Massachusetts runs a Home Improvement Contractor Guaranty Fund that pays a homeowner's actual loss up to $25,000, and every item on its eligibility list matters. You need a court judgment or arbitration award you have genuinely tried and failed to collect, the contractor has to have been registered on the day you signed, and the contractor rather than you must have pulled the building permit.
| Service | Typical |
|---|---|
| Auto repair shop labor rateMassachusetts average | $133 per hour |
Ranges last checked September 2026. They come down automatically when they are due to be rechecked.
Every figure above comes from a named source we can link to, with the date we last checked it. We publish ranges rather than single prices because a range is what a provider will actually give you: the same job moves with what is being worked on, the materials, how hard it is to get at and how busy the trade is locally. Treat these as the order of magnitude to expect before you call, not as a quote.
Where a source publishes figures state by state, this page shows the figure for this state rather than a national average. Where no state-level source exists, it shows the national range and the local factors that move a job within it. We do not scale a national number by a multiplier of our own invention.
Every range carries a review date. When that date passes the number comes down until it is rechecked, rather than sitting here undated.
201 CMR 14.21(1)(a) directs payment to a claimant of no more than twenty-five thousand dollars, or the amount necessary to compensate for actual loss, whichever is less. The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation sets out what has to be true first: a contract existed, the contractor was registered when it was signed, the contractor and not the homeowner secured the building permit, the property is a pre-existing one to four family Massachusetts residence that is the owner's primary residence, and there is a judgment or award in the homeowner's favor with all reasonable efforts to collect it exhausted.
The permit condition catches people. A contractor who asks the homeowner to pull the permit, which happens and is sometimes framed as saving time, quietly removes the fund from the picture.
Section 14.21(1)(b) caps the fund at one hundred fifty thousand dollars per twelve-month period in aggregate claims resulting from a single registrant's actions. A contractor with many claimants can exhaust it, which means being early matters.
Section 14.21(9) says an application must reach the Fund Administrator within seven years of the date of the contract. The consumer-facing state page gives both that and seven years from the arbitration award or court judgment. Those are different clocks and both are state sources, so neither is stated here as the rule. The contract date is the earlier and safer assumption, and the office can confirm it.
Massachusetts requires all home improvement contracts over one thousand dollars to be in writing, and caps a deposit at one third of the total contract price or the actual cost of any material or equipment of a special order or custom made nature.
The table above carries the Massachusetts figure for auto repair labor, the one cross-trade rate with a per-state source, and it sits just above the national average. The state also runs an annual vehicle inspection statewide, combining safety with an emissions test for vehicles under fifteen years old carrying onboard diagnostics, at a published fee of thirty-five dollars for most vehicles.
Check the Home Improvement Contractor registration before signing rather than after, because the fund turns on the contractor being registered on the day the contract is signed. It is searchable on the state's contractor hub.
Insist that the contractor pulls the permit, in their own name. It is the condition most easily lost by agreement, and losing it removes the fund.
Get the contract in writing whatever the size, and keep the deposit inside the cap. A contractor asking for half up front on an ordinary job is asking for something the rules do not allow.
A claimant's actual loss up to $25,000, whichever is less, under 201 CMR 14.21(1)(a). It is separately capped at $150,000 per twelve-month period in aggregate claims resulting from a single registrant's actions, so a contractor with many claimants can exhaust it.
A contract existed; the contractor was registered when it was signed; the contractor and not the homeowner secured the building permit; the property is a pre-existing one to four family Massachusetts residence that is the owner's primary residence; and there is a judgment or award in your favor with all reasonable efforts to collect it exhausted.
The sources disagree, so neither is stated here as the rule. The regulation at 14.21(9) runs seven years from the date of the contract. The consumer-facing state page gives both that and seven years from the arbitration award or court judgment. The contract date is the earlier and safer assumption.
Over $1,000, yes. Massachusetts also caps a deposit at one third of the total contract price, or one third plus the actual cost of material or equipment of a special order or custom made nature.
Yes, annually and statewide, combining safety with an emissions test for vehicles with onboard diagnostics less than fifteen years old. The published fee is $35 for most vehicles and $15 for motorcycles.