Serving alcohol at an open house.
Did you know that even though you as an agent want to serve champagne at your open house, your broker have a right to approve or disapprove this action, so check with your broker before you do it!
But besides approval from your broker, a license is required when open house with alcohol is open to the public and you must have both:
-an on sale license from California department of Alcoholic beverages and Control (The ” ABC”) and
-a type 58 catering permit also issued by the ABC
Here is some challenges of serving an alcohol at an open house even if you obtained both permits:
– Make sure no minors are present
– Whoever is serving alcohol have to require identification from guests ( to make sure that are 21 and older)
– Identify if guests are intoxicated and do not serve alcohol to those guests
– Impose a drink limit on all guests
-Include a variety of alternative, non-alcoholic beverages
If it is a broker open (open house is not open to the public)
You may serve alcohol without a license if these three requirements are met:
- There is no sale of alcohol
- Even is not open to the general public
- Premises are not maintained for the purposes of keeping, serving, consuming alcoholic beverages.
- There should be a list of names of people invited, if someone is admitted who is not on a list, event is considered public and license is required
civil code 1714 and Business and Professional Code 25602 and 25602.1
Quick Guide- serving Alcohol at an open house
CAR’s Q&A Serving alcohol at an open house