Running the Business · Part 5
You are liable for four years (patent) and ten years (latent), and CSLB accepts complaints that long
A plumber's exposure on a job does not end at the final payment. A customer can file a CSLB complaint for four years after the work for anything they could have seen, and for ten years for a latent structural defect; a lawsuit for construction deficiencies runs on the same two clocks from substantial completion; and on a new home the Right to Repair Act adds its own standards and procedure. This lesson explains the windows, what "patent" and "latent" mean for plumbing, what the board can find against you inside them (section 7109's workmanship standard), and the three habits that make a ten-year exposure survivable: the paper, the photos, and the warranty terms that say what you promised.
What the full lesson covers
- CSLB complaints: four years from the act or omission for patent defects (7091(a)); ten years for latent structural defects as defined by regulation (7091(b)); fraud actions within two years of the board's discovery (7091(c)).
- Civil suits: four years after substantial completion for a patent deficiency (CCP 337.1) and ten years for a latent one (CCP 337.15); contract claims four years written, two years oral.
- "Patent" is what a reasonable inspection would reveal (a leaking joint, a wrong slope, a missing strap); "latent" is what it would not (a joint inside a wall that fails in year six).
- The standard inside the windows is section 7109: a willful departure from accepted trade standards for good and workmanlike construction, or from the plans and specifications, is cause for discipline; the code and the manufacturer's instructions define the standard.
- Survive the exposure with the job folder: contract, change orders, permit and inspection record, photos before and after, test gauges, the warranty statement. Keep it at least ten years; lesson 1.3's seven is the tax rule, not this one.
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More lessons in Customers, Warranties, and Complaints
- 1Presenting options and price without apologizing
- 2The other guy is cheaper: what to say, what to let the customer check, and the line not to cross
- 3Delivering bad news: it is worse than you thought, and how to say so
- 4You are liable for four years (patent) and ten years (latent), and CSLB accepts complaints that longYou are here
- 5A warranty policy that protects you: what to promise, for how long, what to exclude, and what a warranty cannot do
- 6The CSLB complaint process from the contractor's side: responding, arbitration, and avoiding the citation
- 7Reviews: earning them, answering bad ones, and what you can and cannot do about a false one
- 8Template: the warranty statement
- 9Template: the CSLB complaint response letter