Resources · California
California fines the party that contracts for janitorial services — not just the janitorial company — for signing with an employer that is not registered. It is checked against a public database, and it comes back around every time a contract renews.
The Property Service Workers Protection Act (California Labor Code §§ 1420–1434) requires employers who provide janitorial services to register with the Department of Industrial Relations, and to keep that registration current. Registration is renewed annually.
Under Labor Code § 1432(b), a person or entity that contracts with an unregistered janitorial services employer is subject to a civil fine. This is the part property managers are most often surprised by: it is not only the cleaning company that is exposed.
First violation
$2,000 – $10,000
Subsequent violations
$10,000 – $25,000
Section 1432(b) ties the check to the status shown in the online registration database at the time the contract is executed — and it applies again when a contract is extended, renewed, or modified. Because registration itself expires annually, a vendor who was properly registered when you first signed may not be at the next renewal. The exposure recurs on a schedule.
The database is public and free. Search the legal entity name of the janitorial employer — the name on the contract, which is often not the name on the invoice or the truck.
A search that returns no records is not automatically a violation — the employer may be listed under a different legal name than the one you know them by. It is a reason to ask, not a conclusion.
What we do
We keep each vendor’s business license and liability insurance against the building they work at, read the expiry dates off those documents, and surface them before they lapse — so the paperwork behind a renewal is in one place when you get to it.
What we do not do
We do not check the DIR registry for you, and we do not confirm any document with the agency that issued it. The registration check described on this page is one you run. We would rather tell you that than let you assume it is handled.
This page is general information about a California statute, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for advice from your own counsel about your contracts. Statutes change; the linked section is the authority, and this page is a summary of it.
Licenses, insurance certificates, visit history and messages, filed against the property they belong to.