Home Improvement Salesperson

A home improvement salesperson registration is issued by the Contractors State License Board, and it is not a contractor license. Business and Professions Code § 7152 defines the salesperson, requires the registration and lists six categories not required to register.

This is not a contractor license

The registration belongs to a person who sells for a licensed contractor, not to a contracting business. What the Board asks of an applicant for a contractor license is a different list, on what the Board asks of a contractor applicant, and when a contractor license is required at all is on when a contractor license is required. The wider picture is on the California contractor licensing page.

What the statute defines, and what it requires

Section 7152(a) defines the term:

“Home improvement salesperson” is a person who is registered under this chapter and engaged in the business of soliciting, selling, negotiating, or executing contracts for home improvements, for the sale, installation, or furnishing of home improvement goods or services, or of swimming pools, spas, or hot tubs on behalf of a home improvement contractor licensed under this chapter.

The registration duty is in the next subdivision. Section 7152(b) reads:

A home improvement salesperson shall register with the board in order to engage in the business of, or act in the capacity of, a home improvement salesperson.

The Board states the same duty on its own page, in its own words: “You must register with CSLB if you solicit, sell, negotiate or execute home improvement contracts for a licensed contractor (regardless of the dollar amount of those contracts), with limited exceptions” (CSLB, Home Improvement Salesperson registration, Step 1).

“Home improvement” is itself a defined term. Section 7151(a) opens:

“Home improvement” means the repairing, remodeling, altering, converting, or modernizing of, or adding to, residential property

and goes on to a longer list that this page does not restate.

Who the statute says is not required to register

Section 7152(d) lists six categories. This is the statute’s own list, quoted whole:

The following shall not be required to be registered as home improvement salespersons:

• (1) An officer of record of a corporation licensed pursuant to this chapter, or a manager, member, or officer of record of a limited liability company licensed pursuant to this chapter.
• (2) A general partner listed on the license record of a partnership licensed pursuant to this chapter.
• (3) A qualifying person, as defined in Section 7025.
• (4) A salesperson whose sales are all made pursuant to negotiations between the parties if the negotiations are initiated by the prospective buyer at or with a general merchandise retail establishment that operates from a fixed location where goods or services are offered for sale.
• (5) A person who contacts the prospective buyer for the exclusive purpose of scheduling appointments for a registered home improvement salesperson.
• (6) A bona fide service repairperson who is in the employ of a licensed contractor and whose repair or service call is limited to the service, repair, or emergency repair initially requested by the buyer of the service.

The next subdivision limits the first three. Section 7152(e) reads:

The exemption to registration provided under paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of subdivision (d) shall apply only to those individuals who, at the time of the sales transaction, are listed as personnel of record for the licensee responsible for soliciting, negotiating, or contracting for a service or improvement that is subject to regulation under this article.

The Board’s Step 1 page introduces its own list of exceptions with: “Based upon BPC section 7152(c), the following are the only exceptions where a HIS registration is not required” (CSLB, Step 1). In the statute as quoted above, the exemptions are in subdivision (d), and subdivision (c) is the provision on working for more than one contractor. The Board’s page lists six exceptions, as the statute’s subdivision (d) does. The limit to “personnel of record” in subdivision (e) does not appear in that list, and two of its items are worded differently from the statute’s: the Board’s fourth reads “after negotiations” where the statute says “pursuant to negotiations”, and its sixth reads “employed by a licensed contractor” where the statute says “in the employ of a licensed contractor”.

This page does not say which of the two texts governs. The statute is quoted from § 7152, which the Legislature last amended effective January 1, 2026, and the Board’s wording is quoted from its own page. How the two are to be read together turns on how the provision is construed, and that is a question for the Board or for a reader’s own counsel.

The misdemeanor

Section 7153(a) makes it an offense, in two passages that are quoted separately here because the statute sets them as separate paragraphs. The first:

It is a misdemeanor for any person to engage in the occupation of salesperson for one or more home improvement contractors within this state without having, at the time of the sales transaction, a current and valid home improvement salesperson registration issued by the registrar. If, upon investigation, the registrar has probable cause to believe that a salesperson is in violation of this section, the registrar may issue a citation pursuant to Section 7028.7.

And the second, which the statute sets as its own paragraph under the same subdivision (§ 7153(a)):

It is a misdemeanor for any person to engage in the occupation of salesperson of home improvement goods or services within this state without having, at the time of the sales transaction, a current and valid home improvement salesperson registration issued by the registrar.

The Board says the same of the period before a registration number exists: “It is illegal to begin working as a home improvement salesperson before your application has been reviewed and you receive your HIS number” (CSLB, Step 3).

A separate consequence that falls on the contractor

Section 7153(b) is a rule about the contractor’s security interest, not about the salesperson:

Any security interest taken by a contractor, to secure any payment for the performance of any act or conduct described in Section 7151 that occurs on or after January 1, 1995, is unenforceable if the person soliciting the act or contract was not a duly registered salesperson or was not exempt from registration pursuant to Section 7152 at the time the homeowner signs the home improvement contract solicited by the salesperson.

Identifying the contractor

Section 7152(c) addresses working for more than one contractor, and sets a duty before any sales activity:

Subject to the provisions of Section 7154, a home improvement salesperson may be employed by one, or more than one, home improvement contractor. However, prior to engaging in any activity described in subdivision (a) of this section, a home improvement salesperson shall identify to the owner or tenant the business name and license number of the contractor they are representing for the purposes of that transaction. Failure to do so is a cause of disciplinary action within the meaning of Section 7155.

The Board’s Step 1 page adds that a registered salesperson “may work for any number of contractors and sell a variety of goods and services”, and that a law effective January 1, 2016 “removes the requirement that a salesperson register separately with CSLB for each contractor that employs them” (CSLB, Step 1).

The contractor’s notification to the registrar

Section 7154 is written as a duty of the licensed contractor, in two parts. Subdivision (a) ends: “The form shall be submitted prior to the home improvement salesperson beginning work for the contractor.” Subdivision (b) ends: “The form shall be submitted within 90 days after the home improvement salesperson ceases to be employed by the contractor.” The Board describes the same duty as resting on the licensed contractor, who must notify it in writing before a registered salesperson starts and within 90 days after the work ends (CSLB, Step 1).

What the Board publishes about applying

The Board publishes the application process as six steps, beginning at its Home Improvement Salesperson registration page.

• Qualifications. The Board states: “You must be at least 18 years of age. (There are no experience, residency, or educational requirements.)” (CSLB, Step 1).
• The application. The Board’s second step says to “Complete the Application for Registration as a Home Improvement Salesperson”, to sign and date it, and to submit it with the application fee to the Board’s Sacramento post office box (CSLB, Step 2).
• Fingerprints. “All applicants for license and each officer, partner, owner, and responsible managing employee, as well as HIS applicants, must be fingerprinted” (CSLB, Step 4).
• Timing. The Board states that “The time required to process and issue an HIS registration number depends on CSLB's workload and staffing levels at the time an application is submitted” (CSLB, Step 3). It publishes no figure there.
• The term. “Home improvement registrations expire two years from the last day of the month in which it was issued” (CSLB, Step 5). On renewal, the same page says the Board “will mail a renewal application to your address of record several weeks before your registration expires”.
• Checking a status. The Board’s sixth step is an application status check, using the application fee number (CSLB, Step 6).

The Board’s fee schedule lists a “Home Improvement Salesperson Registration Application” fee of $200, with the renewal rows beside it (CSLB, Fees). The other fees the Board charges are set out on the cost page.

The Board’s license lookup is headed “Check a Contractor License or Home Improvement Salesperson (HIS) Registration” (CSLB, license lookup).