For the last 25 years, the Arizona Registrar of Contractors’ enforcement procedures have been best described as “complainant driven.” That is, the ROC typically deferred to the claimant (usually a homeowner) as to whether a citation should be issued (even if the agency’s own investigation found the complaint to be without merit) as well as whether to request a formal hearing. The ROC was less a regulator and more a referee between the complainant and the contractor.

Under the ROC’s new procedures, instituted in late 2013, citations will not be issued solely at the request of the person filing the complaint. Rather, the ROC will first determine whether the evidence provided by the complainant and gathered by the ROC investigator supports a finding that there has likely been a substantial violation of law by the contractor. This procedure will place the ROC in line with other regulatory agencies both inside and outside Arizona. It will also likely result in fewer citations being issued. The intent of these changes is to allow the ROC to focus its regulatory efforts on “problem contractors” rather than on minor violations of law.

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