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Under B&P §7159.10, a service and repair contract may be used only when, among other conditions, the buyer initiated contact to request the work and the price is $750 or less.

B&P §7159.10 limits a service and repair contract to a total price of $750 or less; larger jobs require a full home improvement contract.

B&P §7159.10 requires that under a service and repair contract, no payment is due and none may be collected until the work is complete. Down payments are not permitted on these contracts.

The down payment cap is $1,000 or 10%, whichever is less. Ten percent of $15,000 is $1,500, but the $1,000 cap controls, so $2,500 is over the legal maximum.

B&P §7152 defines a home improvement salesperson as a person employed by a licensed contractor to solicit, sell, negotiate, or execute home improvement contracts. Such persons must be registered with the CSLB.

B&P §7153(a) makes it a misdemeanor to engage in the occupation of home improvement salesperson without a current and valid registration issued by the registrar at the time of the sales transaction, and §7154 requires the employing contractor to notify the registrar in writing before the salesperson begins work. The registration is not a licence: it authorises soliciting, selling, negotiating and executing contracts only for the licensed contractor or contractors behind it. (a) and (b) describe becoming a CONTRACTOR — the salesperson sits no trade or law examination and holds no licence. (c) borrows a bond from the licensing side and uses a superseded figure besides; the contractor's licence bond under B&P §7071.6 is $25,000, and a salesperson posts none. Note §7155.5: the salesperson's violations are cause for discipline against the contractor whether or not he knew of them.

B&P §7159.5(a)(4) requires that where payments are to be made before completion, the contract include 'a schedule of payments in dollars and cents specifically referencing the amount of work or services to be performed and any materials and equipment to be supplied.' Two elements, both mandatory: the figure in dollars and cents, and the work it buys. (a) gives the figure without the work, and percentages are exactly what the statute displaced — an owner cannot check '30 percent' against anything on site. (b) is unlawful under §7159.5(a)(5), which bars requesting or accepting any payment exceeding the value of the work performed or the material delivered, whatever the contractor now thinks the schedule should say. (d) describes a lump-sum-on-completion contract, which needs no schedule but also permits no progress payment.

B&P §7159(e) requires the contract to carry, near the buyer's signature, a notice captioned 'Three-Day Right to Cancel' — 'Five-Day' for a senior citizen, seven business days for repairs after a declared disaster — stating the transaction date, the date by which a cancellation must be sent and where to send it, plus a detachable Notice of Cancellation form in duplicate, in the language of the sales presentation. (a) is a lien document: Civil Code §8200 makes preliminary notice a precondition to a lien, a stop payment notice or a payment bond claim, and it can arrive up to 20 days after the claimant starts work. (c) is the owner's recorded notice, which shortens a subcontractor's lien deadline from 90 days after completion to 30 days after recording (Civil Code §8414). (b) is the building department's sign-off that the structure may be occupied.

California's home solicitation law requires the seller to give the buyer two copies of a completed Notice of Cancellation form, so one can be mailed while the buyer retains a copy.

Under the home solicitation cancellation law, upon cancellation the seller must return any payments made by the buyer within 10 days of receiving the notice of cancellation.

The three business-day cancellation period runs from the date the buyer signs the home solicitation contract, not from when work begins or a permit issues.

The three-business-day right comes from Civil Code §1689.6 and B&P §7159(e), and the only route out of it is Civil Code §1689.13: a buyer-initiated contract for emergency or immediately necessary repairs, plus a SEPARATE dated statement signed by the buyer describing the situation and expressly waiving the three-, five- or seven-day right. A waiver pre-printed in the contractor's own form satisfies none of that. Putting it there is worse than ineffective — B&P §7161 makes a false or misleading statement used to induce a home improvement contract a public offense, and §7160 gives the owner damages plus a $500 penalty and fees. (a) and (c) invent thresholds; the right does not scale with price, and a home improvement contract is residential by definition. (b) treats the buyer's initials as the separate statement §1689.13 demands, which is precisely the shortcut that section forecloses.

B&P §7159 requires that the home improvement contract be written in the same language (for example, Spanish) that was principally used in the oral sales presentation or negotiation.

B&P §7159.5(a)(5) is the prohibition: 'Except for a downpayment, the contractor shall neither request nor accept payment that exceeds the value of the work performed or material delivered', and the bar extends to advance payment in whole or in part from any lender or financier. The other three options are all lawful. Billing after a phase is finished is precisely what the §7159.5(a)(4) payment schedule contemplates. A $1,000 downpayment is the ceiling itself on any job of $10,000 or more, because §7159.5(a)(3) takes the LESSER of $1,000 and 10 percent. Final payment on completion is the ordinary close. Collecting ahead of the value in place is the only unlawful act among the four, and it is how most §7159 discipline cases begin.

A joint control, or funding control, is a neutral third party that holds the construction funds and releases them to the contractor against verified progress. B&P §7159.5(a)(8) is why it matters: a contractor who furnishes a joint control APPROVED BY THE REGISTRAR covering full performance and payment is exempt from the downpayment cap, the dollars-and-cents payment schedule, and the bar on accepting payment ahead of the value in place, and may take payment before completion. Two conditions travel with it — the registrar's approval, and the contractor holding no financial or other interest in the control. (b) describes joint checks, the different protection the Mechanics Lien Warning recommends to owners. (d) describes permit inspections, which verify code compliance, not payment. (a) describes unlawful licence sharing.

B&P §7159.5(a)(8) exempts a contractor who furnishes a performance and payment bond, a lien and completion bond, an approved bond equivalent, or a JOINT CONTROL approved by the registrar covering full performance and payment, from paragraphs (3), (4) and (5) — the $1,000-or-10-percent downpayment cap, the dollars-and-cents payment schedule, and the bar on accepting payment beyond the value in place. Such a contractor may accept payment before completion, and the matching §7159 notices may be omitted. The security replaces the statutory cash controls. Two conditions are easy to miss: the joint control must be REGISTRAR-APPROVED, and the contractor may hold no financial or other interest in it. (d) reads the exemption out of the statute; (a) and (b) invent arithmetic the statute never performs.

B&P §7159 requires the contract to contain the heading 'Home Improvement' in at least 10-point boldface type at the top of the first page.

B&P §7159 requires the contract to state the total contract price and, if financing is involved, to disclose the amount of any finance charge separately from the cash price.

B&P §7030(b) requires every licensee to include, in at least 12-point type, in all home improvement contracts and service and repair contracts, the 'Information about the Contractors State License Board (CSLB)' notice: that CSLB is the state consumer protection agency that licenses and regulates contractors, that the owner can contact it about disclosable complaints, disciplinary actions and civil judgments, that a complaint filed within the legal deadline (usually four years) can be investigated, and that a buyer who uses an unlicensed contractor may have no remedy but a civil suit — plus CSLB's website, telephone number and address. §7030(c) makes omitting it cause for discipline. It sits alongside the §7159(e) notices: commercial general liability, workers' compensation, the Mechanics Lien Warning and the cancellation notice. (a) is what a licence conspicuously does NOT do, which is why the contractor must separately disclose whether he carries commercial general liability insurance. (c) inverts the workers' compensation notice, which requires the contractor to state either that he carries coverage for all employees or that he has no employees and is exempt. (b) invents a rate-approval role; CSLB licenses and disciplines, it does not price jobs.

B&P §7159.10(a) allows a service and repair contract only when four things are all true: the contract amount is $750 or less, the buyer initiated contact to request the work, the contractor does not sell goods or services beyond those reasonably necessary to take care of the particular problem that caused the buyer to call, and no payment is due or accepted until the work is completed. (a) breaks the fourth condition outright — a deposit on a service and repair job is prohibited, not merely capped by the home improvement rule of $1,000 or 10 percent. (b) and (c) both break the third. The consequence matters: under §7159.10(b), the moment any condition fails the full §7159 home improvement requirements apply to the contract regardless of price, cancellation rights included.

B&P §7161 lists failing to furnish the buyer a copy of the signed contract among prohibited acts that constitute cause for disciplinary action by the CSLB.

B&P §7159(d) requires the contract to be signed and dated by the parties, and §7159(e) runs the buyer's three-business-day cancellation period from the transaction date; postdating the form steals a day of it, which is why B&P §7160 and §7161 treat deception used to obtain or perform a home improvement contract as a separate offense with criminal exposure. (c) treats the buyer's initials as consent to a shorter statutory period, but the cancellation right is not waivable by agreement. (b) invents an emergency exception that runs backwards — a contract to repair damage from a declared disaster carries a LONGER period, seven business days, not none. (a) treats the date as cosmetic; it is the trigger for the one right the buyer has that costs nothing to exercise.

B&P §7159(d)(7) requires the heading 'Description of the Project and Description of the Significant Materials to be Used and Equipment to be Installed', followed by that description. It is what makes the scope enforceable and what any change order has to be measured against. (b) is the bare-price contract the statute exists to outlaw; the price is required too (§7159(d)(5)), but a price with no described scope is not a compliant contract. (d) leaves the scope oral, which is exactly what §7159(d) forbids. (c) is required nowhere and solves nothing: §7159.5(a)(5) bars accepting payment beyond the value in place, so a wire authorization is no substitute for a payment schedule.

Even a conforming service and repair contract carries its own mandatory set of terms under B&P §7159.10(d)-(e): the 'Service and Repair' heading in 10-point boldface, the 12-point boldface Notice to the Buyer listing the four qualifying conditions, the commercial general liability and workers' compensation notices, the contract price in dollars and cents, a description of the project and materials, the offer to return replaced parts, and the boldface 'YOUR RIGHTS TO CANCEL BEFORE WORK BEGINS' statement dated and signed by the buyer. What §7159.10(c) does is substitute this shorter list for the full §7159 home improvement set — it does not strip the buyer's disclosures. (a), (b) and (d) each invent a commercial remedy; the license law regulates the paper and the timing of payment, not the terms of the deal.

The cap is $1,000 or 10%, whichever is less. Ten percent of $50,000 is $5,000, but the $1,000 ceiling is lower, so the maximum lawful down payment is $1,000.

B&P §7159 requires a written home improvement contract whenever the contract price exceeds $500. At $800, a compliant written contract is mandatory.

The three-day cancellation right stems from the home solicitation law (Civil Code §1689.5 et seq.), which covers contracts negotiated away from the seller's permanent place of business, typically at the buyer's residence.

B&P §7159(e) requires the contract to carry the statutory 'Mechanics Lien Warning', which tells the owner that anyone who helps improve the property and is not paid may record a lien; that paying the contractor in full is no defence; that each subcontractor and supplier must send a Preliminary Notice, which can arrive up to 20 days after they start; and that the owner protects himself by getting a list of subs and suppliers, waiting 20 days, and paying by joint check. (b) is a genuine near-miss — §7159(e) does require a commercial general liability disclosure, but it is a yes/no statement with the insurer's name and telephone number, not policy limits. (a) and (c) are required nowhere; the contract addresses permits by saying who is responsible for obtaining them, not by explaining how.

B&P §7159.5(a)(5) is the rule: except for the downpayment, the contractor 'shall neither request nor accept payment that exceeds the value of the work performed or material delivered', and the bar extends to advance payment in whole or in part from any lender or financier. Eighty percent before anything arrives on site fails that test on day one, and §7159.5(a)(3) separately caps the downpayment at $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract amount, whichever is less. (a) restates the violation as if it were the cure. (d) invents an equal-instalment rule; §7159.5(a)(4) requires each payment to reference the work it buys, which almost never produces equal amounts. (c) invents a cash requirement, which would defeat the joint-check protection the Mechanics Lien Warning urges on the owner.

A service and repair contract requires the price to be $750 or less. A $1,500 job exceeds that limit and must use a full home improvement contract.

B&P §7159(c)(1)-(2) require the writing to be legible and any printed form to be readable, with text in at least 10-point typeface and headings in at least 10-point boldface; §7159(d)(3) applies that to the 'Home Improvement' heading, §7159(d)(4) puts the 'completely filled in copy' statement in at least 12-point boldface, and §7159(e) gives the cancellation notice its own captions and sizes, with §7191 adding more for any arbitration provision. The whole scheme assumes a buyer who reads the contract once, quickly, at a kitchen table. (c) is the practice those rules exist to stop. (b) would leave the buyer with nothing, contradicting §7159(c)(3)(A)'s requirement that the buyer get a signed, dated copy before work starts. (a) invents a sophistication exception; a home improvement contract is residential by definition, and the terms are not waivable.

B&P §7159 requires the contract to clearly state the total contract price the buyer will pay, so the owner knows the full obligation before work begins.

Violations of the home improvement contract requirements of B&P §7159 are grounds for disciplinary action by the CSLB against the contractor's license.

Civil Code §1689.7 and B&P §7159(e) put the mechanics entirely in the buyer's hands: the buyer cancels by e-mailing, mailing, faxing or delivering a written notice to the contractor at the contractor's place of business by midnight of the third business day, using the detachable Notice of Cancellation form the contract must supply in duplicate. The act is unilateral and self-executing. (a) is the whole point of the right being a right — the contractor's agreement is not needed, and a contract implying otherwise is non-compliant. (b) sends the buyer to the regulator; CSLB takes complaints under §7159(a)(6) but is not the address for a cancellation. (c) inverts the timing: the right exists so the buyer can get out BEFORE being entangled in a half-finished job.

B&P §7159(d)(4) requires this statement in at least 12-point boldface: 'You are entitled to a completely filled in copy of this agreement, signed by both you and the contractor, before any work may be started.' It sits with the other signature-area items — the 'Home Improvement' heading, the contract amount in dollars and cents, and under §7159(e) the Three-Day Right to Cancel notice with its detachable form in duplicate. (b) is the opposite of what this article does; these terms are mandatory and a buyer cannot sign them away. (d) shrinks a consumer protection to a personnel detail — §7159(d)(2) does require the salesperson's own name and registration number, but that is identification, not the caution near the signature. (c) is required nowhere: §7159(c)(6) does require a notice near the signatures that the owner may REQUIRE a performance and payment bond, but the contractor's own surety and policy number are not a mandatory term, and the mandatory insurance notices cover commercial general liability and workers' compensation.

As with home improvement contracts, B&P §7159.10 requires the contractor to give the buyer a completed copy of the service and repair contract before work begins.

B&P §7159.5(a)(5) forbids a contractor to request or accept any payment that exceeds the value of the work performed or the material delivered, the lawful down payment aside. At 40 percent complete on a $20,000 job that is about $8,000. (b) and (d) both collect ahead of the work, which is exactly what the statute bars, and a signed payment schedule does not cure it — §7159.5(a)(4) requires the schedule itself to tie each payment to specific work or materials. (a) is the opposite error: nothing requires the contractor to finance the whole job, and a down payment of $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract, whichever is less, plus progress payments up to the value in place, are permitted.

The two rules work together. B&P §7159.5(a)(3) caps the downpayment at $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract amount, whichever is less, and §7159.5(a)(5) bars the contractor from requesting or accepting any further payment beyond the value of the work performed or material delivered — a bar that reaches advance payment from a lender or financier too. The result is that the owner's money never runs far ahead of what is on the ground, so a contractor who walks off leaves the owner holding a loss measured in work rather than in cash. (b) states the effect on the contractor, which is the cost the legislature accepted, not the purpose. (c) inverts it: nothing in the article guarantees anyone a profit. (d) confuses a substantive protection with administrative convenience — these rules generate CSLB complaints, they do not prevent them.

B&P §7159(d)(1) requires the contract to state the contractor's name, business address and license number, and §7159(d)(2) adds the name and registration number of any home improvement salesperson who solicited or negotiated it; the buyer is identified as the other party to the agreement. (c) drops the business address, which is the element that lets a buyer find the contractor and lets CSLB serve him. (a) puts a stranger to the contract in the party block: a construction lender is not a party to the home improvement contract, though it does receive preliminary notice under Civil Code §8200. (b) identifies only one side, which defeats the purpose of the requirement.

Civil Code §1689.13 lifts the cancellation sections only when all three of its conditions hold: the buyer (or the buyer's agent or insurance representative) initiated the contract; it is for emergency or immediately necessary repairs needed for the immediate protection of persons or of real or personal property; and the buyer gives the contractor a SEPARATE dated, signed statement describing the situation and expressly waiving the three-, five- or seven-business-day right. The default is that the right applies; the waiver is the exception, and it must be the buyer's own separate writing, not a line pre-printed in the contract form. (c) is the contractor's preferred shortcut — emergencies do not exempt themselves. (b) invents a dollar floor; the home improvement rules turn on a price over $500, and the cancellation right does not scale with price. (a) invents a doubling.

B&P §7161 makes it a public offense, and cause for discipline, to use a false or misleading statement to induce an owner to enter a home improvement contract — along with misrepresenting that the contractor is an employee or agent of a lender, or that work is needed when it is not. B&P §7160 adds the civil remedy: an owner induced by such a statement may recover damages plus a $500 penalty and reasonable attorney's fees. The distractors are ordinary lawful practice. (a) a longer warranty is a commercial choice. (b) a fixed price is what §7159(d)(5) contemplates when it requires the contract amount in dollars and cents. (c) subcontracting to a properly licensed specialty contractor is how most jobs get built. The statute polices honesty in obtaining the signature, not the shape of the deal.

Ten percent of $12,000 is $1,200, but the down payment cannot exceed the lesser of $1,000 or 10%. Since $1,000 is less, the $1,200 down payment is unlawful.

The statutory Mechanics Lien Warning tells the owner exactly what to do: get a list from the contractor of every subcontractor and material supplier, find out when each started, wait 20 days and watch the preliminary notices that arrive, and pay with a joint check made out to both the contractor and the noticing subcontractor or supplier. B&P §7159.5(a)(6) adds the companion right — on request the contractor must furnish a full and unconditional release from any lien claimant for work already paid for, and the owner may withhold all further payments until those releases arrive. (c) is the opposite of protection: cash leaves no record of payment and does nothing about a subcontractor who was never paid. (d) misreads the preliminary notice, which is not a lien and not a sign of trouble — Civil Code §8200 requires it of nearly every claimant. (a) appears nowhere in the warning and protects nothing.

B&P §7151 defines home improvement to include repairing, remodeling, altering, converting, modernizing or adding to residential property, and expressly reaches landscaping, swimming pools, fences, driveways, patios and other improvements adjacent to the dwelling. §7151.2 then makes it a home improvement contract once the aggregate price, labor and materials together, exceeds $500. At $1,100 the whole §7159 package applies: the writing, the price in dollars and cents, the description of the project and significant materials, the approximate start and completion dates, the payment schedule, and the Three-Day Right to Cancel notice. (b) misuses the agricultural idea; irrigating a residential yard is not farming. (a) and (c) are the same error twice — an oral agreement on an $1,100 residential job is a violation, and it leaves the contractor with no enforceable change-order rights either.

B&P §7159 requires the contract to state who will obtain the building permits, alongside the description of the project, the price, the dates and the payment schedule. It matters because the permit holder carries responsibility for the inspections and for closing the permit out, and an unclosed permit surfaces years later when the owner tries to sell. There is a related trap: a homeowner persuaded to pull the permit himself is treated as the owner-builder, which is how an unlicensed operator moves the liability onto the customer. (b) is false, and used to induce a contract it is the kind of misleading statement B&P §7161 makes a public offense. (c) leaves the question unanswered, which is the situation the requirement exists to prevent. (a) is required nowhere and is not information the owner needs.

B&P §7159.10(a)(1)(A) sets the ceiling on the CONTRACT AMOUNT — 'seven hundred fifty dollars ($750) or less' — which is the whole price, labor and materials together, and §7159.10(e)(11) permits only one service charge, any trip charge or inspection fee included in it. (a) and (d) split the price so the job looks like it fits under the cap; the statute measures the contract amount, and the bold notice §7159.10(e)(12) puts in the buyer's hands says the buyer may cancel if the price 'including all labor and materials' is more than $750. (c) ignores the cap: the buyer cannot consent into a service and repair contract above $750, because §7159.10(b) drops the full §7159 home improvement requirements onto any contract that fails a condition, whatever its price.

B&P §7159(d)(10) requires the heading 'Approximate Start Date' followed by the approximate date work will commence, and §7159(d)(11) requires the estimated completion date to be referenced — both of them — and §7164(b)(2) imposes the same pair on a contract to build a single-family dwelling. 'Approximate' is the concession the statute has already made; leaving the box empty is not approximation but omission, and §7159(a)(5) makes it cause for discipline. The date also does work downstream: it is what a delay claim is measured against, and what tells an owner whether the job has been abandoned, which B&P §7107 makes separately disciplinable. (b) keeps half the requirement. (c) reads 'approximate' as 'optional'. (d) treats the owner's initials as a waiver, and these terms are not waivable.

B&P §7159(c)(5) requires a change-order form to be incorporated into the contract, and makes a change part of the contract 'only if it is in writing and signed by the parties prior to the commencement of any work covered by a change order'. §7159(e)(3) then requires the contract to tell the buyer that extra or change-order work is unenforceable against him unless the order states, in writing and in advance, the scope of the work, the amount added to or subtracted from the contract, and the effect on the progress payments and completion date. (b) is what an open-ended extras clause tries to achieve, and what the statute forbids. (c) invents a penalty. (a) is a position the contractor takes at his own expense: unforeseen work performed without a signed order is work he cannot bill.

B&P §7151.2 defines a home improvement contract by 'the aggregate contract price specified in one or more improvement contracts, including all labor, services, and materials to be furnished by the contractor', and the definition applies once that figure exceeds $500. 'Aggregate' and 'one or more' are the operative words: splitting one job across two papers does not put either below the line. (b) and (d) each measure half the price, which is exactly the split a contractor reaches for to stay under the threshold. (c) borrows the building department's permit valuation, a number computed for fee purposes that has nothing to do with what the parties agreed to pay.

A home improvement salesperson's authority is entirely derivative. B&P §7153 makes it a misdemeanor to engage in the occupation without a current and valid registration at the time of the sales transaction, and §7154 requires the employing contractor to notify the registrar in writing before the salesperson begins work. The salesperson may solicit, sell, negotiate or execute contracts only for the licensed contractor or contractors behind that registration; he holds no licence of his own. (d) is the clearest violation — contracting in his own name is unlicensed contracting under B&P §7028, with the §7031 bar on collecting anything. (b) is conversion, and cause for discipline against the contractor too, since §7155.5 attributes the salesperson's violations to him whether or not he knew. (c) compounds it: an unlicensed outfit cannot lawfully employ a salesperson at all.