How to File a Complaint Against a Contractor in Florida

To file a complaint against a contractor in Florida, submit it to the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), either through the agency’s online complaint portal or by mailing a completed Construction-Related Complaint Package to its Tallahassee headquarters.¹ The DBPR licenses and disciplines construction professionals, so it can fine a contractor, suspend a license, or revoke one outright. What it generally cannot do is write you a check for your losses. Understanding that distinction upfront will shape how you file and what you do alongside the complaint.

Verify the License Before You File

Look up the contractor before you write a word of your complaint. The DBPR runs a free license search where you can pull up any contractor by name, license number, city, or license type, and the results show whether the license is current, expired, or has prior discipline attached to it.² Save the license number and the exact legal business name. You’ll need both on the complaint form.

If it turns out the person was never licensed, you’re still filing with the DBPR, but the consequences and your recovery options differ. That’s covered further down.

What Counts as a Valid Complaint

The DBPR won’t investigate a complaint that’s really just a disagreement over aesthetics or a soured relationship. Your complaint has to be “legally sufficient,” meaning the facts you describe show a specific violation of Florida’s contracting laws.³ The violations that trigger discipline live in Section 489.129 of the Florida Statutes. The ones homeowners run into most often:

Financial mismanagement — taking your money and not paying subcontractors or suppliers (leading to liens on your property), or diverting funds from your job to another one.⁴
Project abandonment — stopping work for 90 consecutive days without just cause or proper notice, after receiving payment beyond the value of work completed.⁵
Gross negligence or incompetence, including unsafe conditions and defective materials.
Fraud or deceit about qualifications, scope, or cost.⁴
Working outside the trade categories the license covers.
Letting an unlicensed person use their license to obtain permits or perform work.

The DBPR’s own complaint package lists these in plainer terms: poor workmanship, refusal to fix problems on a completed job, roof leaks the contractor won’t return to repair, unpaid subcontractors, work dragging on unreasonably long, abandonment, and financial dishonesty.³ If your situation matches any of these categories, you have something the DBPR can work with.

Gather Your Documents First

The strength of your complaint depends on what you can prove on paper. Investigators weren’t at your house. They’ll decide the case from documents, and vague complaints get dismissed at the sufficiency stage. Pull these together before you open the form:

The signed contract, showing scope, price, and timeline. If there’s no written contract, note that — it may itself support the complaint.
Payment records: bank statements, canceled checks, credit card receipts, invoices.
Photos and video of defective or incomplete work, timestamped where possible.
Every email, text, and letter exchanged with the contractor. Admissions and broken promises often live here.
A written timeline from contract signing forward, noting payments, milestones, missed deadlines, unanswered calls, and the day work stopped.
Permit records from your local building department, especially if permits were never pulled or inspections failed.

An independent report from a licensed home inspector or engineer can add weight, particularly for claims about defective materials or code problems. These typically run several hundred dollars.

How to File

Filing Online

The DBPR’s online complaint portal is the faster route. Choose “Construction Industry” from the list of regulated professions, create an account, and follow the guided steps to enter your complaint and upload digital copies of your evidence.¹ You get confirmation the DBPR received the filing.

Filing by Mail

To file by mail, download the Construction-Related Complaint Package from the DBPR website.³ It contains two forms — DBPR 0070 (the Uniform Complaint Form) and DBPR CILB 4355 (the Construction-Related Complaint Addendum). Complete and sign both, and send them together as one packet.

The narrative section of the addendum is where your timeline and description belong. Stick to facts: dates, dollar amounts, what was promised versus what happened. Attach legible copies of everything. Never send originals — the DBPR won’t return them. Mail the packet to:

Department of Business and Professional Regulation
Complaints/Investigations Headquarters
2601 Blair Stone Road
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0782⁶

Questions along the way can go to the DBPR’s Customer Contact Center at (850) 487-1395.

What Happens After You File

Legal Sufficiency Review

The DBPR first decides whether the complaint contains enough facts to suggest a violation actually occurred.⁷ Complaints that don’t clear this bar get dismissed at the door. This is where documentation earns its keep.

Investigation

Once past sufficiency, an investigator is assigned. They may interview witnesses, request more records from you or the contractor, and visit the work site. The contractor gets a copy of the complaint and 20 days to file a written response.⁷ The file stays confidential through this stage.

Probable Cause and Penalties

When the investigation closes, findings go to a probable cause panel of the Construction Industry Licensing Board. The panel must decide within 30 days of receiving the final report, with extensions possible, whether probable cause exists to believe a violation occurred.⁷ The file becomes a public record 10 days after a probable cause finding.

If probable cause is found, a formal administrative complaint issues and the case moves toward a disciplinary proceeding. The board can order:

Administrative fines up to $10,000 per violation
Restitution to the homeowner for harm directly caused by the violation
Probation or a formal reprimand
Required continuing education
Suspension or revocation of the license
Assessment of investigation and prosecution costs⁴

The panel can also issue a letter of guidance instead — a formal warning without the weight of discipline — when conduct was problematic but didn’t cross into a violation.⁷

If the Contractor Was Unlicensed

The same DBPR complaint portal handles unlicensed activity.¹ The consequences for the contractor are steeper: unlicensed contracting is a first-degree misdemeanor on a first offense, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, and a third-degree felony on a second offense, carrying up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The felony penalties also apply to any unlicensed contracting done during a state of emergency declared by the Governor.⁸ Reporting protects other homeowners, but it won’t recover your money — you’ll need civil court for that.

Getting Your Money Back Is a Separate Process

A DBPR complaint is regulatory, not a lawsuit. The board can order restitution as part of a penalty, but that isn’t the same as suing for full damages.⁴ To recover the cost of finishing the job, fixing defective work, or other financial losses, you’ll need civil court. Florida’s county courts handle smaller cases and often work without attorneys. Filing a DBPR complaint and a civil claim are not mutually exclusive, and homeowners serious about resolution generally pursue both.

The Florida Homeowners’ Construction Recovery Fund

Florida runs a fund that compensates homeowners who lost money to a licensed contractor’s financial mismanagement — if the contractor is bankrupt, out of business, or otherwise beyond reach. It’s a last resort. You must have had a signed construction contract with a licensed contractor, suffered damages from financial mismanagement, conducted an asset search, and filed a sworn affidavit confirming it. The DBPR provides sample affidavits, one for claims over $15,000 and another for claims of $15,000 or less.⁹ The exhaustion-of-remedies rule generally means trying the courts first and coming up empty before the fund pays.

Protect Your Property from Liens While You Fight

One trap catches many homeowners mid-dispute: even after you’ve paid the contractor in full, unpaid subcontractors and suppliers can put liens on your home. Florida’s lien law expressly warns owners that they can end up paying twice when a general contractor collects and doesn’t pay the people who actually did the work.¹⁰

Subcontractors who served a Notice to Owner within 45 days of starting their work have preserved their lien rights regardless of what happened between you and the general. The best defense is to request a written lien release from every subcontractor and supplier each time you pay the general.¹⁰ If the contractor has already walked or you’ve terminated, a Notice of Termination of the Notice of Commencement can cut off new lien claims going forward, but there are certification and service requirements, and a misstep can create personal liability.¹¹ Talk to a construction attorney before recording one if liens have been filed or threatened.

1
Department of Business and Professional Regulation. MyFloridaLicense.com – File a Complaint
2
Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation. Licensing Portal – License Search
3
Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Construction-Related Complaint Package
4
Justia Law. Florida Code 489.129 – Disciplinary Proceedings
5
Florida Senate. Florida Code Chapter 489 – Contracting
6
Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Division of Regulation – Contact Information
7
Florida Senate. Florida Code 455.225 – Disciplinary Proceedings
8
Florida Senate. Florida Code 489.127 – Prohibitions; Penalties
9
MyFloridaLicense.com. Florida Homeowners’ Construction Recovery Fund
10
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 713.06 – Liens of Persons Not in Privity with the Owner
11
Justia Law. Florida Code 713.132 – Notice of Termination