Most Minnesota homeowners who learn the Contractor Recovery Fund exists learn about it after the money is gone — after the deck is half-built, the contractor has stopped answering, and someone at the Department of Labor and Industry mentions there is a fund. The natural assumption is that the fund exists to catch people who got taken by a bad contractor.
It doesn’t. It exists to catch people who got taken by a licensed contractor. Minn. Stat. § 326B.89, subd. 6, requires a verified application showing “that the owner or the lessee has obtained a final judgment in a court of competent jurisdiction against a licensee licensed under section 326B.83,” on grounds that “occurred when the licensee was licensed.” The fund is capitalized by license fees and it pays out on license-holders’ misconduct. If the person who took your deposit never held a license, the fund is not a hard claim — it is not a claim.
That single design decision reorganizes the whole subject. Checking a license before you sign is not diligence hygiene; it is the difference between a statutory backstop worth up to $100,000 and no backstop at all. And it explains why almost every consumer protection in Minn. Stat. ch. 326B — the written-contract mandate, the insurance requirement, the license number on the contract — is written to bind a “licensee” and does nothing to the person who never became one.
There is one statute that runs the other direction, and against an unlicensed contractor it is often the better claim. We get to it below.
Who actually has to be licensed in Minnesota?
Two or more of eight categories of work. One category alone, and the license requirement does not apply.
Minn. Stat. § 326B.802, subd. 11, defines a “residential building contractor” as a person in the business of building residential real estate, or contracting or offering to contract with an owner to build it, “by providing two or more special skills as defined in this section.” Subdivision 12 defines a “residential remodeler” the same way for improving existing residential real estate. Subdivision 16 defines a “specialty contractor” as one “providing only one special skill.”
“Special skill” is a closed list. Section 326B.802, subd. 15, says it “means one of the following eight categories”: excavation; masonry and concrete; carpentry; interior finishing; exterior finishing; drywall and plaster; residential roofing; and general installation specialties. Each category has enumerated contents — carpentry, for example, covers rough framing, finish carpentry, doors/windows/skylights, porches and decks excluding footings, wood foundations, and drywall installation excluding taping and finishing.
Two features of that list matter and neither is obvious.
The categories overlap. Painting appears under interior finishing, under exterior finishing, and again under drywall and plaster. Wallpapering appears under interior finishing and under drywall and plaster. Ornamental guardrail and prefabricated stairs appear under interior finishing and under general installation specialties. Whether a given crew’s scope crosses from one category into two — the line that decides whether a license is required at all — is not always answerable by looking at the trade name on the truck.
“Offering to contract” is enough. The definitions reach a person “in the business of contracting or offering to contract” with an owner. Licensure attaches at the point of the offer, not at the point the work starts.
Separately, § 326B.805, subd. 1, requires anyone meeting the residential building contractor definition to be licensed as one; a residential remodeler to be licensed as a remodeler or building contractor; a residential roofer to be licensed as a roofer, building contractor, or remodeler; and a manufactured home installer to be licensed as such. Subdivision 3 makes it unlawful for anyone required to be licensed to “act or hold themselves out as” one of those “for compensation without a license issued by the commissioner.”
Which exemptions apply — and does the homeowner-builder exemption cover a flip?
There are ten exemptions, and the one homeowners rely on has a trap built into it.
Section 326B.805, subd. 6, provides that the license requirement does not apply to:
- an employee of a licensee performing work for the licensee;
- a material person, manufacturer, or retailer furnishing finished products, materials, or merchandise “who does not install or attach the items”;
- an owner of residential real estate who builds or improves it, if the owner occupies or will occupy it for residential purposes, or will retain ownership for rental purposes on completion;
- an architect or professional engineer engaging in professional practice as defined by § 326.02, subds. 2 and 3;
- a person whose total gross annual receipts for performing specialty skills requiring licensure “do not exceed $15,000”;
- a mechanical contractor;
- a plumber, electrician, or other person otherwise subject to statewide licensing, “when engaged in the activity which is the subject of that licensure”;
- specialty contractors who provide only one special skill as defined in § 326B.802;
- a school district, or a technical college governed under ch. 136F; and
- Habitat for Humanity and Builders Outreach Foundation, and their individual volunteers when engaged in activities on their behalf.
The trap is inside clause (3). The statute continues:
This exemption does not apply to an owner who constructs or improves residential real estate for purposes of resale or speculation. An owner of residential real estate will be presumed to be building or improving for purposes of speculation if the owner constructs or improves more than one property within any 24-month period, unless the properties will be retained by the owner for rental purposes.
Minn. Stat. § 326B.805, subd. 6(3). That is a licensure statute reaching residential flippers by presumption. Two properties in 24 months and the owner-builder exemption is presumptively gone unless the properties are being kept as rentals.
Clause (5) is also not self-executing. To qualify for the $15,000 exemption, “a person must obtain a certificate of exemption from licensure from the commissioner,” issued on an affidavit that the applicant does not expect to exceed $15,000 in gross annual receipts from work requiring licensure that calendar year, renewed by an affidavit that the threshold was not exceeded. If the person crosses $15,000 during a year, the statute says the person “must immediately surrender the certificate of exemption and apply for the appropriate license,” and must stay licensed until gross annual receipts in a calendar year fall back below $15,000. A contractor who tells you they are “under the threshold, so no license needed” should be able to produce a certificate. There is a state-issued piece of paper for that answer.
What is a licensed contractor required to put in writing?
Everything, including the estimate — and the license number has to be on it.
Minn. Stat. § 326B.809 is short and unusually broad in what it captures:
All agreements including proposals, estimates, bids, quotations, contracts, purchase orders, and change orders between a licensee and a customer for the performance of a licensee’s services must be in writing and must contain the following:
(1) a detailed summary of the services to be performed;
(2) a description of the specific materials to be used or a list of standard features to be included; and
(3) the total contract price or a description of the basis on which the price will be calculated.
Change orders are named in the list. The mid-project verbal upcharge is not permitted under this section.
Paragraph (b) adds a pre-contract obligation: “Before entering into an agreement, the licensee shall provide a prospective customer with written performance guidelines for the services to be performed,” and those guidelines “must be included or incorporated by reference in the agreement.” All agreements must be signed and dated by both. Paragraph (c) requires the licensee to give the customer, at no charge, a signed and dated copy at the time of signing — expressly including “agreements, performance guidelines, and mechanic’s lien waivers.”
Section 326B.87 layers on identification requirements. The license number must appear on all building permits and permit applications, on business cards, and on “all contracts to perform work for which a license is required.” Subd. 1. It must appear in “any advertising by that licensee including but not limited to signs, vehicles, business cards, published display ads, flyers, brochures, websites, and Internet ads.” Subd. 2. And subd. 3: “Contracts entered into by a licensee must state that the person is licensed and must state the license number.”
Note who all of that binds. Every one of these duties runs to “a licensee.” A contractor who never got licensed is not violating § 326B.809 by handing you a verbal estimate — the section does not reach them. That is the asymmetry at the center of this subject: the statutory protections attach to the license, so the contractor most likely to cheat you is the one the protective statutes were not drafted to control.
What does the license itself guarantee — a bond?
Insurance for everyone. A bond for roofers and manufactured home installers only.
Minn. Stat. § 326B.86, subd. 2, requires every licensee to have and maintain commercial general liability insurance including premises and operations and products and completed operations coverage, “with limits of at least $100,000 per occurrence, $300,000 aggregate limit for bodily injury, and property damage insurance with limits of at least $25,000 or a policy with a single limit for bodily injury and property damage of $300,000 per occurrence and $300,000 aggregate limits.” The insurer must be licensed in Minnesota, a certificate must stay on file with the commissioner, and on cancellation the insurer must notify the commissioner at the same time it notifies the insured. The commissioner may raise the minimums for a licensee or class of licensees.
Bonds are narrower. Subdivision 1 requires a bond only of licensed manufactured home installers and licensed residential roofers — $15,000 penal sum for a residential roofer, $2,500 for a manufactured home installer. A general residential building contractor is not bonded under this section. If you are relying on “they’re bonded” as your protection on a kitchen remodel, check what the word is doing.
Does the Contractor Recovery Fund cover an unlicensed contractor?
No. Two separate provisions independently exclude it.
Section 326B.89, subd. 6(2), requires the verified application to establish “that the owner or the lessee has obtained a final judgment in a court of competent jurisdiction against a licensee licensed under section 326B.83.” Clause (3) requires that the judgment was obtained on grounds of
fraudulent, deceptive, or dishonest practices, conversion of funds, or failure of performance that arose directly out of a contract directly between the licensee and the homeowner or lessee that was entered into prior to the cause of action and that occurred when the licensee was licensed and performing any of the special skills enumerated under section 326B.802, subdivision 15.
And subdivision 5 closes the same door from the payment side: “The commissioner shall only pay compensation from the fund for a final judgment that is based on a contract directly between the licensee and the homeowner or lessee that was entered into prior to the cause of action and that requires licensure as a residential building contractor or residential remodeler.”
Read that last clause carefully, because it is narrower than the chapter. Section 326B.89 supplies its own definition: “‘Licensee’ means a person licensed as a residential contractor or residential remodeler.” Subd. 1(c). The chapter-wide definition in § 326B.802, subd. 5, is broader — it includes residential roofers and manufactured home installers. Yet subdivision 3 collects the fund fee from “a person who applies for or renews a license under sections 326B.802 to 326B.885,” which is everyone. So roofers pay into a fund whose own definition of “licensee,” and whose payment provision, are both written around building contractors and remodelers. What the legislature did separately provide for that trade is a bond: § 326B.86, subd. 1(b), requires a licensed residential roofer to post one with a penal sum of at least $15,000. If your dispute is with a roofer, ask about the bond before you assume the fund.
How much can the fund actually pay, and what does it refuse to count?
Up to $100,000 per claimant per licensee, $550,000 total per licensee — and never your legal fees.
Section 326B.89, subd. 5, sets both caps in one sentence apiece: the commissioner “shall not pay compensation from the fund to an owner or a lessee in an amount greater than $100,000 per licensee,” and “shall not pay compensation from the fund to owners and lessees in an amount that totals more than $550,000 per licensee.” A contractor who defrauds thirty households does not generate thirty full recoveries. Everyone shares one $550,000 ceiling.
Subdivision 9 adds a timing valve. The commissioner may not pay owners and lessees more than $275,000 per licensee during “Cycle One” of a fiscal year — defined in subd. 1(g) as July 1 through December 31 — nor pay out during Cycle One if doing so would exhaust that licensee’s fund. If Cycle One claims would exceed $275,000 or exhaust the licensee’s fund, the commissioner must hold final determinations until Cycle Two (January 1 through June 30) completes. If claims exhaust a licensee’s fund or the fund as a whole, the commissioner “must prorate the amount available among the owners and lessees,” with notice of proration mailed no later than March 31 of the current fiscal year.
Then there is what the fund declines to count. Subdivision 6 requires documentation of “actual and direct out-of-pocket loss,” and defines it by subtraction:
The owner’s and the lessee’s actual and direct out-of-pocket loss shall not include any attorney fees, litigation costs or fees, interest on the loss, and interest on the final judgment obtained as a result of the loss or any costs not directly related to the value difference between what was contracted for and what was provided.
You must obtain a final judgment before you can apply, you must fund that litigation yourself, and none of what it cost you to get the judgment is compensable. Anything paid in satisfaction of the judgment is applied against the out-of-pocket loss. That arithmetic is worth doing before you sue: on a modest claim, the cost of the judgment can approach what the fund will pay for it.
What does the claim process look like?
Judgment first, then a verified application, then an agency track — with a two-year deadline.
Subdivision 6 lists nine items the verified application must establish, including the specific grounds; the final judgment against a licensee; the qualifying grounds and direct-contract requirement; the documented out-of-pocket loss; that the property is in Minnesota; that the applicant is not the licensee’s spouse or personal representative; the judgment amount, amounts satisfied, and amount owing; “that the owner or lessee has diligently pursued remedies against all the judgment debtors and all other persons liable to the judgment debtor in the contract”; and “that the verified application is being served within two years after the judgment became final.”
The statute defines finality: “A judgment issued by a court is final if all proceedings on the judgment have either been pursued and concluded or been forgone, including all reviews and appeals.” It also confirms that an applicant “may serve a verified application regardless of whether the final judgment has been discharged by a bankruptcy court” — which matters, because a contractor collapsing into bankruptcy is the ordinary path to this fund. Joint tenants and tenants in common count as a single owner. Government agencies, political subdivisions, financial institutions, and entities that purchase, guarantee, or insure real-estate-secured loans are not eligible.
From there, subd. 7 gives the commissioner 120 days after a complete verified application either to enter an agreement resolving it or to issue an order accepting, modifying, or denying it. An owner or lessee has 30 days to serve a written hearing request; without a timely request, the order “shall become a final order of the commissioner that may not be reviewed by any court or agency.” The commissioner “shall not be bound by any prior settlement, compromise, or stipulation between the owner or the lessee and the licensee.”
Subdivision 8 sets the hearing. It is a chapter 14 contested case before an administrative law judge, to be conducted within 45 days of the hearing request absent agreement or a good-cause continuance, with at least 15 days’ notice of time and place. The applicant bears the burden of proving subd. 6, clauses (1) to (8), by substantial evidence. And there is a burden rule that should shape how you litigate the underlying case:
Whenever an applicant’s judgment is by default, stipulation, or consent, or whenever the action against the licensee was defended by a trustee in bankruptcy, the applicant shall have the burden of proving the cause of action for fraudulent, deceptive, or dishonest practices, conversion of funds, or failure of performance. Otherwise, the judgment shall create a rebuttable presumption of the fraudulent, deceptive, or dishonest practices, conversion of funds, or failure of performance. This presumption affects the burden of producing evidence.
A default judgment against a vanished contractor is the easiest judgment to get and the weakest one to bring here. It buys no presumption; you will prove the case again before an ALJ. A judgment entered after adversarial adjudication carries the presumption. When the fund is the realistic source of payment, that changes the calculus on whether to take the quick default.
Two more limits. Subdivision 10 conditions any payment on the owner or lessee executing an assignment of all right, title, and interest in the judgment to the commissioner, who is then subrogated to it. Subdivision 12 provides that nothing obligates the fund for claims by “insurers or sureties under subrogation or similar theories,” or by “owners of residential property where the contracting activity complained of was the result of a contract entered into with a prior owner, unless the claim is brought and judgment is rendered for breach of the statutory warranty set forth in chapter 327A.”
That last clause is the second-buyer rule, and it is why the disclosure in § 326B.875 exists: a licensee selling residential property the licensee built and occupied must, before a binding purchase agreement, give the buyer written disclosure that claims from the licensee’s construction “(1) will not be covered under the statutory warranty established by chapter 327A, and (2) if the licensee has occupied the residential property for one year or more, will not be eligible for reimbursement from the contractor’s recovery fund.” The chapter 327A warranty periods, and how they interact with the construction repose statute, are covered in our guide to Minnesota’s construction repose statute.
Subdivision 13 extends “owner” and “lessee” to condominium and townhome contexts regardless of units per building — apartment owners and lessees under ch. 515, unit owners and lessees in a common interest community under ch. 515B, owners and lessees in pre-June 1, 1994 planned communities or cooperatives that did not elect ch. 515B, and associations or master associations that own or lease common elements. An association with a defective-common-element judgment is a fund claimant.
The contractor was unlicensed. What do I actually have?
More than you’d think — because two statutes are written to reach the unlicensed specifically.
The lien is void. Minn. Stat. § 326B.845, subd. 2: “An unlicensed person who knowingly violates sections 326B.802 to 326B.885 has no right to claim a lien under section 514.01 and the lien is void. Nothing in this section affects the lien rights of material suppliers and licensed contractors to the extent provided by law.” Note the qualifier — “knowingly.” This is not a strict-liability lien bar, and it does nothing to the supplier who delivered the lumber or the licensed sub who framed the addition; their liens survive. Those liens run on their own clocks, addressed in our mechanic’s lien deadlines guide.
The theft-of-proceeds claim reaches them by name. This is the statute the assignment sheets and the internet both get wrong. Section 514.02 is not a lien bar; it is a construction trust-fund statute, and it is drafted to capture people who should have been licensed. Subdivision 1(a) makes proceeds of payments received by a person contributing to an improvement trust funds “for the benefit of those persons who furnished the labor, skill, material, or machinery.” Subdivision 1(b) makes it theft under § 609.52 to fail to use a payment for the labor, skill, material, and machinery contributed, knowing the cost remains unpaid, absent a valid § 514.07 lien waiver or a payment bond in the basic amount of the contract price. And then:
For an improvement to residential real estate made by a person licensed, or who should be licensed, under section 326B.805, a shareholder, officer, director, or agent of a corporation who is responsible for the theft shall be guilty of theft of the proceeds.
Subdivision 1a supplies the civil action, and its remedies are the ones the Recovery Fund refuses to pay: “A person injured by a violation of subdivision 1 may bring a civil action and recover damages, together with costs and disbursements, including costs of investigation and reasonable attorney fees, and receive other relief as determined by the court, including, without limitation, equitable tracing.” It may be brought against the person who committed the theft, and — for residential improvements by a person “licensed, or who should be licensed, under section 326B.805” — against a shareholder, officer, director, or agent of a corporation “who is not responsible for the theft but who knowingly receives proceeds of the payment as salary, dividend, loan repayment, capital distribution, or otherwise.”
Read together, that is a fee-shifting claim, with equitable tracing, that pierces the contractor’s LLC or corporation to reach individuals personally, and that expressly applies to the unlicensed. Against a judgment-proof shell company — the usual defendant here — it is frequently worth more than a fund claim would have been.
Subdivisions 2 and 3 supply the mechanics. Notice of nonpayment “may be given in any reasonable manner,” must be in writing, and must identify the improved real estate and the nonpayment complained of. Subdivision 3 then creates the evidentiary lever: proof that the person failed to pay within 15 days after receiving that notice “will be sufficient to sustain a finding” that the proceeds were used for another purpose with knowledge, unless the person establishes all proceeds were applied to the improvement’s costs, or within 15 days gives a bond or makes a court deposit in an approved amount to hold the owner harmless. Sending that written notice, promptly, is what arms the presumption.
And there is a Consumer Fraud Act overlay. Misrepresenting licensure to induce a contract is conduct that can support a claim under Minnesota’s consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices statutes, discussed in our guide to the Minnesota Consumer Fraud Act.
The permit is the tell
If your contractor asks you to pull the building permit, ask why before you do it.
Minn. Stat. § 326B.85, subd. 1, is categorical: “A political subdivision shall not issue a building permit to an unlicensed person who is required to be licensed under sections 326B.802 to 326B.885.” The same prohibition covers zoning or land use permits issued in lieu of a building permit. And the city does not simply decline — “[t]he political subdivision shall report the person applying for the permit to the commissioner who may bring an action against the person.”
Subdivision 2 adds a reporting duty running the other way: where an application for a building permit “involving the construction of new residential real estate has been received from an unlicensed person,” the political subdivision must send a copy of the application to the department within two business days.
Which produces a clean diagnostic. A licensed contractor pulls the permit and puts the license number on it, because § 326B.87, subd. 1, requires the number on all permits and permit applications. A contractor who cannot pull the permit asks the homeowner to pull it as the owner — and the homeowner, relying on the § 326B.805, subd. 6(3) owner-builder exemption, can. The request is lawful. It is also, very often, the only outward sign that the person about to work on your house could not have gotten the permit in their own name.
Insurance-claim work has its own rules
Storm and hail jobs are separately regulated, and the rules bind roofers and remodelers alike.
Minn. Stat. § 326B.811, subd. 1, gives a homeowner who contracted for goods and services to be paid from property or casualty insurance proceeds the right to cancel “within 72 hours after the insured has been notified by the insurer that the claim has been denied.” Cancellation is by written notice to the contractor at the address stated in the contract; if mailed, it “is effective upon deposit in a mailbox, properly addressed to the contractor and postage prepaid”; and it “need not take a particular form” so long as it indicates in writing the intention not to be bound. Subdivision 2 requires the contractor, before contracting, to furnish a boldface statement of that right in at least ten-point type, plus a detachable duplicate “NOTICE OF CANCELLATION” form, which states that on cancellation “any payments made by you under the contract will be returned within ten business days following receipt by the contractor of your cancellation notice.”
Minn. Stat. § 325E.66, subd. 1, prohibits a residential contractor on insurance-funded work from advertising or promising to pay, directly or indirectly, “all or part of any applicable insurance deductible,” or offering to compensate an insured for allowing an inspection, making a claim, or referring the contractor to others. It also bars providing a repair authorization without “a good faith estimate of the itemized and detailed cost of services and materials,” and bars interpreting policy provisions, advising on coverages or duties, or adjusting the claim on the insured’s behalf unless the contractor is licensed as a public adjuster under ch. 72B. Subdivision 2 supplies a private remedy: “the insured or the applicable insurer may bring an action against the residential contractor in a court of competent jurisdiction for damages sustained by the insured or insurer as a consequence of the residential contractor’s violation.”
The “we’ll cover your deductible” pitch is not a discount. It is a statutory violation with a private cause of action attached.
What to do before you sign
Four things, in order, and the first is the only one that is free.
Verify the license with the Department of Labor and Industry, by number, before you sign. Not the truck, not the business card, not a photo of a certificate. The license status on the day the contract is signed is what § 326B.89, subd. 6(3), asks about.
Insist on the § 326B.809 package. A written agreement with a detailed summary of services, specific materials or standard features, and a total price or stated basis for calculating it; written performance guidelines delivered before signing and incorporated into the agreement; signed and dated by both; and a copy handed to you at signing. A licensee who will not do this is telling you something.
Make sure the license number is on the contract. Section 326B.87, subd. 3, requires the contract to state that the person is licensed and to state the number. It is a five-second check that fixes the single fact the Recovery Fund will later care most about.
Do not agree to pull the permit yourself unless you understand why. And if the answer is anything other than a clean one, stop.
If the project has already gone wrong, the sequencing questions are different: whether to take a default judgment or litigate to a presumption, whether the trust-fund claim under § 514.02 beats a fund application, whether the lien filed against your house is void under § 326B.845, subd. 2, and whether prompt-payment or void-clause provisions change the leverage. Those are covered in our guides to Minnesota’s construction prompt-payment regimes and the clauses ch. 337 voids no matter what you signed.
Madgett Law, LLC
Madgett Law, LLC represents Minnesota homeowners and small businesses in residential construction disputes — claims against licensed and unlicensed contractors, theft-of-proceeds and trust-fund claims under Minn. Stat. § 514.02, mechanic’s lien defense including lien-voiding under § 326B.845, Contractor Recovery Fund applications and contested-case hearings under § 326B.89, consumer fraud claims, and insurance-restoration contract disputes. If a contractor has your deposit and stopped returning calls, the order in which you take the next three steps matters. Call 612-470-6529 or send us a message.
Sources: Minn. Stat. § 326B.802 (2025) — subd. 5 (chapter-wide “licensee” definition, including roofers and manufactured home installers); subd. 9 (“owner”); subd. 11 (residential building contractor; “two or more special skills”; “offering to contract”); subd. 12 (residential remodeler); subd. 13 (residential real estate); subd. 14 (residential roofer); subd. 15 (eight categories of “special skill” and their enumerated contents; painting, wallpapering, and ornamental guardrail/prefabricated stairs each appearing in more than one category); subd. 16 (specialty contractor — only one special skill). Minn. Stat. § 326B.805 (2025) — subd. 1 (who must be licensed as what); subd. 3 (prohibition on acting or holding out for compensation without a license); subd. 6, clauses (1)–(10) (all ten exemptions), including clause (3) (owner-builder exemption; resale/speculation carve-out; presumption of speculation on more than one property in any 24-month period unless retained for rental) and clause (5) ($15,000 gross annual receipts; certificate of exemption; affidavit; immediate surrender on exceeding the threshold). Minn. Stat. § 326B.809 (2025) (written agreement required for proposals, estimates, bids, quotations, contracts, purchase orders and change orders; three required contents; pre-contract written performance guidelines incorporated into the agreement; signed and dated by both; free signed copy at signing, including lien waivers). Minn. Stat. § 326B.811 (2025) — subd. 1 (72-hour right to cancel after notice of insurer’s claim denial; mailed notice effective on deposit; no particular form required); subd. 2 (boldface ten-point statement and detachable NOTICE OF CANCELLATION form; payments returned within ten business days). Minn. Stat. § 326B.845, subd. 2 (2025) (unlicensed person who knowingly violates §§ 326B.802–326B.885 has no right to claim a § 514.01 lien and the lien is void; lien rights of material suppliers and licensed contractors unaffected). Minn. Stat. § 326B.85 (2025) — subd. 1 (political subdivision shall not issue a building permit, or a zoning/land use permit in lieu of one, to an unlicensed person required to be licensed; must report the applicant to the commissioner); subd. 2 (copy of application for new residential real estate from an unlicensed person to the department within two business days). Minn. Stat. § 326B.86 (2025) — subd. 1(a)–(c) (bond required of licensed manufactured home installers and licensed residential roofers only; $15,000 penal sum for a residential roofer, $2,500 for a manufactured home installer); subd. 2 (commercial general liability limits of at least $100,000 per occurrence / $300,000 aggregate for bodily injury and $25,000 property damage, or a $300,000 single limit per occurrence and $300,000 aggregate; certificate on file; cancellation notice to the commissioner). Minn. Stat. § 326B.87 (2025) — subd. 1 (license number on permits, permit applications, business cards, and all contracts for work requiring a license); subd. 2 (advertising); subd. 3 (contract must state that the person is licensed and state the number). Minn. Stat. § 326B.875 (2025) (licensee selling residential property the licensee built and occupied must disclose, before a binding purchase agreement, no ch. 327A statutory warranty and, if occupied one year or more, no recovery fund eligibility). Minn. Stat. § 326B.89 (2025) — subd. 1(c) (section-specific “licensee” definition: residential contractor or residential remodeler); subd. 1(g)–(h) (Cycle One = July 1–December 31; Cycle Two = January 1–June 30); subd. 3 (fund fee scaled to gross annual receipts: $320 under $1,000,000; $420 for $1,000,000 to $5,000,000; $520 over $5,000,000); subd. 5 ($100,000 per claimant per licensee; $550,000 total per licensee; payment only on a final judgment based on a direct contract requiring licensure as a residential building contractor or residential remodeler); subd. 6, clauses (1)–(9) and closing paragraph (verified application contents; final judgment against a licensee licensed under § 326B.83; qualifying grounds occurring when the licensee was licensed; exclusion of attorney fees, litigation costs, and interest from actual and direct out-of-pocket loss; diligent pursuit of all judgment debtors; two years after the judgment became final; definition of finality; bankruptcy discharge no bar; joint tenants/tenants in common as one owner; ineligible entities); subd. 7 (120-day commissioner determination; 30 days to request a hearing; unreviewable final order otherwise; commissioner not bound by prior settlement or stipulation); subd. 8 (ch. 14 contested case; 45 days; 15 days’ notice; substantial-evidence burden on clauses (1)–(8); default, stipulated, consent, or trustee-defended judgments carry no presumption; otherwise rebuttable presumption; judicial review under §§ 14.63–14.69); subd. 9 ($275,000 Cycle One limit per licensee; proration; notice by March 31); subd. 10 (assignment and subrogation as a condition of payment); subd. 12 (no insurer or surety subrogation claims; no claims by owners whose contract was with a prior owner unless judgment for breach of the ch. 327A statutory warranty); subd. 13 (condominium, townhome, and association owners and lessees). Minn. Stat. § 514.02 (2025) — subd. 1(a) (payment proceeds held in trust); subd. 1(b) (theft of proceeds under § 609.52; personal guilt of a responsible shareholder, officer, director, or agent for residential improvements by a person “licensed, or who should be licensed, under section 326B.805”); subd. 1a (civil action; damages, costs and disbursements, costs of investigation and reasonable attorney fees, equitable tracing; action against a shareholder, officer, director, or agent who knowingly receives proceeds though not responsible for the theft); subd. 2 (notice of nonpayment; any reasonable manner; writing identifying the real estate and the nonpayment); subd. 3 (15-day evidentiary presumption and the two ways to rebut it). Minn. Stat. § 325E.66 (2025) — subd. 1(a)(1)–(3) and (c) (prohibited deductible-payment inducements and compensation for inspections, claims, or referrals; good-faith itemized estimate required with a repair authorization; no interpreting policy provisions or adjusting claims without a ch. 72B public adjuster license; covered contractors defined by reference to § 326B.802, subds. 11, 12, 14); subd. 2 (private action by the insured or the insurer). All sections above were checked on revisor.mn.gov for a 2026 amendment banner; none carries one. This article is general legal information about Minnesota law. It is not legal advice, it does not create an attorney–client relationship, and no particular outcome is promised or implied.