{
  "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.",
  "lawyerNotice": "This page describes public process. It is not legal advice, and it does not say how any situation will come out. For decisions about your own situation, a licensed Arizona attorney is the right reader.",
  "question": {
    "slug": "does-a-registrar-complaint-get-money-back",
    "locale": "en",
    "title": "Does a Complaint to the Registrar Get My Money Back?",
    "answer": "Not by itself. The Registrar investigates and disciplines licenses; it does not write checks. But the complaint is still the gateway, because the Recovery Fund's administrative route reads its outcome, and that fund pays real losses to qualifying owner occupants.",
    "lawyerFlag": true,
    "publicationStatus": "published",
    "updatedOn": "2026-08-11",
    "path": "/learn/questions/does-a-registrar-complaint-get-money-back",
    "sections": [
      {
        "heading": "What the Registrar Can Order",
        "body": "Corrective work, and discipline on the license: suspension or revocation where the State's standards were not met. That discipline is not a consolation outcome; it is what opens the fund's administrative door.",
        "factSlugs": [
          "roc-discipline-not-money"
        ]
      },
      {
        "heading": "Where the Money Actually Lives",
        "body": "Three roads: the Recovery Fund for qualifying owner occupants, the surety behind the license, and the courts. Only one of the fund's two routes runs through a courtroom; the other is an administrative filing inside the Registrar's own process.",
        "factSlugs": [
          "recovery-fund-two-routes",
          "recovery-fund-caps"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "officialLinks": [
      {
        "label": "Arizona ROC, the complaint process",
        "url": "https://roc.az.gov/complaint-process-investigation"
      },
      {
        "label": "The Residential Contractors' Recovery Fund",
        "url": "https://roc.az.gov/recovery-fund"
      }
    ],
    "faq": [
      {
        "question": "Should I skip the complaint and just sue?",
        "answer": "They are different tools, and many owners use more than one. The complaint acts on the license and gates the fund's administrative route; a court can award money. Which fits your situation is a question for a licensed Arizona attorney."
      },
      {
        "question": "How much can the fund pay?",
        "answer": "Thirty thousand dollars per residence, and two hundred thousand in total against any single license: those are the fund's outer walls."
      }
    ]
  },
  "facts": [
    {
      "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-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": "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"
    }
  ]
}