Louisiana Contractor Complaint: Filing, Penalties, and Recovery

A Louisiana contractor complaint is filed with the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors (LSLBC), the agency that regulates construction licensing and investigates violations. Before you spend time on the paperwork, know this: the board can fine, suspend, or revoke a contractor’s license, but it cannot order the contractor to refund your money or finish your project. Fines go to the state. Getting money back is a separate legal path that runs alongside the complaint, and the two have to be handled together.

What the Board Can and Cannot Do

The LSLBC’s statutory job is to protect the public from “the incompetent, inexperienced, unlawful, and fraudulent acts of contractors.”¹ It does that through licensing enforcement. It can revoke or suspend a license, issue cease-and-desist orders, levy fines, and debar contractors from public projects.²

What it cannot do is award you damages, order a refund, or compel the contractor to finish the work. Filing is still worth doing. It creates an official record, it can trigger penalties serious enough to push the contractor toward settling privately, and the resulting disciplinary history becomes part of the public license record. Just don’t file expecting a check.

Does the Board Have Jurisdiction Over Your Project?

The LSLBC regulates licensed work, and Louisiana only requires a state license once a project crosses certain dollar thresholds. Those thresholds, which include both labor and materials, are:

Commercial construction: $50,000 or more
New residential construction: $50,000 or more
Repairs or improvements to an existing home: $7,500 or more
Mold remediation: $7,500 or more
Electrical work: $10,000 or more³

If your project fell below the applicable threshold, the contractor did not need a state license, and the board may not have authority over the dispute. Civil remedies still apply, but the complaint route may not. If your project was above the threshold and the contractor had no license at all, you can still file. Unlicensed work above these amounts is a crime in Louisiana, handled separately below.

Evidence to Gather Before You File

Investigators act on specifics. Pull these materials together before you open the complaint form:

The signed contract, or if there isn’t one, the texts, emails, and estimates that document what was agreed to and for how much
Payment records — cancelled checks, bank statements, credit card receipts, wire confirmations — organized by date
Photographs of the work site, defective work, or abandoned areas, date-stamped where possible
All written communication with the contractor, especially anything showing missed deadlines or non-response
Written estimates or invoices from anyone you brought in to assess or repair the work

You will also need the contractor’s full legal name and license number, which you can confirm through the LSLBC contractor portal.⁴ Add the exact street address of the work, a timeline of key dates, and a focused written description of what went wrong. Investigators respond to concrete statements like “contractor stopped work on June 15 after receiving $28,000 of a $40,000 contract” rather than general complaints about poor service.

How to File

You can submit online through the LSLBC’s complaint portal or mail a printed complaint to 600 North Street, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802.⁵ The portal is faster and lets you upload your documents directly.⁶ Homeowners, other contractors, subcontractors, and employees can all file.⁷

On the form, identify whether the contractor failed to complete the work, performed substandard work, abandoned the project, or committed another violation. Include the last date you had contact with the contractor. Save the case number from your confirmation; you’ll use it for every follow-up.

What Happens After You File

Board staff first review whether the complaint falls within LSLBC jurisdiction and whether the evidence supports going further. If it advances, an investigator may request more records, inspect the site, and interview both sides. The contractor then receives formal written notice of the allegations and can respond in writing or request a hearing. Straightforward matters often resolve through a consent order, which is a negotiated settlement between the board and the contractor. Contested matters go to an administrative hearing before a board panel, and the board issues a written final order that becomes part of the public license record.

Timing is the part most people underestimate. A matter involving site inspection, document review, and a contested hearing can run for months. Keep copies of everything and respond quickly to any request from the investigator; delays on your end extend the process.

Penalties the Board Can Impose

When the board finds a violation, it can fine the contractor up to ten percent of the total contract value for each offense, plus administrative costs and attorney fees.⁸ On a $200,000 contract, that’s a potential $20,000 fine per violation. The board can also suspend or revoke the license; a revoked contractor cannot reapply for three years.²

A contractor facing fines of that size, a revocation, or a permanent public mark on the license record sometimes becomes willing to negotiate a private resolution with the homeowner. That is the practical leverage a complaint gives you.

If the Contractor Was Never Licensed

Contracting above the licensing thresholds without a license is a crime in Louisiana. The baseline offense is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $500 per day of violation, up to three months in prison, or both. If the unlicensed work causes damage exceeding $300, the penalty rises to a fine between $500 and $5,000, imprisonment of six months to five years with or without hard labor, or both.⁹ Criminal prosecution runs through the district attorney in the parish where the violation occurred, not through the LSLBC. You can report unlicensed activity to the board and to local law enforcement.

Deadlines That Can End Your Civil Claim

Louisiana puts a hard outer limit on construction-related lawsuits. Under the five-year peremptive period in R.S. 9:2772, you generally cannot bring a construction defect claim — contract or negligence — more than five years after the owner records acceptance of the work in the mortgage office. If no acceptance is recorded within six months of the owner taking possession, the clock runs from the date of occupancy.¹⁰

There is one narrow extension: damage first appearing during the fifth year gives you one additional year to sue, with an absolute cutoff of six years from the triggering date.¹⁰ Peremption cannot be suspended or interrupted; when the time runs out, the right to sue is extinguished.

Louisiana also has prescriptive periods for breach of contract and related claims that may apply, and the Civil Code was reorganized in 2024 with some of those periods moved or revised. Confirm the current deadlines for your specific type of claim with a Louisiana attorney, especially if you’re close to any cutoff. Filing a board complaint does not pause or extend any of these legal deadlines. If you may want to sue, address the civil timeline first; the board process can take months, and you cannot afford to let a court deadline pass while the investigation plays out.

How to Actually Recover Money

Civil Code Article 2769 is the baseline: a contractor who fails to perform the work, or doesn’t perform it the way and on the schedule agreed to, is liable for the resulting damages. Which forum you use depends on the amount at stake.

City Court and Small Claims

Louisiana’s city courts handle claims up to $5,000 through simplified procedures. You don’t need an attorney, filing fees are modest, and the case moves faster than district court. Bring your contract, payment records, photographs, communication records, and repair estimates, organized chronologically. Three copies of everything is a reasonable rule of thumb: one for the judge, one for the defendant, one for you.

Between $5,000 and $50,000, you can file in city court (where its jurisdictional ceiling allows) or district court. Above $50,000, district court is the only option, and hiring an attorney becomes practically necessary.

Bond Claims

Some Louisiana contractors carry surety bonds, including those in electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and HVAC trades, and contractors who cannot meet the LSLBC’s minimum net worth requirements. If your contractor holds a bond, you may be able to claim against it directly for losses from incomplete or fraudulent work. Check the LSLBC contractor portal for bond information. When a bond is available, it’s usually faster and cheaper than a lawsuit.

Civil Lawsuit

For larger losses, a district court suit can recover the cost of completing or correcting the work, consequential damages such as temporary housing, and in some cases attorney fees if your contract includes a fee-shifting clause. An attorney with Louisiana construction law experience can tell you whether the likely recovery justifies the cost of litigating.

If Your Dispute Involves a Newly Built Home

Louisiana’s New Home Warranty Act sets mandatory warranty coverage on new construction that the builder cannot waive or shorten in the contract. The three tiers, running from the warranty commencement date, are:

One year — any defect from noncompliance with building standards or defects in materials or workmanship
Two years — plumbing, electrical, heating, cooling, and ventilating systems (excluding appliances and fixtures)
Five years — major structural defects¹¹

Fences, landscaping, driveways, walkways, and off-site improvements are excluded unless the parties agree otherwise in writing, and damage from the homeowner’s own negligence, poor maintenance, or unauthorized alterations is excluded.¹¹ To preserve the warranty, you must notify the builder in writing of any defect by registered or certified mail within the applicable period. Failure to give that written notice is the exclusion builders invoke most often to deny claims.

If You Just Signed a Contract and Want Out

The FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives you until midnight of the third business day after signing to cancel a contract of $25 or more that you signed at your home rather than at the contractor’s permanent place of business. Saturday counts as a business day; Sunday and federal holidays do not. The contractor is required to give you a cancellation notice form at signing. To cancel, sign and date it and send it back before the deadline — certified mail with return receipt is safest.¹² The rule does not apply if you initiated the transaction at the contractor’s office and later signed paperwork at home for convenience.

A separate federal protection, the Truth in Lending Act right of rescission, applies if you financed the project using a loan that creates a security interest in your principal dwelling, including situations where a mechanic’s lien could attach as part of the financing. Rescission must be in writing, and the standard window is three business days from the date you received the required disclosures.¹³

1
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Revised Statutes 37:2150 – Purpose; Legislative Intent
2
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 37:2158 – Revocation and Suspension of Licenses; Issuance of Cease and Desist Orders; Debarment; Violations; Penalty; Criminal Penalty
3
State Licensing Board for Contractors. Louisiana Code 37:2150.1 – Definitions
4
Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. Home Page – LSLBC Contractor Portal
5
State of Louisiana – Boards and Commissions. State Licensing Board for Contractors
6
Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. File A New Complaint
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Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors. Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors – File a Complaint
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State Licensing Board for Contractors. Louisiana Code 37:2164 – Violations; Civil Penalty; Jurisdiction
9
State Licensing Board for Contractors. Louisiana Code 37:2163 – Engaging in Business of Contracting Without Authority Prohibited; Penalty
10
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:2772 – Peremptive Period for Actions Involving Deficiencies in the Design, Planning, Supervision, or Construction of Immovables and Improvements
11
Justia Law. Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:3144 – Warranties; Exclusions
12
eCFR. 16 CFR Part 429 – Rule Concerning Cooling-Off Period for Sales Made at Homes or at Certain Other Locations
13
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Regulation Z – 1026.23 Right of Rescission