Unlicensed handymen in California can now take on repair jobs worth up to $1,000, twice the previous $500 ceiling, after Assembly Bill 2622 raised the state's minor work exemption effective January 1, 2025. The change amends Business and Professions Code Section 7048 and directly affects how landlords and property managers schedule routine maintenance work.
The exemption only applies to sole individuals working without employees, and it disappears the moment a job needs a building permit or touches behind the wall electrical, plumbing, or structural systems. A $950 drywall patch or a fence repair can now go to an unlicensed handyman without triggering a Contractors State License Board violation, but a water heater swap still needs a licensed plumber regardless of cost. The Board treats the threshold as an aggregate figure covering labor, materials, and every other cost tied to a single project, not a per visit allowance.
What It Changes for Maintenance Scheduling
For anyone coordinating maintenance across a rental portfolio, the practical effect is a wider bench of vendors available for mid sized jobs. Work that used to sit in a grey zone between a $500 handyman task and a full licensed contractor bid now has a clear home. A cracked cabinet, a section of fencing, or an interior paint job that runs a few hundred dollars over the old cap no longer forces a choice between under scoping the work or bringing in a contractor for something a generalist could handle safely.
That flexibility comes with a documentation burden. Because the exemption is void the moment a project needs a permit or crosses $1,000 in total cost, anyone dispatching work has to track project scope carefully rather than assuming a job stays under the line once it starts. A small repair that grows mid visit, a second issue found on site, or materials that push the total over $1,000 all shift the job back into licensed contractor territory. Vendors who aren't tracking this risk fines, and the property can end up in a dispute over who was liable for hiring unlicensed labor above the threshold.
Where This Fits Into Turnover and Occupied Unit Work
Coordinating maintenance across Ventura County and the Sacramento region means matching each work order to the right kind of vendor before a truck ever gets dispatched, not after. A higher exemption threshold gives more routine repairs, especially the make ready items that come up between tenants, a faster path to completion without waiting on a licensed contractor's schedule. It also shifts the vetting question slightly: instead of only checking a license number, coordination now has to confirm a handyman is a true sole proprietor and that the scope stays inside the exemption before work begins.
AB 2622 doesn't remove the need for licensed contractors on the work that genuinely requires them. It just widens the lane for everything else, and portfolios that adjust their vendor rosters and dispatch rules accordingly see fewer work orders stalled on a contractor's calendar.
