Three free checks before you sign a contractor’s bid
The license status itself belongs to the Contractors State License Board, and its own lookup is more current than any copy of it, including ours. What the board’s lookup doesn’t do is apply the rules to your job and your contract price. These three checks do, in your browser, with the statute quoted and linked for each one.
Check the license on CSLB’s free Instant License Check
CSLB’s lookup is the live record: status, classifications, bond and workers’ compensation, updated by the board itself. Look the license up there first, then bring what it shows to the checks below. A status can change on any day, so check it again on the day you sign.
Nothing on this page is sent anywhere. No license number, price or personal detail leaves your browser, and nothing is stored. The three rules below are stated in full whether or not JavaScript runs; only the calculators need it.
Does the license classification cover my job?
California licenses contractors by classification. Business and Professions Code §7057 says a general building contractor is one whose principal contracting business is in connection with any structure requiring in its construction the use of two unrelated building trades or crafts. A general building contractor may take a prime contract or subcontract for a framing or carpentry project. Otherwise it may take a contract involving a single trade only if it holds the appropriate license classification for that trade or subcontracts the work to a contractor who does.
Read B&P Code §7057 on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov · classification names and codes are CSLB’s, from its license classifications page · both checked 15 Sep 2026.
Work it out for your job
Pick B General Building when the job involves two or more unrelated trades — a remodel, an addition, a new building.
Copy them from CSLB’s Instant License Check. Hold Ctrl (or Cmd) to choose more than one.
This compares classifications only. It can’t tell you whether a particular task falls inside a classification — CSLB answers that — and it isn’t legal advice about your contract.
What is the legal maximum down payment?
On a home improvement contract, §7159.5(a)(3) limits the down payment to $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract amount, whichever is less, excluding finance charges. Under §7159.5(a)(8) a contractor who furnishes a performance and payment bond, lien and completion bond, or a bond equivalent or joint control approved by the Registrar covering full performance and payment is exempt from that limit and from the progress-payment rules. Otherwise, after the down payment the law ties payments to work actually done.
For a swimming pool, the same limit is among the contract contents §7159(d)(8)(C) requires; a contract whose primary purpose is building a pool and that does not substantially comply with the contents §7167 lists from §7159 is void and unenforceable by the contractor.
B&P Code §7159.5 · B&P Code §7167 · checked 15 Sep 2026.
Work it out for your contract price
Whole dollars, the total in the written contract.
Put the license number, the total price, the down payment and the payment schedule in the written contract. This states the rule; it isn’t legal advice about your contract.
Does this job need a licensed contractor?
§7048 exempts work whose aggregate contract price for labor, materials and all other items is less than $1,000, where the work is casual, minor or inconsequential in nature and no building permit is required. The exemption does not apply where the work is part of a larger or major operation, whether undertaken by the same or a different contractor, or where a project is divided into contracts of less than $1,000 to evade the section. It also does not apply to anyone who advertises or holds themselves out as a contractor, or who employs anyone else to do the work.
Read B&P Code §7048 on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov · checked 15 Sep 2026.
Work it out for your job
An exemption from the license requirement is not a recommendation to hire an unlicensed person. This states the rule; it isn’t legal advice.
There is no paid report behind this page. We used to sell a $39 Contractor License, Bond & Workers’ Comp Record. Every field in it was CSLB’s own record, published free and kept more current than any copy we could download, so we took it off sale and made these per-job rules free instead. Nothing above is a sample of something you can buy. The reports we do sell are for Cook County assessments, Chicago permits, Illinois land, nursing homes and surgeons — every free tool · what we sell. Research: how many California contractors say they have no employees.
The rules here, the record there
Every rule on this page is a summary of the official text at the link beside it, read on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov on 15 Sep 2026. The classification codes and names are CSLB’s own, from its license classifications page.
The license facts — status, expiry, classifications, contractor bond, workers’ compensation, pending actions — are CSLB’s record, and CSLB’s Instant License Check is the most current copy of it there is. We say so plainly rather than sell you an older one.
Before you sign
- Ask for the license number in the written contract and check it matches the license you looked up.
- Ask for a current certificate of workers’ compensation insurance, or confirmation of the exemption, if anyone will be on site.
- Ask whether any part of the job will be subcontracted, and to whom, then check those licenses too.
- California requires a $25,000 contractor bond (B&P Code §7071.6); CSLB’s lookup shows the bond on file.
- If CSLB lists a status other than “CLEAR”, or any pending action, ask the contractor to explain it before you sign.
CivicDelta doesn’t rate, rank or recommend contractors, and this page isn’t legal advice.
The other free tools
- Cook County Assessment Check — Is your home assessed above near-identical homes?
- Cook County appeal deadline checker — Is your township’s appeal window still open?
- Neighborhood assessment change — How far assessments moved around your home
- Chicago Permit Lookup — Permits and violations Chicago holds for an address
- Environmental Snapshot — EPA-regulated facilities within half a mile
- Nursing home lookup and compare — Ratings, staffing and citations, three homes compared
- Nursing home owner network — Every other home the same owner runs
- Doctor payments lookup — What companies reported paying a clinician