Most advice about contractors is about choosing one. This guide is about the week after it has gone wrong: the job half-finished and the contractor gone quiet, the work done so badly it has to be redone, or a letter announcing that someone has recorded a lien against the house.
For older homeowners and families who have just arranged an accessibility change, such as a walk-in shower, a ramp or a widened doorway, this is more than an inconvenience. The person the work was for may be unable to use the bathroom, get out of the front door, or stay in the house safely until it is fixed. That makes speed matter, but acting fast in the wrong order can make things worse, for example by paying a second contractor before the first one’s position has been dealt with.
If you are still choosing a contractor, start with our guide to paying for home repair and accessibility work in California, which covers checking a licence, the legal limit on the down payment and the warning signs at the door. This guide picks up where that one ends. It is general information, not legal advice.
First: Secure the House, Then the Paperwork
Before anything else, deal with safety. An open wall, a disconnected toilet, exposed wiring or a missing handrail on steps is a hazard for someone with limited mobility. It is reasonable to pay for the minimum work needed to make the home safe, such as capping a pipe or fitting a temporary rail, and to keep the receipt. Take photographs before anyone touches it.
Then gather everything into one folder:
- The written contract, including any change orders. California law requires home improvement contracts above a small threshold to be in writing, and the contract is the starting point for every remedy below.
- Proof of every payment: cancelled cheques, card statements, bank transfers. Cash payments with no receipt are the hardest to prove, which is one reason not to make them.
- Every message with the contractor, including texts. Screenshots with dates are fine.
- Photographs and video of the work as it stands, taken with dates, from several angles.
- The contractor’s licence number and business name exactly as they appear on the contract.
- Any permits, inspection records or notices from the building department.
Write a short, dated timeline while you still remember it: when the job started, what was paid when, when work stopped, and every attempt to reach the contractor.
Look Up the Licence Now, Even If You Checked Before
Go to the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) public licence lookup on the board’s own website and search the licence number from your contract. You are looking for three things:
- Whether the licence is active, and whether it was active when the contract was signed and while the work was done.
- Whether the name matches the business on your contract. A licence belonging to someone else is a serious problem for the contractor and an important fact for you.
- The bond information. California contractors are generally required to maintain a contractor’s bond, and the lookup shows the surety company and bond number. Write them down; you may need them.
The lookup also shows whether the contractor holds workers’ compensation coverage or has declared that they have no employees. If people who worked on your house were hurt, that matters.
Put It in Writing Once, Clearly
Before filing anything, send the contractor one clear written demand, by a method you can prove, such as email plus certified mail. Keep it factual and short:
- the address and the contract date;
- what was agreed and what has not been done, or what was done defectively;
- what you want: completion by a specific date, correction of named defects, or a refund of a stated amount;
- that if you do not hear back by that date you will file a complaint with the CSLB and pursue other remedies.
Avoid threats you do not intend to carry out, and do not let the contractor back in without agreeing in writing what they will do. A written demand gives many disputes a chance to settle, and if it does not, it is evidence that you tried.
The CSLB Complaint
The CSLB accepts complaints from homeowners about licensed contractors, and it also investigates people contracting without a licence. There is no fee to file. Complaints can generally be filed online or on the board’s paper form, with copies of the contract, payments and photographs.
What to expect, in general terms:
- The board may try to resolve the dispute between you and the contractor, including by asking the contractor to return and correct the work.
- For some disputes, the CSLB offers mediation or arbitration programmes. Eligibility depends on the amount in dispute and the type of case, and the board will tell you whether yours qualifies.
- Where it finds violations, the board can take disciplinary action against the licence, such as citations, orders to correct or pay, suspension or revocation.
A CSLB complaint is not a lawsuit and the board is not your lawyer. Its tools are aimed at the licence, and a contractor facing licence consequences often has a strong reason to settle. But if your main goal is getting money back, you will usually also need one of the routes below. There are time limits on how long after the work a complaint can be acted on, so file promptly.
The Contractor’s Bond
The contractor’s bond exists partly to compensate consumers harmed by a licensed contractor’s violations of the contractor licensing law. You make a claim to the surety company named in the CSLB record, not to the board.
Things to know:
- The bond is limited. Its total amount is fixed by state law and is shared among everyone with a claim against that contractor, so it may not cover a large loss, and when several customers have been hurt it may cover only part of each loss.
- Sureties generally want proof: the contract, payments, evidence of the defect or abandonment, and often a judgment, a CSLB decision or an arbitration award.
- Claim early. If the same contractor has left other jobs unfinished, earlier claims may use up the bond.
Contact the surety using the bond number from the licence lookup and ask for its claim procedure in writing.
If the Contractor Was Not Licensed
In California, anyone who does home improvement work above a small dollar threshold is generally required to hold a CSLB licence. The law puts an unlicensed contractor in a weak position: under the Business and Professions Code, an unlicensed contractor generally cannot sue to collect payment for work that required a licence, and a person who used one may in some cases be able to recover what they paid, even for work that was completed.
These rules have conditions and exceptions, and the contractor will argue about them, so this is a point to take to a lawyer or legal aid office if the amount is significant. It is also worth reporting unlicensed contracting to the CSLB even if you do not expect to get your money back, because the same person is probably doing it to someone else.
Mechanics Liens: How You Can Be Asked to Pay Twice
This is the part that surprises homeowners most. In California, the people who supply labour or materials to improve a property, including subcontractors, workers and suppliers who never dealt with you directly, can have a right to record a mechanics lien against the property if they are not paid. That can be true even if you paid your contractor in full, because the contractor may not have passed the money on.
A lien is a claim against the house itself. It can complicate a sale or refinance and, if the claimant follows through within the legal deadlines, can lead to a lawsuit to enforce it.
How it usually shows up:
- A preliminary notice. Subcontractors and suppliers generally send the owner a preliminary notice early in the job, saying they are working on the property and may have lien rights. Keep every one of these. They tell you who else needs to be paid.
- A recorded lien. If someone is not paid, they may record a lien with the county recorder, and you should receive notice of it.
How to protect yourself on the next job, and on the rest of this one:
- Pay against lien releases. California has statutory forms for conditional and unconditional waivers and releases. Before you make a progress payment or the final payment, ask for a conditional release from the contractor and from each subcontractor or supplier who sent a preliminary notice. Once their payment clears, get the unconditional release.
- Pay suppliers directly or by joint cheque where the amount is large and a preliminary notice has been served, if the contract allows.
- Do not make the final payment until you have releases covering everyone who sent a notice.
If a lien has already been recorded, do not ignore it and do not simply pay it without advice. Liens that are not followed by a lawsuit within the statutory period can lose their force, and there is a court procedure to have an invalid or expired lien released. Legal aid offices, a real estate attorney, or the county’s consumer affairs department can help you understand where the lien stands.
Small Claims Court
For many home repair disputes, small claims court is the practical route to a money judgment. You represent yourself, the filing fee is modest, and the process is designed for people without lawyers. Every California superior court has a small claims adviser service that helps people prepare, free of charge.
Things to weigh:
- There is a maximum amount you can claim in small claims, and it is different for individuals and businesses. Check the current limit with the court before filing; if your loss is higher, you can choose to limit your claim to the maximum or file in a higher court.
- Bring the folder: contract, payments, photographs, the timeline, the written demand and any estimates from other contractors for fixing the work.
- A judgment is not payment. If the contractor does not pay, you may need to use the court’s collection procedures, and a judgment can support a bond claim and a CSLB action.
Getting the Job Finished
At some point the house has to be put right, and that usually means a second contractor. A few cautions:
- Document the state of the job fully before anyone new starts, because once the work is corrected, the evidence of the first contractor’s failure is gone.
- Get a written assessment from the new contractor of what was defective or incomplete, with costs. That is evidence of your loss.
- Check the second contractor’s licence in the same way as the first, and use the same written contract, lawful down payment and lien release discipline.
- If a funding programme paid for part of the original job, tell the programme at once; some have procedures for exactly this.
Finding someone willing to take over and finish another contractor’s half-done job, particularly a smaller accessibility job, can be harder than finding someone for new work. Tegula Stone (from the same team as Unified Savers) connects homeowners with independent local specialists for repair and modification work, including bathroom adaptations, ramps and step and path repair. It is a connector, not a contractor: the specialists are independent businesses, the agreement is between you and them, and the licence check, written contract and lien releases described above remain yours to insist on.
When the Homeowner Is Older or Dependent
When the person whose home was damaged is an older adult or a dependent adult, and the contractor took money for work they never intended to do, or pressured the person into paying far more than the work was worth, this may be financial abuse and not just a bad job. That brings in additional protections and additional agencies: Adult Protective Services, local law enforcement and, in many counties, the district attorney’s elder abuse or consumer protection unit. Our guide to Adult Protective Services in California explains how to make a report, and our guide to what kind of lawyer you need can help if the loss is large enough to justify legal help.
The Short Version
Make the house safe and photograph it. Put the contract, payments, messages and a timeline in one folder. Look up the licence and write down the bond details. Send one clear written demand with a deadline. If that fails, file a complaint with the Contractors State License Board, claim against the bond, and consider small claims court for the money. If the contractor was unlicensed, get advice, because the law generally favours you. Keep every preliminary notice, and on every job, pay against conditional and unconditional lien releases so nobody can make you pay twice. Document everything before a second contractor starts.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Contractor, bond and lien rules, dollar thresholds and deadlines are set by California law and change from time to time; confirm the current rules with the Contractors State License Board, the court’s small claims adviser, or a legal aid office before relying on them.