{ "locale": "en", "access": { "cost": "free", "signupRequired": false, "loginRequired": false, "readCountsAreAnonymous": true, "readingHistoryAssociatedWithReader": false, "note": "Everything here is free to read. There is no account, no signup, and no login. Verifiant counts anonymous reads of each lesson; no reading history is associated with you." }, "notice": "Verifiant is not the State of Arizona, the Arizona Registrar of Contractors, or a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. It describes public process and public record, and links to the official sources so you can read them yourself.", "question": { "slug": "contractor-took-deposit-and-disappeared", "locale": "en", "title": "A Contractor Took Your Deposit and Disappeared. What Can You Actually Do in Arizona?", "answer": "Arizona gives you a real ladder, and most of it does not need a lawyer: a written demand, a complaint to the Registrar of Contractors, the Residential Contractors' Recovery Fund, and the courts. Which rungs are open depends on whether the contractor was licensed, so check the license first and keep every document you have.", "lawyerFlag": false, "publicationStatus": "published", "updatedOn": "2026-08-11", "path": "/learn/questions/contractor-took-deposit-and-disappeared", "sections": [ { "heading": "First, Check the License", "body": "Everything below branches on one fact: was the contractor licensed when you signed and when you paid? The check takes a minute and costs nothing, and the result page links the Registrar's own record. If the license was active, the Registrar's complaint process and the Recovery Fund are both in reach. If it was not, different doors open instead, described at the end of this page.", "factSlugs": [ "license-required-at-one-thousand" ] }, { "heading": "Put the Demand in Writing", "body": "A dated letter, sent in a way you can prove, stating what was paid, what was done, and what you are asking for. Courts and agencies alike read a paper trail, and the letter itself sometimes settles things. Keep the contract, every receipt, every message, and photographs of the site as it stands." }, { "heading": "A Complaint to the Registrar of Contractors", "body": "The Registrar takes complaints about walked-away jobs and bad workmanship against licensed contractors, sends an investigator, and can order corrective work and discipline the license. Two things to know before filing: the window is two years, and the Registrar does not hand out money. The complaint is still the gateway, because the Recovery Fund reads its outcome.", "factSlugs": [ "roc-complaint-window-two-years", "roc-discipline-not-money" ] }, { "heading": "The Recovery Fund, the Rung Most People Never Hear About", "body": "Arizona keeps a fund that pays real losses to owner occupants when a licensed residential contractor's work went wrong and the license ends up suspended or revoked through the complaint. It has limits, and it has an administrative route that does not require suing anyone. Most of the internet does not mention it; it is the rung built for exactly this situation.", "factSlugs": [ "recovery-fund-caps", "recovery-fund-two-routes" ] }, { "heading": "The Money Behind the License", "body": "No Arizona contractor license exists without a bond posted behind it, and a homeowner can write to the surety that holds it and ask it to pay. The amounts are real but often small against a real job, which is why the fund and the courts stand alongside. The Registrar's record for the license names the surety." }, { "heading": "The Courts, Sized to the Loss", "body": "For amounts up to the small claims limit, the justice courts hear suits without lawyers and without appeal. Larger contract suits go to the justice courts' civil division or above, where a written contract can also carry an award of attorney fees. Collecting after judgment is its own work, which is one more reason the fund route counts when it applies.", "factSlugs": [ "small-claims-limit-five-thousand" ] }, { "heading": "If the Contractor Was Never Licensed", "body": "The fund is not available for work done without a license, and that is exactly why the first step on this page is the check. What remains: the Registrar takes complaints about contracting without a license and refers what it finds for prosecution, the courts remain open for your losses, and the law strips a contractor who was not licensed of the right to sue you for payment on that work.", "factSlugs": [ "cannot-sue-without-a-license" ] } ], "officialLinks": [ { "label": "File a complaint with the Registrar", "url": "https://roc.az.gov/file-complaint" }, { "label": "The Residential Contractors' Recovery Fund", "url": "https://roc.az.gov/recovery-fund" } ], "faq": [ { "question": "Does a Registrar complaint get my money back?", "answer": "Not by itself. The Registrar orders corrective work and disciplines licenses; money comes through the Recovery Fund, through the surety behind the license, or through a court. The complaint is what the fund's administrative route runs through." }, { "question": "Is this theft the police will act on?", "answer": "Usually the police treat it as civil rather than criminal. Criminal theft turns on what the contractor intended at the moment they took the money, which is a high bar. Report contracting without a license to the Registrar either way; it refers what it finds for prosecution." } ] }, "facts": [ { "slug": "license-required-at-one-thousand", "locale": "en", "title": "When Arizona Requires a Contractor License", "statement": "One thousand dollars, labor and materials together. At that line Arizona requires a contractor license, and any job that needs a building permit requires one whatever the amount. Below the line sits a narrow exemption for casual, minor work, and anyone advertising under it must say plainly that they are not a licensed contractor.", "factType": "public_rule", "source": { "label": "A.R.S. § 32-1121", "url": "https://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/01121.htm" }, "authority": 1, "authorityName": "primary authority", "topic": "Licensing", "observedOn": "2026-08-11", "recheckBy": "2027-02-11", "plain": "One thousand dollars, labor and materials together, is the line where Arizona requires a contractor license. The permit rule sits on top of it: when the job needs a building permit, a license is required regardless of how small the job is.\n\nThe exemption below the line is narrow: casual or minor work only, and anyone advertising under it has to say plainly that they are not a licensed contractor.", "limits": "The statute carries definitions and edge conditions this page does not - read section 32-1121 itself at the source link. Whether a particular job crossed the line is a question about that job's facts.", "faq": [ { "question": "The job is under a thousand dollars - so anyone can do it?", "answer": "Only inside the statute's narrow exemption for casual, minor work, and never when the job needs a building permit. The advertiser must also say plainly that they are not a licensed contractor." }, { "question": "Does the thousand-dollar line include materials?", "answer": "The statute counts labor and materials together toward the line." } ], "publicationStatus": "published", "updatedOn": "2026-08-11", "path": "/learn/facts/license-required-at-one-thousand" }, { "slug": "roc-complaint-window-two-years", "locale": "en", "title": "The Window for a Complaint to the Registrar", "statement": "Two years is the window. A workmanship or abandonment complaint has to reach the Registrar within two years of the act or omission, and for a brand new home the clock starts earlier than most people expect: at close of escrow or the day someone actually moves in, whichever comes first.", "factType": "public_rule", "source": { "label": "A.R.S. § 32-1162", "url": "https://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/01162.htm" }, "authority": 1, "authorityName": "primary authority", "topic": "The Registrar's process", "observedOn": "2026-08-11", "recheckBy": "2027-02-11", "plain": "Count from the act or omission - the day the bad work happened, or the day something that should have been done was not - not from the day you discovered it. Two years from that day is the statute's own window for a workmanship or abandonment complaint to the Registrar.\n\nNew builds run on a different clock. For a brand new home the statute starts counting at close of escrow or actual occupancy, whichever comes first - so a house that sat sold but empty can have less of the window left than its owner assumes.", "limits": "This window belongs to the Registrar's own complaint process. Courts run on their own clocks, set by other statutes, and nothing here describes those.\n\nThe statute carries more detail than one page can - read it at the source link, and for your own situation, talk to a licensed Arizona attorney.", "faq": [ { "question": "Does the two-year clock start when I notice the problem?", "answer": "The statute counts from the act or omission itself, not from discovery. The day the work was done wrong, or the day something owed was not done, is the day the statute names." }, { "question": "What about a brand new house?", "answer": "For new construction the statute starts the clock at close of escrow or the day someone actually moves in, whichever comes first - even when a defect shows up later." } ], "publicationStatus": "published", "updatedOn": "2026-08-11", "path": "/learn/facts/roc-complaint-window-two-years" }, { "slug": "roc-discipline-not-money", "locale": "en", "title": "What a Registrar Complaint Can and Cannot Order", "statement": "The Registrar investigates and disciplines; it does not write checks. A complaint can end in a corrective work order and a license suspended or revoked, and the money, when any comes back, travels a different road entirely: the Recovery Fund, the surety behind the license, or a court.", "factType": "official_process", "source": { "label": "Arizona ROC, the complaint process", "url": "https://roc.az.gov/complaint-process-investigation" }, "authority": 2, "authorityName": "official interpretation", "topic": "The Registrar's process", "observedOn": "2026-08-11", "recheckBy": "2026-11-11", "plain": "A complaint to the Registrar asks the licensing agency to examine licensed work against the State's standards. What the agency can reach is the license: it can order corrective work, and it can suspend or revoke. What it cannot do is write you a check - it is not a court, and it does not award money.\n\nThat is not a dead end. The roads to money run beside the complaint, not through it: the Recovery Fund for qualifying owner-occupants, the surety bond behind every license, and the courts.", "limits": "This describes the Registrar's own pages about its process. It does not say what will happen with any particular complaint, and it is not advice about whether to file one.", "faq": [ { "question": "Can the Registrar make the contractor fix the work?", "answer": "Its own pages describe a corrective work order as one outcome an investigation can reach, and discipline on the license where the standards were not met." }, { "question": "Should I skip the complaint and go straight to court?", "answer": "They are different tools: the complaint asks the licensing agency to act on the license, and a court can award money. Many owners use more than one road. Which fits your situation is a question for a licensed Arizona attorney." } ], "publicationStatus": "published", "updatedOn": "2026-08-11", "path": "/learn/facts/roc-discipline-not-money" }, { "slug": "recovery-fund-caps", "locale": "en", "title": "The Recovery Fund's Limits", "statement": "Thirty thousand dollars per residence, two hundred thousand in total against any single license: those are the Recovery Fund's outer walls. Inside them, the fund pays actual damages to owner occupants of a primary residence, for work done under a licensed residential contractor and for nothing else.", "factType": "official_process", "source": { "label": "Arizona ROC, the Recovery Fund", "url": "https://roc.az.gov/recovery-fund" }, "authority": 2, "authorityName": "official interpretation", "topic": "Getting money back", "observedOn": "2026-08-11", "recheckBy": "2026-11-11", "publicationStatus": "published", "updatedOn": "2026-08-11", "path": "/learn/facts/recovery-fund-caps" }, { "slug": "recovery-fund-two-routes", "locale": "en", "title": "Two Routes into the Recovery Fund", "statement": "There are two roads into the fund, and only one of them runs through a courtroom. A homeowner can pursue an administrative filing inside the Registrar's own process, or take a court judgment and then put the Registrar on notice. Nothing requires suing anyone first.", "factType": "official_process", "source": { "label": "Arizona ROC, the Recovery Fund", "url": "https://roc.az.gov/recovery-fund" }, "authority": 2, "authorityName": "official interpretation", "topic": "Getting money back", "observedOn": "2026-08-11", "recheckBy": "2026-11-11", "publicationStatus": "published", "updatedOn": "2026-08-11", "path": "/learn/facts/recovery-fund-two-routes" }, { "slug": "small-claims-limit-five-thousand", "locale": "en", "title": "Arizona's Small Claims Limit", "statement": "Five thousand dollars is Arizona's small claims ceiling now, heard without lawyers and without appeal; the justice courts' ordinary civil bench goes to ten thousand. Much of the internet still repeats the old three thousand five hundred figure. The statute moved on.", "factType": "public_rule", "source": { "label": "A.R.S. § 22-503", "url": "https://www.azleg.gov/ars/22/00503.htm" }, "authority": 1, "authorityName": "primary authority", "topic": "The courts", "observedOn": "2026-08-11", "recheckBy": "2027-02-11", "publicationStatus": "published", "updatedOn": "2026-08-11", "path": "/learn/facts/small-claims-limit-five-thousand" }, { "slug": "cannot-sue-without-a-license", "locale": "en", "title": "A Contractor Without a License Cannot Sue for Payment", "statement": "A contractor who worked without the license the job required cannot use Arizona's courts to collect for it. The statute is blunt about the timing: no license when the contract was signed and while the work was done means no lawsuit for the money.", "factType": "public_rule", "source": { "label": "A.R.S. § 32-1153", "url": "https://www.azleg.gov/ars/32/01153.htm" }, "authority": 1, "authorityName": "primary authority", "topic": "Licensing", "observedOn": "2026-08-11", "recheckBy": "2027-02-11", "plain": "Arizona's courts are closed to a contractor who worked without the license the job required: the statute makes holding the license - when the contract was signed and while the work was done - a condition of suing for payment.\n\nFor a homeowner, this is one of the reasons checking the license before money moves matters so much: it tells you which rules governed the person you hired before anything went wrong.", "limits": "This is about the contractor's ability to sue for payment, and nothing else. Applying it to a real situation is work for a licensed Arizona attorney.", "faq": [ { "question": "Does this mean I never have to pay an unlicensed contractor?", "answer": "The statute closes the courthouse door on a suit for payment by a contractor who lacked the required license. It does not settle every question between the two of you - for your own situation, talk to a licensed Arizona attorney." } ], "publicationStatus": "published", "updatedOn": "2026-08-11", "path": "/learn/facts/cannot-sue-without-a-license" } ] }