Running the Business · Part 5
The CSLB complaint process from the contractor's side: responding, arbitration, and avoiding the citation
A complaint letter from CSLB is not the end of a license; the response to it usually decides the outcome. This lesson is the process from the contractor's side: what happens at intake, what the consumer services representative is trying to do and why cooperating is the cheapest resolution, what an enforcement investigation looks for and what to send, how the arbitration program works and why a good-standing contractor should usually take it, what a citation is and how to appeal it in 15 working days, and the two outcomes that are automatic: the suspension for not paying an arbitration award and the revocation that follows 90 days later. Most of it is the job folder from Phase 3 and the tone from this phase.
What the full lesson covers
- Respond to every CSLB contact, in writing, on time, with documents. Silence is read as the complaint being true; a complete, calm response with the contract, change orders, permit, photos, and inspection record closes most complaints at intake.
- The consumer services representative's job is settlement. If the customer's complaint has a fix that costs less than a citation, do the fix, get a release, and the file closes.
- Arbitration under 7085 is available to a contractor in good standing for disputes of $25,000 (the amount of the contractor's bond under section 7071.6) or less (to $50,000 by agreement); it is binding, fast, and usually better than an investigation, and an award not complied with suspends the license automatically 30 days after notice (7085.6).
- A citation carries an order of correction and a civil penalty; appeal within 15 working days (7099.3) if the finding is wrong; pay and correct if it is right. Penalties under 7099.2 now run $500 to $8,000 generally and $1,500 to $30,000 for building-law, license-lending, and unlicensed-contracting violations.
- The investigator's questions are about the paper first (7159, 7159.5, the permit) and the work second (7109); a plumber with Phase 3's folder answers both in an afternoon.
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More lessons in Customers, Warranties, and Complaints
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- 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 long
- 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 citationYou are here
- 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