CSLB Exam Sites, “B” Generals and Joint Venture Suspension

Do you know the way to San Jose? Just one place to ‘test’ contractors. It’s a less direct ‘route’ to a solution for a complex ‘prefab’ question, and I help another contractor fill a ‘gap’ in his understanding…

Q:  I am an out of State contractor and one of my customers has requested that I perform some work for them in CA.  I know I will have to travel to CA to take the exams.  Where in CA do I take the exam? Is it possible to request a certain location?

A:  The exams are given in San Diego, San Bernardino, Norwalk, Oxnard, Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, and Fresno.  The CSLB schedules your exam based on your zip code, but you can make a request when you submit your application to test in a certain location and the majority of the time the CSLB will allow you to test in your requested location.

Q:  I’m a CA General Contractor since 1991 with two classifications, a “B” General Building and a “C-61”/”D34” (Prefabricated Equipment).  My question is: can I incorporate only the Prefabrication Equipment classification under a different business name to separate the two classifications? If so, can both classifications still use the same contractor’s license? I have only one license with original number from 1991.

A:  Yes and no.  Yes, you can incorporate only the “C-61”/”D34” classification under a different business in order to separate the two classifications.  No, both licenses would not be able to use the same contractor’s license number.  The new company would be issued a new license number, and each entity would need to operate under their own license.

Q:  We received a notice that our Joint Venture license was Suspended effective 5/31/18 due our JV Partner’s license being expired.  Unfortunately, it went to the inbox of an employee who was out of the office on vacation and we just saw it.  When I look up the licenses, both companies as well as the JV show current and Active so that tells me our partner corrected the issue.  How do we see if there were any “gaps” in our JV license?

A:  You would need to order a Certified License History from the CSLB to see if there were any gaps in licensure.  We can make this request for you, they are currently taking about a week to get it back to us.