Proposed bill by California Sen. Mike McGuire would offer added protection for homeowners rebuilding after fires

The planet is warming and summer coming. While wildfires may be inevitable, State Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, is determined to diminish the misery those infernos can bring.

McGuire has proposed legislation which would help prevent nightmare experiences certain Sonoma County fire survivors, and others statewide, have had with contractors as they attempt to rebuild their homes.

The bill enjoys bipartisan support, sailing unanimously through the Senate’s business and professions committee last week. It will be heard Monday by the appropriations committee, and then would be considered in the Assembly. If passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, it would take effect Jan. 1, 2021.

“Losing a home is traumatic enough,” McGuire said in an interview. “Ending up with an unexperienced contractor - or worse, a contractor who intentionally takes a job knowing that they can’t finish it - has made the rebuilding process, and the healing process, incredibly painful” for some fire survivors.

This bill, co-authored by Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and Assembly member Evan Low, D-Silicon Valley, would put an end to what McGuire described as California’s “one-size-fits-all” license for builders: the California general contractor’s license. That broad license allows contractors to take on jobs “from remodeling a kitchen to building a skyscraper,” McGuire said.

It allows builders with experience in small jobs to take on larger projects for which they are unqualified, he said.

This legislation creates a new class of licensed contractor, a subdivision within the general building classification called “residential remodeling contracting,” said Michael Jamnetski.

He is chief of legislation for California’s Contractors Licensing Board, which polices the construction in the state, and worked closely with McGuire on the bill. The California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors and Associated General Contractors of California also support the legislation.

The bill also includes language making it easier for district attorneys to hold unscrupulous builders accountable. While current state law provides consumer protections on home remodels and repairs - measures such as requiring work to be completed before full customer payment can be demanded - the law “didn’t clearly cover disaster repairs,” Jamnetski said. This bill expressly expands those protections.

Because of the ambiguity in the existing law, “district attorneys have been hesitant to prosecute contractors who’ve taken advantage of fire survivors,” said McGuire, whose legislation would remove that ambiguity.

McGuire began work on the bill more than a year ago, he said, in response to the “horror stories of North Bay residents calling our office, literally in tears, about contractors who have taken them for all they’re worth, kicked them when they were down.”

North Coast Builders Exchange CEO Keith Woods said his trade group just learned about the bill.

“We’ve not discussed this at all with the Senator (McGuire), nor were we asked for input. I’m disappointed that his office didn’t contact us,” Woods said.