With our federal government gridlocked and default pending, you may begin to understand how the Romans felt while Rome burned and Nero fiddled. None of that is changing how you obtain your contractor’s license or any of the rules already written in black and white…
Q: Is the government shut down going to effect how quickly I get my license?
A: From what we’ve seen so far the government shut down has not had any effect on the amount of time it takes to obtain a Contractor’s license in California. The CSLB is a State agency, not a Federal agency so I don’t believe it’s been impacted at this point.
Q: One of our Officers is currently the Responsible Managing Officer (RMO) for the corporation and is disassociating from the license. Thus, another Officer wants to become the RMO for the corporation. The replacement, that will be the new RMO, has been an Officer for the company the past 8 years. Beyond that he has over 25 years experience in the construction industry. In your opinion do you think the CSLB will waive the exams for him?
A: It is definitely a possibility! This waiver would fall under B&P Code section 7065.1(c), which states that the CSLB may waive the exams if the qualifying individual is an employee of the corporation and has worked in a supervisory capacity for five out of the last seven years.
There are a couple other conditions in order to be granted this waiver such as the corporation must have been active and in good standing for five of the last seven years, and he will not qualify if the corporation has requested a waiver under this subdivision within the last year.
Q: I am an attorney and you have helped me many times with CSLB issues. I have a client that is a contractor. He intends to file bankruptcy with respect to his personal debts. Do you know if a personal bankruptcy filing will have any adverse effect on his corporation’s contractor license?
The bankruptcy alone shouldn’t have any adverse effects on his current contractor’s license, however it will impact the amount he will have to pay to renew his bond when the time comes. As you are probably aware, the premium amount is based on credit. Consulting with an attorney is always wise when making decisions of this nature.
Q: We have an individual who has an “A” and a “B” license with a Hazardous Substance Removal Certification. We also have both General licenses ourselves. We are contemplating adding him as a Responsible Managing Employee (RME) in order to add the Hazardous Substance Removal Certification to our license allowing us to be able to bid on more projects. He would be on an hourly basis when we are only doing Hazardous Substance Removal Certification. He would not be employed full time just when we are doing projects that require his certification. Is adding him as a RME the correct way to go about this? I don’t think he would have a problem “shelving” his ‘A’ and ‘B’ license if that’s required.
A: An RME is required to be a full time employee of the company working at least 32 hours per week or 80% of the total operating hours, whichever is less. Additionally, if he becomes the RME on your license he would be required to inactivate his own license.
Since you don’t intend on him becoming a full-time employee, another option is to “promote” him to RMO (Responsible Managing Officer). Officers do not have any requirement to work a certain amount of the company’s operating hours.