The Contractor State License Board recently completed an Enforcement and Licensing Committee Meeting. One topic covered that California contractors should be aware of is the Enforcement Division focusing on local building permits. The CSLB wants to address contractors avoiding proper permitting or misusing permits and take corrective actions against offenders. Below are the details of this specific issue and important highlights regarding solutions proposed by the CSLB on 2/23/18. Full meeting notes can be referenced here.
Contractors and clients alike, whether commercial or residential, can attest to the pains and costs of pulling a permit. Despite the frustration of the process, permits are required to enhance public safety. Law-abiding, licensed contractors find themselves undercut by unlawful or unlicensed contractors who avoid the permitting process. Due to public outcry, the License Board has taken legal action in 1,200 permit violation cases over the last 4 years.
The CSLB has designated the Enforcement and Licensing Committee to investigate further and come up with various solution. Two items from the committee’s strategic plan that stand out are below:
1) Update CSLB website and create/maintain a dedicated email for reporting permit violations. The idea behind the website update would be to allow violation reporters direction to the dedicated email. This gives law-abiding contractors and consumers a loud voice to report misbehavior directly to the enforcement staff of the CSLB. Once the violation is reported the License Board can investigate and enforce punishment, if need be. The main objective of this strategy is to raise awareness that public reporting of permit infractions are now a major risk to contractors and clients. Consequently, less contractors will choose to proceed without a permitting the job.
2) Permit Compliance Course required for all violators. Similar to the thought behind mandated traffic school, a Permit Compliance Course will educate people to understand the importance of the permit law. While the information will be relevant, the forced attendance and dryness of the material will hopefully be a major deterrent to repeated violations.
Do you have any ideas regarding enforcement of permit violations? Or do you feel the permit process needs to be revised itself? Feel free to send us a message us at blog@ccisbonds.com.