How to Check a Landscaping Contractor in California

How do you look up a contractor license?

Go to cslb.ca.gov and use the license check tool. You can search by license number, by business name, or by personnel name. Ask the contractor for the number directly, and be a little wary if that question causes friction, because a licensed contractor gives it out without hesitating. It should also appear on their vehicles, their business cards, their contracts, and their advertising, which is a legal requirement in California.

What you are reading on that page is whether the license is active rather than expired or suspended, what classifications it holds, whether the contractor bond is current, whether workers compensation is on file or exempt, and whether there is any disciplinary or complaint history attached.

A license that has lapsed is not a technicality. Working without an active license on a job above a small dollar threshold is illegal in California, and it affects your ability to recover anything if the job goes wrong.

Do it on the official CSLB license check. Anything else is a third-party copy that can be out of date.

What do the license classifications mean?

California does not issue one general contractor license that covers everything. It issues classifications, and a contractor can only legally perform work inside the ones they hold.

The one to look for on a landscaping job is C-27, the Landscaping classification. It covers the work most people mean by landscaping: planting, irrigation, drainage, and the ground level construction that goes with it.

Other classifications come up depending on the project. C-8 is Concrete. C-29 is Masonry. C-10 is Electrical, which matters if you are having line voltage work done rather than low voltage lighting. C-53 is Swimming Pool. A large project can legitimately involve more than one, either because the contractor holds several or because they bring in a licensed subcontractor for that part.

What you want to avoid is a contractor working outside their classification and hoping nobody checks. Ask directly which classification covers the specific work you are buying.

Ours is a landscaping license, LIC #1138709, which covers the landscaping, hardscaping, and concrete and masonry work we do.

What insurance should they actually carry?

Two separate things, and people conflate them.

General liability insurance covers damage the contractor causes to your property. Nothing in California law requires a contractor to carry it, which surprises most homeowners, so this is on you to ask about. Ask for a certificate of insurance rather than a verbal assurance, and check the dates on it.

Workers compensation covers the crew if somebody is injured on your property. Any contractor with employees is required to carry it. A contractor with no employees can file an exemption, which is legitimate for a genuine one person operation but is worth understanding, because if an uninsured worker is hurt on your job the exposure can land on your homeowner policy.

The board site shows the workers compensation status. The liability certificate you have to request.

How much deposit are they allowed to ask for?

This is the single most useful thing most homeowners do not know. Under California law, for a home improvement contract, the down payment cannot exceed ten percent of the contract price or one thousand dollars, whichever is less.

That is not a guideline, it is the limit. A contractor asking for half up front on a twenty thousand dollar yard is asking for something the law does not allow, and it is one of the most reliable warning signs there is. Beyond the deposit, payments are supposed to track the work, so you pay for progress that has actually happened rather than funding the job in advance.

Material that has to be specially ordered can complicate the picture, and there are legitimate conversations to have there, but the starting position is set by law and it is worth knowing before you are standing in the driveway with a pen.

This is state law, not a guideline. Under California Business and Professions Code section 7159, the down payment on a home improvement contract cannot exceed 10 percent of the price or 1,000 dollars, whichever is less. The CSLB enforces it.

What has to be in the written contract?

Get everything in writing, and be suspicious of anyone reluctant to do that. A home improvement contract in California is required to be in writing, and it should name the contractor, the license number, and the address, along with a clear description of the work and the materials.

What you specifically want spelled out is the scope in detail rather than one vague line, the total price, the payment schedule tied to milestones, an approximate start and completion date, and who is responsible for permits. On a landscaping job, get the base depths, the material specifications, and whether demolition and haul away are included, because those are exactly the places where two bids that look similar are not.

Change orders should be in writing too. Verbal agreements about extra work are where most disputes start.

How do you read reviews without being fooled by them?

Ignore the star average and read the middle. Five star reviews tell you the job went fine and one star reviews are often about something other than the work. The three and four star reviews are where you find how a company behaves when something goes wrong, which is the only part you cannot predict.

Look for specifics. A review naming the crew, the neighborhood, the actual work, and a timeline is worth more than ten that say great service. Look at whether the company responds to criticism and how. And look at the dates, because a cluster of glowing reviews inside one week says something about how they were collected.

Then ask for two or three recent local references and actually call them. Ask what went wrong and how it was handled, because something always does.

What are the warning signs worth walking away from?

A large deposit demanded up front. No license number offered, or one that does not check out on the board site. Pressure to decide today, or a price that expires this afternoon. A quote given over the phone without anyone looking at the property, on work where the scope depends entirely on what is there. No written contract, or a contract with one line describing the whole job.

Also worth noticing: a bid that is dramatically below the others. It is not usually generosity. It is usually something specific left out, and on landscaping that something is almost always underneath, in the base depth, the compaction, or the drainage, where you will not see it until it fails.

More on how we quote and what we include is on our services page, and there is a plain explanation of our own process on the contact page.

• Asks for a large deposit, or wants cash up front.
• Has no license number, or the number does not match their name on the CSLB site.
• Will not put the scope and price in writing.
• Cannot show proof of workers' compensation and liability insurance.
• Pressures you to decide today or to start immediately.