Legal Question in Business Law in California

A question of legality

I am currently working for a man who owns his own painting business. He has informed me that he is not licenced. He has several people working for him and does just about every type of exterior and interior painting(brush, roll, air-spray, etc.) I have ever heard of. My question is ''is it legal to run a business like this, in California, without a license. I know that it is illegal to advertise your own business as being one that is licensed when you are not, but all of his advertising is done by word of mouth, and he openly admits that he is not licensed when his clients ask him. I am a law abiding citizen and I would like to know if I am working for a legitimate business, or not? Thank you.


Asked on 10/22/01, 6:28 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Bryan Whipple Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law

Re: A question of legality

There are some limits on the size of job that can be done by an unlicensed person. If the dollar amount exceeds the limit, the contractor violates the law and (1) loses certain rights to sue his clients if they don't pay, etc., and (2) subjects himself to penalties and prosecution.

Generally the biggest risk of working for an unlicensed contractor is not that you will be found guilty or liable for your employer's lack of a license, but that you will not be paid or won't be covered by Workers' Comp, and these are both valid concerns for you.

I suppose there is also some possibility that if he botched a job you could be named as a co-defendant.

There is a lot of unlicensed contracting going on, and many of them get away with it for a long time and do well for their clients and their employees. For the reasons suggested above, however, you are better off working for someone with a license if you can get such a job.

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Answered on 11/23/01, 5:49 pm


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