Licensed vs. Unlicensed Contractor in California: What Work Needs a License

Any project where combined labor and materials total $1,000 or more must be performed by a CSLB-licensed contractor — the threshold rose from $500 to $1,000 on January 1, 2025 under Assembly Bill 2622 (Business & Professions Code §7048).

Assembly Bill 2622 (Carrillo, Chapter 240 of 2024) made the change effective January 1, 2025. It's a recent, specific update, and a large share of contractor-licensing pages — across every trade — still cite the old $500 figure. When you see $500, treat the page as out of date.

The threshold is the combined cost of labor and materials for the job — not labor alone, and not a per-visit figure. A project can't be sliced into sub-$1,000 pieces to dodge the requirement: if the work is really one project, its total is what counts.

Most real home-improvement jobs — a re-roof, a panel upgrade, a driveway, a repipe, a pool — are well above $1,000, so they squarely require a licensed contractor.

Below $1,000, a narrow minor-work exemption can apply only if the job isn't part of a larger project and the worker discloses, in advertising and bids, that they aren't licensed.

The exemption is narrow. It doesn't apply if the small job is part of a larger project, and it doesn't override other requirements — work that needs a building permit, or that other law reserves to a licensed trade, still needs the proper license regardless of price. The exemption is for genuinely minor, standalone work, by someone who openly says they aren't licensed.

Hiring an unlicensed person for work that needs a license costs you the protections licensing provides: there's no $25,000 contractor bond to claim against, no CSLB disciplinary leverage, and you may be liable if an uninsured worker is injured on your property. Recovering money for bad or unfinished work is much harder.

California law also tilts against the unlicensed contractor: one who performs work requiring a license generally can't sue to enforce payment, and a homeowner may be able to recover what they paid. But the cleaner path is to verify a license up front and only hire an Active, correctly classified contractor — the homeowner usually isn't penalized, but loses the safety net.

A quick rule of thumb: if the combined labor and materials reach $1,000, hire licensed. Roofing, HVAC, concrete driveways and patios, electrical panel work, plumbing repipes, masonry walls, fencing runs, painting whole rooms, and pool construction all routinely exceed the threshold and require a licensed contractor.

A few services genuinely sit below it: routine pool cleaning and chemical service, a single-fixture touch-up, or a small cosmetic repair can fall under $1,000 — but the moment a 'small' job is part of a bigger project, the whole project's total decides. When in doubt, verify the license; it's free and rules out most problems.