C-27 Landscaping

C-27 Landscaping is the Board’s label for one numbered specialty classification, listed under its “(C) Specialty Contractor” heading (CSLB, Licensing Classifications). What follows is what the Board publishes for that classification and what it requires of an applicant for a license in it, set within the trade classifications overview and the wider California contractor licensing picture.

The Board’s scope for C-27

The Board states what C-27 covers on its own detail page (CSLB, C-27 detail page), and its wording is quoted, with context, on the specialty classifications page. This page leaves the quotation there. “Landscaper” is a trade name; C-27 is the Board’s entry, and its scope text is what a classification is read against.

Where this page stops

This page does not cover the Board’s C-49 Tree and Palm classification, which the Board lists as a separate entry from C-27 (CSLB, Licensing Classifications). The Board publishes a scope text for each classification as a regulation, under Title 16 of the California Code of Regulations. C-49’s covers work that “plants, maintains, and removes trees and palms”. Reading one scope against the other is how the difference becomes visible, and it is not something the Board states: neither entry mentions the other. The two texts are at the C-49 detail page and the C-27 detail page. The Board’s list names further numbered classifications, and none of their scopes is stated here.

The other classifications covered in detail here are separate entries on the same Board list: C-10 Electrical, C-33 Painting and Decorating and C-20 Warm-Air Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning.

Four years in the classification

The Board’s experience page (CSLB, experience requirements) states the requirement in its own words:

You must have at least four (4) years of experience, in the class you are applying for, to qualify to take the examination. Credit for experience is given only for experience at a journey level or as a foreman, supervising employee, contractor, or owner-builder.

For an applicant in C-27, “the class” is C-27.

Who qualifies a C-27 license

Under § 7068(b), the qualifying person must be “qualified for the same license classification as the classification being applied for”, which for this license means qualified in C-27. The roles that can qualify an applicant differ between individuals, partnerships, corporations and LLCs, and the qualifying individual page lays them out.

The two examinations

The Board’s applicant page puts it as “an applicant must take and pass two examinations: Law and business / Trade”, with C-61 Limited Specialty as its one named exception and a waiver available under certain conditions (CSLB, Applicants). C-27 is not named in that sentence (CSLB, Applicants). The same page says the final determination of whether an applicant meets the examination requirements or the waiver criteria “is made during the application review process” (CSLB, Applicants). The two examinations page covers both.

The bond, and where the rest is set out

The bond is a condition of holding a license under § 7071.6, which makes it a condition precedent to issuance, reinstatement, reactivation, renewal or continued maintenance; its terms are on the bond and financial requirements. The unlicensed contracting page holds the question of when a license is required at all and the statutory exemption beside it, the general requirements page covers what the Board asks of an applicant, and what it costs holds what the Board charges.