RMO Help
For Your California Contractors License

An RMO, or Responsible Managing Officer, is an officer of a corporation or LLC who qualifies the company's California contractors license using their own experience and examination record. An RME, or Responsible Managing Employee, does the same job as an employee rather than an officer, and can qualify a sole ownership, partnership, corporation or LLC. The trade off is that an RME must be permanently employed and involved at least 32 hours a week or 80 percent of the hours the business operates, whichever is less, cannot hold an active sole ownership license of their own, and can qualify only one active license at a time.

Not through us. Contractors License Experts does not find or match RMOs, and we do not keep a list of licensed contractors willing to act as one. We offered that in the past and stopped, because the liability is too high and the arrangement rarely worked out well for either side. An RMO carries real legal responsibility for how your company operates, so it needs to be someone you already know and trust. Once you have a willing RMO, we handle the corporation, the application, the personnel filings and the bonding.

You do not take the exam yourself. The California license is qualified by your RMO's experience and examination record rather than yours, which is the main reason contractors use an RMO arrangement when they cannot document four years of journey level experience in the last ten. Whether your RMO needs to sit an examination again depends on their own license history, since a waiver is tied to having been listed as the qualifier on a license in the same classification. We check that before anything is filed.

Not necessarily. An RMO can hold anywhere from 0 to 100 percent of the company, but the percentage changes what else you have to file. If your RMO holds less than 10 percent of the voting stock, the CSLB requires a $25,000 Bond of Qualifying Individual in addition to your $25,000 contractors bond, under Business and Professions Code section 7071.9. Ownership also determines whether your RMO is able to qualify any other company at the same time.

A qualifying individual may act as the qualifier for no more than three firms in any one year period, under Business and Professions Code section 7068.1. Qualifying more than one firm at the same time is only permitted in limited circumstances, most commonly where there is common ownership of at least 20 percent of the equity of each firm. Narrower exceptions exist for subsidiaries, joint ventures, and firms that share a majority of the same officers. If the person you have in mind already qualifies another company, check this before you apply.

The qualifier is responsible for exercising supervision and control of the company's construction operations, so that the company complies with California license law. Since AB 830 took effect in 2022, that means directly supervising or controlling construction operations, or monitoring those operations and being available to assist whoever supervision has been delegated to. The CSLB can require an employment duty statement setting out exactly how your qualifier does this. Failing to meet the requirement is grounds for disciplinary action against the license and is punishable as a misdemeanor.

You have 90 days from the date of disassociation to replace the qualifier, and either you or the departing RMO must notify the CSLB in writing within that same 90 days, under Business and Professions Code section 7068.2. If the qualifier is not replaced in time, the license is automatically suspended, or that classification is removed if your RMO qualified only one of several. The registrar can grant one 90 day extension for good cause. A suspended license cannot legally bid, contract or perform work.