By Shauna Krause, President, Capitol Services, Inc.
With the complexity of law on Qualifiers it’s difficult to choose whether to go right, left or down the middle in deciding which way to go, especially when a line is crossed. There is nothing to fear, except fear itself, in untangling some ‘quality’ questions on Qualifying, while another contractor learns his legal expert is splitting hair correctly…
Q: The Qualifying party on our NV license is leaving the company and I am applying to replace him on the license. In filling out the application, I noticed on the page I’m supposed to sign as the new Qualifier it has boxes to check as to whether I will be the Management Qualifier, Trade Qualifier, or both. Does that mean I can mark the Trade Qualifier box, and have one of our office employees or our Estimator be the Management Qualifier? I see another spot for a different Qualifier to sign.
A: Yes, that is correct. NV allows you to have separate Qualifiers for the trade and management portions of the license. The Trade Qualifier is required to document their experience in the trade, while the Management Qualifier just needs to pass the Management exam, no experience required.
Q: Our company license is up for renewal at the end of the month. We have two Responsible Managing Employee’s (RME on our license, one Qualifying the “B” (General Building) classification and one Qualifying the “A” (General Engineering) classification. In preparing the renewal application, I looked up both of our RME’s licenses and noticed that one of their personal Sole Ownership licenses expired last July 2024. Is that going to be an issue when I submit for the company license renewal? I was under the impression we were using their licenses for the purpose of our company holding its license.
A: No, that will not be a problem. Your RME’s are not required to keep their personal licenses current to Qualify the company license. Your company is not using their personal licenses, but rather using their ‘qualifications’ to license your company. If/when either of them leaves the company, the license will remain with the company and you will have 90 days to replace them with another Qualifying Individual.
Q: We have a contractor’s license with a ‘doing-business -as, or DBA name, let’s call it ABC LLC dba XYZ. Sometimes we contract as “ABC LLC” and sometimes we contract as “XYZ, a division of ABC LLC”. Our legal counsel suggested this may be an issue under CSLB guidelines. Can you confirm?
A: When your contractor’s license has a DBA name, you are required to either always contract as the entire business name as reflected on the license (ABC LLC dba XYZ), OR just the dba name (XYZ). If you want to have the option to contract with both names, you should obtain a separate license number for “ABC LLC” with no DBA.
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While knowledge is power, knowing where to go for the answers is half he 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