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to supervise or not

2K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  slowsol 
#1 ·
hey all,

im in california. i hold a b license. i recently had a potential client(HO) ask me if i would supervise a project of theirs. the HO would bring in his own workers. HO just wants me to make sure they are doing the job correctly. question is, am i within the scope of my license to supervise/superintend? i read on the cslb website and seems like it is within my scope. but the cslb does not say whether or not the supervision needs to be of licensed personnel as im not sure whether the HO will be hiring licensed workers. any help would be appreciated. thanks in advance.
 
#4 ·
One question always leads to others.

My biggest fear is the HO is hiring the subs and you are supervising...who's liable for what? Say a subs work becomes substandard, is your license in jeopardy, or can you bounce it back to the HO since they did the hiring?

This is most likely going to boil down to the strength of your contract and how well it is written. You may be best to be employed directly by the HO as a supervisor rather then use your license as a contractor.
 
#5 ·
It is within the scope of your license to be the project manager, and as Chris suggested, a strong contract will help. You'll definitely want to outline your responsibilities vs the HO's responsibilities.

Obviously the HO can act as the PM on their own house, but it you are the PM you are responsible for ensuring the work is done to plans/specs/code whether or not the workers are hired by you or the HO.

Any project defects or complaints/lawsuits will most likely fall upon you as the licensee/PM.

On a personal note... I'm not sure I'd want to use/supervise workers hired by someone else. I wouldn't know their work ethic, experience, attention to detail, etc. But that's just me and I've never been a prime contractor, just my two cents.
 
#6 ·
Licensing aside, are you sure you want to do this? As a GC, I hire subcontractors. I have a great team of subs but every now and again something happens and I'll have to find a new sub. It usually takes me going through 3-5 different sub crews before I find a crew that I can trust and that does the type of work that I'm looking for.

If the homeowner is in charge of the hiring, this could easily turn into a cluster :censored: and you'll be on the hook. You'll have to work 2-3 times as hard as normal to stay on top of these new crews versus if you would use your own trusted crews. I personally wouldn't want the headache or want to put my license on the line for crews I don't know.

Like others have said, if you do it, make sure to have a good contract.
 
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