AN ACT authorizing the north carolina landscape contractors' registration board to increase certain fees and establish a new fee under the laws pertaining to landscape contractors.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 89D‑5 reads as rewritten:
"§ 89D‑5.  Application for certificate; examination; renewal.
(a)	Any person, partnership, association or corporation hereinafter desiring to register and be titled as a landscape contractor shall make written application for a certificate of title to the Board on such forms as are prescribed by the Board. Each applicant for a certificate of title as a landscape contractor shall be at least 18 years of age. Prior to July 1, 1976, each applicant for a certificate shall have been actively engaged as an untitled landscape contractor for at least one year prior to date of application. After July 1, 1976, an applicant shall furnish evidence satisfactory to the Board of three years' experience in landscape contracting or the completion of a study or combination of study and experience in landscape contracting equivalent to three years' experience under a landscape contractor.
(b)	Any person who applies to the Board to be registered and titled as a landscape contractor shall be required to take an oral or written examination to determine his qualifications. Each application for registration by examination shall be accompanied by an application fee of seventy‑five dollars ($75.00).
The Board shall compile a manual from which the examination will be prepared. The examination fee shall not exceed seventy‑five dollars ($75.00). Any one failing to pass an examination may be reexamined upon payment of the same fee as that charged to persons taking the examination for the first time, in accordance with such rules as the Board may adopt pertaining to examinations and reexaminations.
If the results of the examination are satisfactory, the Board shall issue the applicant a certificate authorizing him to be titled as a landscape contractor in the State of North Carolina upon payment of the initial certification fee as outlined in subsection (c).
(c)	All certificates granted and issued by the Board under the provisions of this Chapter shall expire annually on December 31. Renewal of such certificates may be effected at any time during the month preceding the expiration date of such certificates upon proper application to the Board accompanied by the payment to the secretary‑treasurer of the Board of a renewal fee, as set by the Board, of not more than seventy‑five dollars ($75.00). The fee for an initial certificate shall be the same as for a renewal certificate and is in addition to the application fee. All certificates reinstated after expiration date thereof shall be subject to a late filing fee of twenty‑five dollars ($25.00). In the event a registrant fails to obtain a reinstatement of such certificate within 12 months from the date of expiration thereof, the Board may, in its discretion, consider such registrant subject to the provisions of this Chapter relating to the issuance of an original certificate. Duplicate certificates may be issued by the Board upon payment of a fee not to exceed five dollars ($5.00) by the registrant. The Board may charge a fee not to exceed thirty‑five dollars ($35.00) for issuance of a duplicate parchment certificate."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 2nd day of August, 2007.

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		 Beverly E. Perdue
	 President of the Senate

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		 Joe Hackney
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

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		 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2007