State attorney-general restitution · Open

Hawaii Contractors Recovery Fund

Hawaii keeps a Contractors Recovery Fund, paid for by fees collected from every licensed contractor in the state, to compensate people a contractor has left out of pocket. Owners and lessees of private residences, condominiums and cooperative units may be eligible if the contractor they hired was currently and actively licensed when the contract was signed; work contracted with an unlicensed, suspended or inactive contractor is not covered. The Board pays at most $12,500 per contract and at most $25,000 across all claims against the same contractor, pro-rating payments when several claims arrive, so these are estimates rather than promises. It is a fund of last resort: you give the Contractors Licensing Board written notice when you start a court action, obtain a judgment in a Hawaii district or circuit court, show you have tried and failed to collect it, and then move the court for payment. The Board charges nothing for a Recovery Fund claim, and no service needs to be paid to pursue one.