By Shauna Krause, President, Capitol Services, Inc.
Knowing is one thing, but confirmation ever better! For contractors, working with others is a given, but forming a partnership is a joint venture surrounded by a common border. Unfortunately, an ‘injury’ to one leaves a mark on all for those ‘responsible’ on the license…
Q: Last year, we had submitted our insurance renewal to the CSLB via their online portal and it was never processed and our license was suspended for a period of time. Your company was instrumental in getting the insurance certificate submitted and processed to put our license back to Active status. How do I ensure there was no break in the license? I know you had said the CSLB would renew the insurance retroactively to the effective date, but I just want to make absolute sure there was no break. Is there a way to confirm?
A: You can order a Certified License History from the CSLB which will give you the status history of the license. I will go ahead and get one requested for you and let you know when I have it in hand.
Q: We have been offered to do a project for one of our customers which requires that we have a General Building (“B”) license. We currently hold a General Engineering (“A”) license. One of the companies that we currently work with on other projects has the building license in Arizona, Nevada, and several other States. Is it possible to form a Joint Venture with them and obtain a license in the name of the Partnership/JV so we can accept? How quickly can this be accomplished?
A: While the process to obtain a JV license in CA is fairly quick, both/all entities which make up the Joint Venture must be licensed in the State of California.
Q: I am the RMO for two different companies, one of which had a complaint filed against it recently. The other company, who has no complaints, received a letter stating the complaint would also be shown on it’s license, even though the two entities are unrelated except for me being the common owner. Is there a way to get the complaint removed from where it doesn’t belong?
A: According to B&P Code Section 7124.6, complaints, citations, etc are required to be disclosed on the license for five years after the date of compliance, and any disclosure pursuant to 7124.6 shall also be appear on the license record of any other license that includes a qualifier that is listed as one of the members of personnel of record of the license that was issued a citation. The only way to have the complaint removed from the license which wasn’t directly disciplined would be disassociate yourself as the Qualifying Individual from that license. The company would be required to replace you within 90 days.
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While knowledge is power, knowing where to go for the answers is half the battle. Get expert assistance immediately when you call 866-443-0657, email info@cutredtape.com, or write us at Capitol Services, Inc., 3609 Bradshaw Rd, Ste H, #343, Sacramento, CA 95827. Search past columns at www.cutredtape.com.