Help, but not whole: Inside Florida’s Homeowners' Construction Recovery Fund

FT. MYERS, Fla. (WINK) - When licensed contractors abandon projects or mismanage money, Florida homeowners can lose tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For more than a year, WINK Investigates has been researching what happens next, conducting extensive interviews with homeowners, attorneys, and state experts to understand how Florida’s Homeowners’ Construction Recovery Fund works — and where it falls short.

Our investigation found the fund can provide help, but often only after a long, complex, and emotionally exhausting process. As construction claims surge across Southwest Florida following recent hurricanes, many homeowners are questioning whether the system still fits today's reality.

The Florida Homeowners’ Construction Recovery Fund is a state-run program designed to compensate homeowners who suffer financial losses due to abandonment or financial misconduct by licensed contractors. 

The fund is administered by the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board under the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) and funded by fees paid by licensed contractors when permits are pulled.

The fund only applies after homeowners exhaust all other legal options — including lawsuits, arbitration, or restitution orders — and requires extensive documentation to prove losses.

Over the past year, WINK Investigates has interviewed numerous homeowners: some who decided not to apply, some who received money, and others still stuck in the middle of the process. Across the board, they describe the same reality: mountains of paperwork, long waits, and payouts that rarely cover the full loss.

“It was the biggest nightmare of my life,” said Whitney Christy, who hired a licensed contracting company, JKS Construction, to repair her roof. She said little work was completed before the contractor disappeared. She is out thousands of dollars.

Claims are reviewed by the state construction board, a process that can take months. Homeowners must submit contracts, proof of payments, documentation of damages, court judgments or arbitration awards, and even evidence showing whether a contractor has remaining assets.

“The fact that there is a fund, I think, is really important,” said Roberta Murphy, who lost around $85,000 after her home was left 20% unfinished by Beattie Development. “But the amount of paperwork and the specifics of each piece, it’s a little crazy.”

She eventually received about $26,000 from the fund after what she described as a paperwork-heavy process.

Attorney Rachel Clark knows the system from the inside. While working for the Florida Attorney General’s Office, Clark served as board counsel to the Construction Industry Licensing Board and was legal counsel for the Homeowners’ Construction Recovery Fund before moving into private practice. 

“I know that most states don’t do this,” Clark said. “Florida is one of the few.”

Despite the complexity, Clark says the fund was designed so that most homeowners do not need an attorney. 

Recent legislative changes increased payout caps to better reflect rising construction costs. For contracts signed after July 1, 2024, homeowners can receive up to $100,000 for Division I contractors. Contracts signed before that date remain capped at $50,000.

Clark stresses the fund was never meant to make homeowners whole.

“It will never make someone completely whole for what they’re out,” she said.

Clark describes the recovery fund as a rare consumer protection tool that works when no other options exist — but only if homeowners understand its limits.

"The fund is the absolute last stop," Clark said. 

Construction attorney Mark Wagner with the Law Office of Jursinski & Murph says the recovery fund is seeing a surge in claims, especially in Southwest Florida, following hurricanes and a flood of contractor failures.

“Under Florida law, a project can be considered abandoned if no work has been performed for 90 consecutive days,” Wagner said. “In many cases, it’s far longer than that.”

“Sometimes they have damages of multiple six figures,” Wagner said. “The recovery fund is not going to pay something like that.”

Wagner explained that under Florida law, a project can be considered abandoned if no work has been performed for 90 consecutive days. 

The fund also has strict limits on how much can be paid out per contractor. Once a contractor reaches their lifetime cap, later victims may receive little or nothing, even if their claims are valid.

If the fund runs out of money in a given year, approved claims are not denied, but pushed into the next fiscal year. Homeowners keep their place in line while the fund is replenished through contractor fees — though the wait can stretch months or longer, with no guarantee of full recovery.

“The recovery fund is currently dealing with how to facilitate those claims,” Wagner said, “in light of the extraordinary amount of claims that we’ve been seeing as of late.”

For Mary Ann Fitzgerald, applying meant compiling an inch-and-a-half stack of paperwork — twice — after her first application was lost in the mail. After months of waiting, she received the maximum payout available at the time: $50,000.

She lost nearly $400,000.

“I was really glad that they gave us the money,” Fitzgerald said. “It helped, helped a lot. Not enough, but a lot.”

Roberta Murphy also received money from the fund after her contractor lost his license.

“We were very, very happy with that,” she said. Murphy describes the process as exhausting, calling it a "part-time job."

Not everyone makes it through the process.

Whitney Christy, who says she’s out more than $30,000, is still struggling to complete the application. She’s stuck on the asset-search requirement — a step that asks homeowners to identify whether contractors have hidden money or property.

“I believe they make it convoluted and difficult so that they don’t have to deal with reimbursement,” Christy said.

Other homeowners told WINK Investigates the process was so frustrating that they hired attorneys to complete the application, adding more cost to an already devastating loss. Others decided not to apply at all.

“It almost becomes not worth it,” said Jason Yoraway, whose family ultimately walked away from the process.

WINK Investigates has sent detailed questions to DBPR, including how long homeowners are waiting for decisions and whether reforms are being considered. As of publication, those questions remain unanswered.

Attorneys advise homeowners to start early, document everything, and understand that the recovery fund is a last resort, not a guarantee of full restitution.

For many Florida homeowners, the fund offers something — but after everything they’ve lost, it rarely feels like enough.