In this edition of the CSLB Spring 2015 Newsletter part 2 I’ll discuss advertising rules for contractors.
What caught my eye were two things.
I thought, why would a SoCal contractor be at the CSLB HQ building. So I blew up the image and could see they used a fictitious phone number and a license number of 123456. I’m assuming they did this just as an example of the font size required by law. But I think they should have used an actual contractors vehicle ad to give a real world example. Perhaps they chose not to because they felt they were giving free advertising to an actual contractor. Either way, I think a real world example would have been more appropriate.
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I was recently asked by an applicant if he could advertise his business name (John Doe Construction) as JD Construction. This brings me to the second topic
2) The article states: “Also, remember that licensees must list the name of their business exactly as it appears in CSLB records for any advertisement, bid, or contract. Name style variations are not allowed. Contracts must be in the same form and type as specified in B&P Code section 7159.” I did not add the bold text, that’s exactly how it was printed in the newsletter.
I remember looking up advertising rules for the applicant mentioned above and I thought… “exactly as it appears”?? I don’t recall reading that in the law. So I did an extensive search of my contractors license law pdf using the search terms “exactly as it appears”, “business name”, “advertising”, and “name style” and could find nothing that states the licensees business name had to be “exactly as it appears.”
B&P Code section 7059.1 Misleading or incompatible use of name styles, does not use any language that refers to “exactly as it appears.”
The above statement references B&P Code section 7159, that section also does not use the language “exactly as it appears” anywhere in the section.
So maybe the hour + I spent doing research wasn’t enough, maybe I somehow missed something, or maybe the CSLB is once again attempting to enforce something that doesn’t exist in the law as written. If it is in the law somewhere, and you find it, please share the law, regulation, or code section with me.
If you are a new follower to my blog or a long time reader, I may come across as overly critical of the Contractors State License Board. I don’t want to mislead you… I am! I am because the CSLB is overly critical of profiled applicants, of it’s employee’s, and of the industry overall. Somebody has to call it like it is.
If you want to read the entire CSLB Spring 2015 Newsletter, click here.
I’ve uploaded the Contractors License Law pdf here if you’d like to read it as well.
Now I know why we were put thru the wringer for wanting to add a C-10 to our existing license in 2014….we go the same run around as a previous post. We however were not as persistent and our case was closed by CSLB.