No Fix No Pay!

Business Entity
"NoFixNoPay" & "No Fix No Pay" are CA registered DBA's (Doing Business As), since 2007.

Clients & Services
NoFixNoPay provides inspection perfect wiring, repairs, and equip. installations requiring a journeymen electrician. Clients include property owners, tenants, and facility-maintenance companies.

Income Reporting
NoFixNoPay may: 1) be employed, 2) invoice directly under $500 per project, & 3) keeps W-9 & 1099 tax reporting.

Worker's Compensation Insurance
"Workers' Compensation Insurance" is compulsory where law considers laborers employees. The law in California is CLC §3351(d) & 3352(h), which exempts a residential laborer up to 52hrs in any 90-day period.

Avoiding Exploit
Before projects begin, checking permit requirements may differentiate bids of reasonable scope from clever exploit. Exploit comes from licensed contractors forcing cost overruns, or unlicensed operators avoiding inspections they can't pass; risking fire hazard and voiding property-insurance policy.

Since, no credit check or escrow account is mandated by the State, a common exploit remains mechanic liens against owner property, as builders abandon projects without paying sub contractors or suppliers.

See NOLO Press guide: CA Mechanics' Lien Kit for Homeowners, Home Improvement: How to Avoid Paying Twice Protect yourself from mechanic's liens when contractors fail to pay subs and suppliers.

Mechanics Liens from State-Licensed Thieves
Without ever balancing a check book, much less keeping good credit, for about $500 in fees the Contractors State Licensing Board (CSLB) authorizes enforcement of Permits, Inspections, binding-contracts, and mechanic-liens to anyone who gets a signature for work experience, passes a written exam, and maintains bonding.

State-licensed builders may enforce inspections and surprise "Change Orders" after deliberately underbidding. Once contracts are signed, actual cost may be double original bids when the building code is enforced by city-plan check or the inspector. Bids frequently omit HVAC duct repair needed to pass energy-performance tests, and contractors showing this cost are at an unfair disadvantage. The incentive for exploit of home owners is lucrative, by leveraging city inspectors to force unexpected upgrades and construction.

Leverage is a more elegant solution
No one is supposed to purchase HVAC equipment or Permits without an EPA license, and may fail tests during inspection without experience or similar NATE certification. Those qualified to pull permits are kept honest when property owners consult inspectors first.

Before replacing that HVAC unit, your supervising inspector can describe what test they require in new HVAC systems. If contractors didn't address such tests in original bids, the owner can avoid disputes or Change Orders before construction begins.

Before contractors pull the permit, owners can also require inspectors to limit inspection scope to the HVAC permit. This agreement makes unrelated violations found on the property advisory only, except for fire-life safety issues, (ie) missing a $5 smoke detector. If a losing bidder or neighbor notifies code enforcement of unpermitted construction and unlicensed contractors, inspection scope will be most costly, since city plan check assumes the entire property is a fire waiting to happen.

Owner Builders do the "Ass Kicking" around here
NoFixNoPay operates up to 52hrs or $500, unless payroll w/ worker's comp. extend this unique safe-harbor with no Lien, or Permit authority. NoFixNoPay is not EPA licensed, so repairs cannot touch refrigerants, nor central HVAC upgrades. Low cost repairs are offered.

Local Business Licensing
NoFixNoPay is a locally licensed business. Therefore, city planners and inspectors are accessible by phone. We can check the extent of code-compliance costs before repairs begin.

California Electrical Contractor's License C-10
CA Electrical-contractors must use State-certified electricians, per CA Labor Code §3099.2. However, residential-track developments and home-owner construction bids appear dominated by general-contractor laborers, exempt from §3099.2. In my experience, as a §3099.2 certified employee, most projects for C-10 & lighting contractors were minor, with some exceptions for public works, union, commercial construction, and occasional remodels; the jury is still out on whether a license has any advantage in the service market.

California Home-Improvement Salesperson (HIS)
The "Salesperson" license alows projects over $500. However, the "Salesperson" employer --licensed contractors-- are refusing this arrangement, citing Workers Compensation Insurance, and legal employees as a regulatory barrior.

Employee regulation is a barrior relative to hiring laborers on a handshake for cash payment, which has been a construction-industry norm for many years. Attempts to change this informal environment with uneven enforcement targeting electrical contractors, has met with less than spectacular success.

So far, without a licensed contractor interested in HIS registration, NoFixNoPay remains the owner's best advocate as a medically-insured, english-speaking journeyman, without Lawsuit, Lien, or Permit authority.