Who to complain to in Maryland
Three separate bodies take complaints about a contractor or an insurer in Maryland, and they do different things. This is which is which, and what each one can reach.
The three routes
Where a complaint goes in Maryland
The licensing body
Contractor licensing
Two bodies, split by new-build vs. improvement. ① Maryland Home Improvement Commission (MHIC), Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, Maryland Department of Labor, home improvement contractors and salespersons. ② Home Builder Registration Unit, Consumer Protection Division, Office of the Attorney General, builders of new homes
File a contractor complaint, MHIC: (FAQ: ) · new home builder:
The state's consumer division
Attorney general
Consumer Protection Division, Office of the Attorney General of Maryland
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, TWO of them. ① MHIC Guaranty Fund, max $30,000 per claimant, or the amount paid to the contractor, whichever is less. ② Home Builder Guaranty Fund, new-home construction, overseen by the AG's Consumer Protection Division
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 Maryland 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.