Contractor Stopped Responding? What to Do in Oregon

If your contractor has stopped answering calls or texts mid-project, the short version is: document everything, send the Oregon CCB's required Pre-Complaint Notice by certified mail, then file a CCB complaint if 30 days pass with no response. The CCB can mediate and, if the contractor is licensed, you may be able to reach their bond — but only after you go through this process.

First, don't panic and don't assume the worst

Contractors go quiet for a lot of reasons, and not all of them mean you've been abandoned — a family emergency, an equipment problem, a scheduling conflict, or a permit delay they haven't told you about. Give it a reasonable window (several days to a week, depending on how the relationship has gone so far) and try more than one way to reach them: call, text, and email, so you have a written trail either way. If a week or more goes by with no response and no explanation, it's time to move from "waiting" to "documenting."

Document what you have

Before you do anything formal, pull together:

• The written contract, if you have one, including the scope of work and payment schedule.
• Every payment you've made, with dates and amounts.
• Photos of the current state of the job.
• A timeline of your attempts to contact the contractor — dates, method, and what was said (or not said).
• The contractor's CCB license number, if you have it. If you don't, look them up at search.ccb.state.or.us using the business name or phone number.

This is the same information you'll need whether you end up filing a CCB complaint, going to small claims court, or just negotiating a resolution once the contractor resurfaces.

Send the required Pre-Complaint Notice

Before the CCB will take a complaint, Oregon requires you to send the contractor a Pre-Complaint Notice by certified mail to the address the contractor has on file with the board, and you have to wait at least 30 days after sending it before you can file. This step exists to give the contractor a real chance to respond and fix the problem before it becomes a formal case, and it's not optional — the CCB's consumer protection page describes it as a required step in the process. If the notice comes back undelivered, or the contractor refuses to accept it, you can still move forward and file your complaint 30 days after you mailed it.

File the CCB complaint, and mind the deadline

Once the 30-day notice period has passed, you can file a formal complaint with the Construction Contractors Board. There's a real time limit: for a residential structure, the CCB has to receive the complaint within one year from the date the structure was first occupied, or within two years of substantial completion of the work, whichever comes first. Don't wait to see if the contractor "comes back around" — if you're past a reasonable point of trying to reach them, start the clock on the formal process rather than letting the deadline slip.

There's a modest statutory processing fee once the complaint is accepted. From there, the case is typically assigned to a dispute analyst who confirms the CCB has jurisdiction, and most cases go to mediation, where CCB staff help both sides try to reach a settlement without going to court.

What mediation can and can't do

Mediation is voluntary, and it works often enough to be worth trying — a meaningful share of disputes resolve there without anyone going to court. But the CCB can't force a contractor to pay you directly. If mediation doesn't produce a settlement, your next step is generally to pursue the matter in court, and a court judgment or arbitration award is typically what's needed to actually access the contractor's bond.

Bond claim basics

A CCB-licensed contractor carries a surety bond, but that bond isn't something you can claim against just by filing a complaint. In practice, reaching the bond usually requires the CCB process to run its course, or a court judgment or arbitration award establishing what the contractor owes you. The bond amount is also limited — it's not unlimited insurance against every possible loss, so understand it as one avenue for partial recovery, not a guarantee you'll be made whole.

If the contractor isn't licensed

If you discover through your search that the contractor was never CCB licensed, the bond and CCB mediation protections generally aren't available to you the same way. Your practical options shift toward small claims court (for smaller amounts) or a private attorney. This is also exactly why checking a license before you hire matters — it's much easier to verify a contractor up front than to recover money after the fact from someone who was never licensed in the first place.