Coastal Solar

The license side is solid. Coastal Solar is a trade name of Coastal Constructors Inc, license 913170, B General Building and C-10 Electrical, current and active, issued March 28, 2008 and expiring March 31, 2028. Qualifying individual Philip Riege is a 10 percent or more owner, BBB names him as owner, and no publicly disclosable CSLB action appeared on the record when it was read. The CSLB address of record is in Ojai; the Ventura address the company publishes is the storefront, not the license address.

Here is the problem, and it is not subtle. Effective May 14, 2026, CSLB records this license as exempt from workers compensation insurance because the licensee certified it has no employees. The company page describes an All in House team of licensed technicians and installation experts who manage projects from start to finish. Both statements cannot describe the same operation at the same time. Either the state certification is stale, or the in-house language does not mean what a homeowner would assume it means. Both records are cited below; this profile presents them and resolves nothing. The likely explanation sits in plain view on the homepage: the site is now branded Coastal Solar, Powered by Carter Services, and Carter Services, a Torrance home services company, announced Coastal Solar as its new solar division. But no CSLB record ties Carter Services to the Coastal Solar name. Carter's active LLC license 1154386 was issued April 30, 2026 with no C-46, and its canceled predecessor corporation, license 579986, carries a completed 2024 citation for building without a permit, which attaches to Carter Services Inc, not to Coastal Constructors. Whether this is an acquisition, a joint venture, or brand licensing was not confirmed by any document read.

The rest of the file is thin in the same direction. The warranty is a slogan: one of the best warranties in the industry, with no duration, coverage, exclusions, or obligor published anywhere. Volume is a self-claim of over 500 installations in Ventura, and the company appears in none of the three Solar Power World lists reviewed. The founding year depends on which page you read: 1988 on the homepage, general contracting conceived in 1988 with solar starting in 2007 on the company page, 1986 per Solar Power World's supplier directory, a 1985 business start and 2007 incorporation per BBB, and a 2008 license. BBB rates it A+ but publishes no complaint count, and the single customer review, 1 of 5 stars, is far too small a sample to mean much either way. Licensed since 2008, yes. But an operation whose employment status, warranty, ownership structure, and founding date all resist verification at the same time is a D until the paperwork catches up. If you want this bid, make them document who employs the crew and who backs the warranty before you sign.