Who to complain to in Massachusetts
Three separate bodies take complaints about a contractor or an insurer in Massachusetts, and they do different things. This is which is which, and what each one can reach.
The three routes
Where a complaint goes in Massachusetts
The licensing body
Contractor licensing
Two distinct bodies. ① Home Improvement Contractor (HIC) Program, Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (OCABR), a registration, not a license. ② Construction Supervisor License (CSL), Board of Building Regulations and Standards (BBRS), via the Division of Occupational Licensure / Office of Public Safety and Inspections
File a contractor complaint, HIC: · CSL:
The state's consumer division
Attorney general
Consumer Advocacy and Response Division (CARD), Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau, Office of the Attorney General
The insurance regulator
Insurance
Division of Insurance (within OCABR)
File an insurance complaint, (Consumer Complaint portal; or the form emailed to CSSComplaints@mass.gov)
Sourced from each body’s own site.1
What a complaint does
It reviews a license. It does not write you a check.
A regulator looks at conduct and at whether somebody should keep their license. In most states it cannot order a refund, award damages or compel a repair, and the ones that say so say it plainly on their own pages. That makes a complaint worth filing for what it does: a record against the business, and pressure that costs them something, rather than a way of getting paid. Money comes from the routes below.
Money
Is there a fund that pays consumers?
YES, Home Improvement Contractor Guaranty Fund, M.G.L. c. 142A §5; up to $25,000 for an unpaid judgment/arbitration award against a registered contractor. Regulation: 201 CMR 14.00
Next
Before you file
A complaint is read by somebody who has never seen your job, so the order and the dates do most of the work. The evidence checklist is how the file gets built, and a follow-up log is what turns unanswered calls into a record worth attaching.2
Where the money matters more than the record, small claims in Massachusetts is the route that can actually order somebody to pay.
Disclosures
- 1.Satisfy is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. This page lists public bodies that accept consumer complaints and is sourced from each body’s own site. It does not assess any dispute, and it does not say what any body will do with a complaint.
- 2.Which body handles a complaint, what it may require, and what it has power to do are set by each state and change. Agencies reorganize, merge and move their forms. Confirm on the linked page before you rely on anything here, and where a route is missing above it is because we could not confirm it rather than because none exists.