputed date or a death the total is capped at 180 days.
• –Failing to notify within 90 days is itself grounds for disciplinary action, on top of the suspension.

So sánh minh họa

Nhầm lẫn thường gặp

• –Notifying is not replacing. Both are 90-day duties and both run from the same date.
• –The suspension is automatic at the end of the 90 days. It is not a penalty the board must first decide to impose.
• –The qualifier's 90 days sit in one section; the 90 days for a death, a partner's disassociation or a dissolution sit in another. Same number, different event.

Quy tắc

A contractor license is issued to individual owners, partnerships, corporations, limited liability companies and participating tribes; a trust, an unincorporated association or an account is not one of them.

Khi nào áp dụng — và khi nào không

• –The entity is the licensee. The qualifying individual appears on the entity's behalf and is not the license holder.
• –A corporation or limited liability company, foreign or domestic, must give the identification number issued by the Secretary of State, and every officer, member, responsible manager or director goes on the application as personnel of record.
• –A limited liability company carries an extra financial condition: liability insurance with an aggregate limit of at least $1,000,000, rising by $100,000 for each person of record beyond five, capped at $5,000,000.

So sánh minh họa

Nhầm lẫn thường gặp

• –A trust holds property. It is not one of the entity types a contractor license is issued to.
• –A retirement account or an unincorporated association is not a business entity for this purpose, however the money inside it is used.
• –The list was extended to participating tribes; it is no longer only the four familiar business forms.

Quy tắc

No license is transferable to another person or entity under any circumstances, so when the business becomes a different legal entity that new entity files its own application, with its own $25,000 contractor bond, its own qualifier and its own workers' compensation coverage.

Khi nào áp dụng — và khi nào không

• –Incorporating, converting, or re-forming the business creates a new legal person, and filing with the Secretary of State does nothing to the license.
• –The license number is a separate question from the license. On application, a number may be reissued in narrow cases, including to a corporation or LLC formed by an individual licensee who keeps more than 50 percent of the voting power.
• –A partnership license is canceled by the disassociation of a general partner or by dissolution of the partnership, so a change in the partner lineup ends the old license.
• –No examination is required of a qualifying individual who, within the five years before the application, personally passed the written examination for the same classification or served as qualifier for a licensee in good standing in that classification.

So sánh minh họa

Nhầm lẫn thường gặp

• –Filing articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State does not move the license. Two different agencies, two different records.
• –Keeping the number is not keeping the license. A reissued number still sits on a new application by a new entity.
• –The contractor bond is $25,000. Lower figures come from before the increase that took effect on January 1, 2023.

Quy tắc

A licensee must put the license number in all construction contracts, in subcontracts and calls for bid, and in every form of advertising, which includes a website or any post that solicits business on the Internet.

Khi nào áp dụng — và khi nào không

• –Every commercially registered vehicle used in the business must show the business name and license number, in print of at least 72-point font or three quarters of an inch high and wide.
• –C-36 Plumbing, C-45 Sign and C-57 Well Drilling contractors show the business name, address and license number on each side of the vehicle in letters at least one and a half inches high.
• –It is a misdemeanor to advertise for construction work covered by the license law without holding a valid license in the classification advertised, and advertising includes any electronic transmission.
• –An unlicensed person may advertise only where the aggregate contract price for labor, material and all other items is under $1,000 and the advertisement states that the person is not licensed. Both conditions, not either one.

So sánh minh họa

Nhầm lẫn thường gặp

• –The rule reaches documents the public sees. Internal records such as payroll are not among them.
• –Online advertising is not a lighter category than print. A website or a social post is advertising.
• –For unlicensed advertising the offence is complete when the ad is placed. No contract and no work are needed.

Quy tắc

A licensee must notify the Registrar in writing, on the board's form, within 90 days of any change to the information recorded on the license, and the statute names business address, personnel and business name among them.

Khi nào áp dụng — và khi nào không

• –The 90 days run from the change, not from the day the licensee gets round to it.
• –If the notice is late, the change takes effect only on the date the written notification is received at the board's headquarters office.
• –Failing to notify within the 90 days is grounds for disciplinary action in its own right.
• –A name used with the public belongs on the CSLB license. Filing a fictitious business name with the county recorder is a separate local step and does not satisfy this duty.

So sánh minh họa

Nhầm lẫn thường gặp

• –Thirty days is the habit carried over from other licensing schemes. The window here is 90 days.
• –A long window is not a soft one. Missing it is grounds for discipline and delays the effective date of the change.
• –A county fictitious-name filing and a CSLB license record are two different registers.

Quy tắc

A license expires two years from the last day of the month it was issued, the Registrar may cite, temporarily suspend or permanently revoke it, and a contractor who was not licensed at all times during the work cannot bring an action to collect for that work.

Khi nào áp dụng — và khi nào không

• –Renewing an unexpired license continues it for the following two-year period. An expired license may still be renewed within five years; after five years a new application is required.
• –Abandonment of a project without legal excuse is a cause for disciplinary action, and the customer of an unlicensed contractor may sue to recover all compensation already paid.
• –Citations are disclosed on the CSLB license lookup from issuance and for five years after the date of compliance, if no further discipline follows in that period.
• –Minor work escapes the license law only when the aggregate price for labor, materials and all other items is under $1,000, the work needs no building permit, it is not part of a larger operation, and the person neither advertises as a contractor nor employs anyone to help.

So sánh minh họa

Nhầm lẫn thường gặp

• –The two-year term and the five-year renewal window are two different clocks. One is how long the license runs, the other is how long a dead license can be revived.
• –The minor-work exemption is not a labor-only figure. It is the whole price, and it disappears the moment a permit is needed or a helper is hired.
• –Finishing the work and going unpaid does not restore the right to sue for it. The license had to be in place while the work was performed.