Act Providing for Registration of Contractors

(Editor's Note.-Under this new law every man or firm who does contracting of any sort must take but a contractor's license by August l4th, l9D. The only things that can be built by one not possessing a license, under this new law, are jobs totaling under $200. There is nothing serious ini this new law. It costs each firm $5 a year for a license and the license must be renerved annually. There may be enough merit in the elimination of crooked contractors that rnay be brought about under the law to compensate the lumbermen for the trouble and small expehse of the license.)

An act providing for the registration of contractors, and defining the term contractor; providing the method of obtaining licenses to engage in the business of contracting. and fixing the fees for such licenses; providing the method of suspension and cancellation of such licenses; and prescribing the punishment for violation of the provisions of this act.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

Section 1. It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, copartnership, corporation, association or other organization, or any combination of any thereof, to engage in the business or act in the capacity of contractor within this state without having a license therefor as herein provided, unless such person, firm, copartnership, corporation, association or other organization is particularly exeppted as provided in this act.

Section 2. This act shall not apply to:

(a) An authorized representative or representatives the United States government, the State of California, any incorporated town, city, county, city and county, rigation district. reclamation district or other municipal political corporation or subdivision of this state; or operation incidental to the discovering or producing of petroleum or gas, or the drilling, testing, abandoning, or other operation of any petroleum or gas well, when performed by an owner or lessee;

(e) Sole owners of property, building structures thereon for their own use; of or iror

(f) Any work or operation on one undertaking or project by contract or contracts performed directly or indirectly by one contractor, and the aggregate contract price for which, for labor, materials, and all other items, is less than two hundred dollars, such work or operations being considered as of a casual, minor, or inconsequential nature.

Section 3. A contractor within the meaning of this act is a person, firm, copartnership, corporation, association, or other organization, or any combination of any thereof, who for a fixed sum, price, fee, percentage, or other compensation other than wages, undertakes with another for the construction, alteration, repair, addition to, or improvement of any building, highway, road, railroad, excavation or other structure, project, development, or improvement, other than to personalty, or any part thereof; provided, that the term contractor, as used in this act, shall include subcontractor, but shall not include any one who merely furnishes materials or supplies without fabricating the same into, or consuming the same in the performance of, the work of the contractor as herein defined.

(b) Any construction or operation incidental to the construction and repair of irrigation and drainage ditches of regularly constituted irrigation districts, reclamation districts, or to farming, dairying, agriculture, viticulture, horticulture, or stock or poultry raising;

(.) Trustees of an express trust, or officers of a court, providing they are acting within the terms of their trust or office, respectively;

.(d) Public utilities operating the state railroad commission on dental totheir own business: or under the regulation of construction work inciany construction, repair

Section 4. The director of the department of professional and vocational standards is hereby constituted a registrar for the purpose of this act, and is empowered to employ such assistants and procure such equipment and records as may be necessary to carry out its provisions.

Section 5. To obtain a license under this act the applicant shall submit, on such forms as the registrar shall prescribe, a duly verified application stating the general nature of his contracting business, and if an individual his name and address, if a copartnership the names and addresses of all partners, and if a corporation, association or other organization, the names and addresses of the president, vice president. secretary, and chief construction managin! officer; and containing the statement that the applicant desires the issuance ofa license under the terms of this act.

Said application shall be accompanied by a fee of five dollars. The fees received under this act shall be deposited in the contractor's license fund, which fund is hereby created. All moneys in said fund are hereby appropriated

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