Specialty contractors: automatic fire extinguisher systems: license exemption.

Existing law, the Contractors' State License Law, provides for the licensure and regulation of contractors by the Contractors' State License Board within the Department of Consumer Affairs. That law provides for the classification of a speciality contractor and defines a "specialty contractor" as a contractor whose operations involve the performance of construction work requiring special skill and whose principal contracting business involves the use of specialized building trades or crafts, as provided. That definition includes a contractor whose operations include the business of servicing or testing fire extinguishing systems. Existing law requires the State Fire Marshal to adopt and administer the regulations and building standards he or she deems necessary in order to establish and control a program for servicing, testing, and maintaining all automatic fire extinguishing systems, including, but not limited to, fire sprinkler systems. Existing law prohibits any person from engaging in the business of servicing or testing automatic fire extinguishing systems without a license issued by the State Fire Marshal, but exempts from this prohibition a specialty contractor whose operations include the business of servicing or testing fire extinguishing systems. This bill would instead exempt any speciality contractor, as that term is defined under existing law, from the prohibition on engaging in the business of servicing or testing automatic fire extinguishing systems without a licence from the State Fire Marshal.