How long you are on the hook: the four-year and ten-year windows at CSLB and in court, and what they mean for your files
In one paragraph
Every contract you sign tells the customer, in the CSLB's own words, that they can complain within four years about anything they could see and within ten years about structural defects they could not. Those numbers are real: B&P 7091 sets them for CSLB complaints, the Code of Civil Procedure sets the same four and ten years for lawsuits over patent and latent construction defects, and the Right to Repair Act gives new-home electrical work a four-year standard from close of escrow inside a ten-year outer limit. This lesson explains what patent and latent mean for an electrician, why the ten-year window rarely reaches electrical work but the four-year one always does, how the contractor's bond fits, and the one practical consequence: your job files, photographs and permits are evidence for at least four years and, for structural work, ten.
The rule
A CSLB complaint alleging patent acts or omissions must be filed within four years of the act, and one alleging latent acts regarding structural defects within ten years, latent meaning not apparent by reasonable inspection (B&P 7091(a)-(b)); civil actions for patent construction deficiencies are barred four years after substantial completion and for latent deficiencies ten years after (CCP 337.1, 337.15); on new homes sold as individual dwellings, the Right to Repair Act's electrical standard carries a four-year limit from close of escrow inside a ten-year outer bar (Civil Code 896(f), 941). Keep the job file at least that long.
Why it matters
The four-year window is the customer's leverage and your calendar: a complaint about a job you finished in the spring of your first year can arrive in the spring of your fifth, and CSLB will ask you for the contract, the permit and the photographs. Contractors who understand the windows keep files that answer, price warranties that match, and stop losing sleep over the ten-year number that applies to foundations, not receptacles.