BERKELEY — A state agency has recommended suspending or revoking the license of Segue Construction, alleging that the general contractor willfully disregarded plans and ignored trade standards when building the Berkeley apartment complex where a collapsed balcony killed six people.

The California Contractors State License Board, which filed the accusation Tuesday, claimed that had the company built the balcony as designed, the load from the 13 people who gathered there the night of the collapse was “well within the design limits of the balcony structure.”

Read the full accusation here

The agency also agreed with other conclusions that it was the decayed wooden joists that caused the balcony to collapse June 16, 2015, killing six young adults and injuring seven others, mostly Irish citizens here in a summer exchange program.

The incident occurred at the downtown Library Gardens apartment complex, located near the University of California campus.

In its accusation, the state alleges that floor joists installed on the balcony of the affected unit were not pressure treated and instead of plywood, called for in the design plans, a thinner composite material was used.

In addition, a subcontractor hired by Segue to waterproof the balcony did not install a membrane that would have made it waterproof. The work occurred between October 2005 and August 2006, during which time Berkeley received more than 38 inches of rain, causing the joists supporting the balcony to decay, according to state investigators.

The incident is not the first time Pleasanton-based Segue Construction has run into trouble. In the three years before the Berkeley tragedy, the company had paid more than $25 million in construction defect-related settlements. The settlements, which involved water infiltration problems, were unknown to the state Contractor Licensing Board.

Messages left Wednesday morning for Erick Hockaday, the CEO of Segue Construction, and David Dunlop, another top-level executive, were not immediately returned. A message left for Segue’s attorney was also not answered.

The tragedy spurred the passage in September of a new law, SB 465, which takes effect in January and requires the Division of Occupational Safety and Health and the state licensing board to share information about citations or other actions taken against a contractor. Authors of the law had initially sought to share information about judgments against licensees and settlement payments, but that portion was struck after pressure for its removal from the construction industry.

Segue Construction has two weeks to contest the accusation to the California State Licensing Board. After a hearing, a judge will submit a proposed decision to the registrar of contractors, which may include a recommendation for discipline to be imposed. Last year, 393 California contractors — or less than 1 percent of all contractors who are licensed in the state — had their licenses revoked for various infractions, according to Rick Lopes, a spokesman for the licensing board.

“The vast majority of complaints we get are nowhere close to this level,” Lopes said. Without a license, a contractor is unable to legally perform work totaling more than $500.