Unlicensed Contractor Shoots for the Stars . . . Sputters on Takeoff
Excellent article Garret. Proves that contracting without a license can be a costly mistake!
Public Domain (CC0)
Elon Musk . . .
Eccentric engineer.
Technology billionaire.
And, now, litigation bad ass.
Frequent readers of the California Construction Law Blog know that we’vetalked about the importance of being properly licensed when doing construction work and the risks to you if you don’t.
One California contractor recently found this out the hard way.
In Phoenix Mechanical Pipeline, Inc. v. Space Exploration Technologies Corp., California Court of Appeals for the Second District, Case No. B269186 (June 13, 2017), contractor Phoenix Mechanical Pipeline, Inc. (Phoenix) lost its boosters . . . err britches . . when it sued Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (Space X) due to its failure to have a California contractor’s license.
Try and Try Again
In or about 2010, Phoenix entered into a contract with Space X to provide a variety of services including “plumbing, general maintenance and repair, concrete removal and…
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Construction is the Fastest Growing Industry in California
We wrote earlier aboutwhy construction workers are the happiest employees on Earth,and pointed to one possible factor: That construction, which was one of the hardest hit industries during the 2008 real estate collapse, has since bounced back.
Thispast month, theCalifornia Employment Development Department (“EDD”)released dataputting some numbers to that hypothesis. And the result: According to the EDD, over the past 12 months, construction was the fastest growing industry in California, adding more than 46,000 jobswithin the last year, an increase of 6.9% from 667,000workers in March 2014 to 713,000 workers in March 2015.
Also, although not broken down by industry, the highest job growth was in Northern California with San Mateo County posting the lowest unemployment rate at 3.4%, followed by Marin County at 3.5%, San Francisco County at 3.6% and Santa Clara County at 4.1%.
Let the good times roll.
What You Need to Know About Obtaining a Contractor’s License in California
A ton of good, basic info here.
To perform work on most construction projects in California you need to be licensed by the California Contractors State License Board (“CSLB”).
The CSLB publishes a helpful guide on becoming a licensed contractor – Blueprint for Becoming a California Licensed Contractor – as well as a reference book which discusses contractor licensing – California Contractors License Law & Reference Book. The Guide is a bit outdated through having been published in 2006 although the Reference Book is updated annually.
They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, and I’ve borrow liberally from both the Guide and Reference Book for this post, although I’ve added a few additional comments from my experience with licensing issues.
Who must be licensed as a contractor?
All businesses and individuals who construct or alter, or offer to construct or alter, any building, highway, road, parking facility, railroad, excavation, or other structure in California…
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California Contractors License Guru Blog 