City/County not issuing contractor permits when contractor owes fees on other permits

[Mark K]

In California the situation is complicated by several state statutes that require the applicant for a permit being a Contractor. These statutes do not explicitly say who the owner of the permit is. The primary reason for the statutes is to assure that the contractor has workers compensation insurance for his employees. This has the secondary benefit of verifying whether the contractor is licensed. The trick is then to resolve these two realities.

I propose that you start by interpreting the statutes to mean that the contractor is acting as the agent of the owner when applying for the permit. When a new contractor takes over the job you would then require a supplement to the permit application that is used to verify that the contractor has workers compensation insurance. There would be a temporary suspension of the permit when the original contractor is no longer associated with the project.. There would be a nominal administrative charge for processing the supplement but there would be no break in the validity or ownership of the permit.

This strategy recognizes that the permit and the associated rights are owned by the property owner but it is also respectful of the state statutes related to contractors applying for building permits.