Can You Add Someone to Your CSLB License?

Getting a CSLB license isn’t particularly easy.

When it comes to transferring your license, it’s not surprising that it seems difficult to transfer or make changes to your existing license. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to change ownership, add new individuals, or generally re-assign who can operate under a California contractor’s license.

Can you transfer your CSLB license? And how would you transfer your contractor’s license to another person or corporation?

When Can’t You Re-assign Your CSLB License?

In most circumstances, your CSLB license is valid only when the initial conditions that you received the license are the same. Almost every change requires a brand-new license that matches whatever change you have made to your business.

That means you can’t do the following without needing a brand-new license:

• Change the name of your business
• Add a partner to your license
• Remove a partner from your license
• Change the structure of your business (with a few exceptions)
• The corporation your license is registered to is changed in any way

When Can You Re-Assign Your CSLB License?

There are a few exceptions that will allow you to transfer ownership of your license to another party.

You can transfer your license if:

• A family member has died and transferred ownership to a family member who is now running the same business
• A sole proprietor starts a corporation and owns 51% of the corporation
• A corporation has merged or changed its tax filing status

There are a number of requirements for each of these. The following are the three situations where you’re allowed to transfer ownership of your contractor’s license.

A sole owner license can be transferred to another individual if:

• The individual is a family member of the licensed person
• The licensed individual is deceased or absent
• The license is required to continue the current family business
• A written request is submitted

A sole owner license can be transferred to a corporation if:

• The corporation was formed by the license owner
• The licensed owner owns 51% of the corporation
• A written request is submitted

A corporation’s license can be transferred to another corporation if:

• The parent corporation has merged or created a subsidiary
• A subsidiary has merged with a parent corporation
• The corporation has changed its filing status from domestic to foreign, or foreign to domestic

That’s it! You can transfer ownership of your CSLB license, but only in specific situations.

If you need help understanding or transferring ownership of your CSLB license, contact CSLS today. We’d be happy to help you understand the process of transferring your CSLB license.