California's Contractors State License Board is looking at making home improvement salespeople prove they know the rules before they knock on doors. At a Nov. 3 teleconference, the board's Legislative Committee reviewed a proposal to add a surety bond requirement and an exam for registered Home Improvement Salespersons, according to the committee's agenda and meeting packet (via CSLB).
Right now, the bar is low. Under current law, a Home Improvement Salesperson, or HIS, is registered by the CSLB and sells or negotiates home improvement contracts on behalf of a licensed contractor, and can work for more than one contractor. Registration takes an application, fingerprints and fees. There are no education, experience or exam requirements, and nothing requires training in contract law, loan negotiation or consumer finance, the packet says.
The proposal would change that in two ways. First, a surety bond, though the packet doesn't name an amount. Second, an exam testing knowledge of California's home improvement contract law, Business and Professions Code section 7159, and its progress payment restrictions, along with construction contracts, payment structuring, financing and liens. The exam's length and format weren't spelled out.
A third piece goes after financing. Staff asked the committee to have them meet with the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation to understand its finance lender license rules, and to consider whether a salesperson who puts loan terms into a home improvement contract should need a DFPI lender license. The packet doesn't take a position on that yet.
The driver is solar. The packet counts 2,111 solar-related complaints in 2026, about 230 a month, and says more than 1,000 were still open as of Oct. 6. Staff listed problems like financing signed during in-home sales without customers fully understanding it, unlawful payment terms, lenders paying out more up front than the work was worth, and loan payments starting before the work was done. The board is also stretched thin overall: it's staffed for about 1,160 complaints a month but is averaging 1,520 this year.
The committee also discussed a second idea aimed at contractors with piles of complaints. Under B&P Code 7124.6, the CSLB can only publicly disclose complaints that reach certain stages, like a citation or a referral for an accusation. The packet notes 91 contractors received 10 or more complaints in 2026, and many weren't publicly disclosed. Staff proposed seeking authority to post the number and nature of complaints when a contractor gets more than five in a month or has more than 10 open at once, and to remove them if the complaints close without legal action.
Both items were on the agenda for review and discussion only. Nothing was voted into law, and any change would need legislation. The packet doesn't give dates for next steps.
Why it matters for Contractors
If you run a remodeling or solar shop that uses registered salespeople, this could add cost and lead time to every new hire, plus a bond to carry. It's early, so there's nothing to do on compliance yet. But it's a good moment to check what your sales team actually knows about section 7159, especially down payment and progress payment limits, and how they present financing at the kitchen table. The complaint-disclosure idea matters to every licensee: if it moves forward, a bad month of complaints could show up on your public profile before anything is resolved. Keeping customers informed and closing complaints fast will matter more. If you want a say, watch the CSLB board and committee agendas for when these come back.