A ‘no way, no how’ gets us started on this round of contractor “Q&A.” We find a short answer in a very long question for a North Carolina contractor interested in ‘rolling the dice’ on a new venture in Nevada. And, a license applicant shows us why you keep copies of all your paperwork…
Q: We are in the process of obtaining a contractor’s license in California. The CSLB informed us that it might take 2 or 3 months to issue a license with the testing and fingerprinting requirements. Is there a way to piggyback off someone else’s license? We have another company that we use as a subcontractor here in Arizona that has a CA license and they are willing to let us use it.
A: We hear this question often and the answer is plain and simply no, you cannot piggyback off someone else’s license. The response we typically get is “well what if we…” and the answer is still no. Whatever way you may think to work it, you cannot contract for, or perform construction work over $500 without having your own license. No way, no how!
Q: We are a licensed North Carolina contracting company and one of our customers would like us to do a large project in Nevada. We plan to subcontract the installation to a company that currently has a contractor’s license in Nevada. We are discussing forming a Joint Venture (JV) with them. Would that require that our company obtain a license first with a Qualifying Employee from our company, and then we apply for the JV license? Or can we just apply for a Joint Venture license with one licensed entity and one un-licensed entity utilizing the other company’s qualifying individual?
A: Nevada does not require that both entities be licensed prior to obtaining a joint venture license.
Q: We recently restructured the company and the ownership now belongs 100% to our parent company. Nothing else changed, we still have the same tax ID number, same officers, etc. Do we need to notify the CSLB of the ownership change?
A: You are required to notify the CSLB of any change to your license within 90 days of the change. That includes things such as a name change, address change, personnel change, new Worker’s Compensation insurance policy, etc. If it’s strictly ownership that changed and everything else with the license remains the same, then you are not required to notify the CSLB. However, if prior to the ownership transfer, your Responsible Managing Officer (RMO) owned more than 10% of company, and now that’s obviously no longer the case, you will need to obtain a Bond of Qualified Individual and submit that to the CSLB with an explanation that he is no longer a 10% shareholder.
Q: I am in the process of obtaining a “C-10” Sole Proprietorship license and I’m about 2 months deep in the process and I realized I actually want to operate as an Limited Liability Company (LLC). I understand that I can act as the Qualifier on both, providing that I own at least 20% of the LLC, which I do. I plan to apply under the LLC once the Sole Proprietor license is issued. Will I need to re-certify my experience again? I had to provide all kinds of documentation and I didn’t keep copies of any of it.
A: No, thankfully, you will not be required to show your experience again. You will want to complete a waiver application and your work experience as well as exams will not be required. And again, for everyone, always keep copies of documents for future use!