Hiring an Unlicensed Contractor

Thought I might say a few things about unlicensed contractors. If you hire a contractor and they perform a job where the total amount of labor and material exceeds $500.00, by law, they must be licensed. 

You are not obligated to pay an unlicensed contractor for a job if the combined total of labor and material is over $500. In fact, not only are they not due the money, they will be fined for their activity if you report them.

California courts do not allow an unlicensed contractor to file a law suit against the homeowner for work performed on jobs over the legal limit of $500.00.

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From the CSLB website:

California Business and Professions Code 7028 (a)

Unlicensed Contractor’s Have No Legal Recourse To Enforce Work Contracts

Unlicensed contractors may be surprised to discover they cannot legally recover any financial damages they may have incurred as part of a contract for work that requires a license, in which a customer did not hold up their end of the deal California business and professions code 7031. In addition, any person who hires an illegal contractor to perform work that requires a license can bring a suit against the contractor for all payments made and the unlicensed contractor will have no legal recourse. In layman terms, no contract between an unlicensed contractor and a customer involving work that requires a license is legally enforceable from the perspective of the contractor, however, the customer retains the right to sue the contractor for any and all payments made EVEN if all work was performed according to contract.
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There are a lot of ways that unlicensed contractors will try to convince you that they can do the job legally. For example, they may say that you can pay them hourly and buy the material. Just trust me when I say that this will not work. I know because my son, a licensed landscape contractor, was caught in a sting operation by the Contractor’s State License Board and this was the line he gave the customer. (At the time he really believed that this was a legitimate work around but found out soon enuf that it wasn’t. ) The sting operation forced him to get his license.
I am also a licensed General Contractor (since 1988) and am fairly well acquainted with contract law. My license is currently inactive and I’m not giving this information to solicit business. Its more like a public service announcement. I figure a lot of people out there know this stuff and a lot of people don’t. 
If you want to check a Contractor’s License just go the California Contractors State License Board website http://www.cslb.ca.gov/ and right there on the front page they have place to put in the license number and check it – to see if its active.