Bill clarifies contractor law to address unlicensed architecture, surveying, engineering work; trade groups seek technical fixes

Assemblymember Hoover presented AB 1341 as a narrow clarification to the Contractors State License Law to specify that violations of the state building laws include unlicensed practice of architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, land surveying, geology and geophysics.

Supporters included the California Land Surveyors Association, the Board of Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors and Geologists, and the Contractors State License Board, which described the bill as a targeted measure to improve enforcement against unlicensed practice without changing scopes of practice. Mike Beloit of the California Land Surveyors Association said the bill “simply clarifies” that contractors performing work that crosses into regulated professions are already violating contractor licensing rules and that the change aligns statutory practice with existing board positions.

Opposition representatives — including the State Council of Laborers, United Contractors and several employer associations — urged caution. They described wide use of tools such as ground penetrating radar (GPR), GPS and subsurface imaging by contractors in ordinary construction work and asked the author to make clear the bill would not criminalize ordinary contractor activities that use these tools. Those groups asked for reciprocal language so that when a board finds its licensee is engaging in contracting without a contractor license, the other boards would have parallel authority.

The author and supporters agreed to pursue clarifying, reciprocal language and technical amendments to exclude ordinary tool use and to avoid regulatory redundancy. The committee approved the motion to pass AB 1341 as amended to the Senate Appropriations Committee and left follow‑up drafting to incoming staff.