Pennsylvania Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act: What Residential Contractors Need to Know

Table of Content

• Read this series on the Consumer Sales Protection Act, starting with Part One: Ignore Ohio Consumer Law at Your Own Peril.
• California Construction Contracts Guide & FAQs
• Pennsylvania Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act: What Residential Contractors Need to Know
• Using the New AIA Residential Contracts: Guidance for Contractors & Home Builders
• Visiting Myers Law, LLC
• Call Us to Schedule an Initial Consultation330-673-3444
• What cannot be included?

We invite you to contact us and welcome your calls, letters and electronic mail. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send any confidential information to us until such time as an attorney-client relationship has been established. The supplier procuring an agreement at the consumer’s residence to sell and install new windows in the consumer’s home, and the supplier does not have a permanent place of business from which they sell or display the windows. This could result in the contractor’s certification being revoked or suspended up to 5 years — but that’s not all.

There are additional criminal penalties and prohibited behavior identified in the HICPA. Answers to frequently asked questions can be found on the website of the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. Your contractor should be giving you, in writing, an estimated date by which they plan to have the project completed.

Read this series on the Consumer Sales Protection Act, starting with Part One: Ignore Ohio Consumer Law at Your Own Peril.

The new law is very similar to the CSPA, however, the CSPA was designed for the protection of consumers against unfair practices by suppliers and does not fit well when applied to home construction. No matter how big the construction project is, the HSSA will often apply to home repair, home improvement, and home remodeling projects. It applies to many contracts for goods or services, including construction services, so long as the seller came to the home of a customer to make part of their sales pitch, and the agreement is entered into somewhere other than the seller’s business place.

If the costs of the construction work are going to be 10% higher than the original estimated cost due to additional and unforeseen repairs needed, the contractor must first get written or oral approval from a homeowner before incurring those costs. If your project requires a permit, or your contractor tells you they will get all necessary permits, ask for copies of the permits before you make any substantial payments and before work begins. Permits should be posted at the job site anyways, but if you don’t see it posted, you need to ask about it. Don’t settle for a blank version–-you want a copy of the signed version, signed by you and your contractor.

California Construction Contracts Guide & FAQs

The consumer initiates the contact and the goods or services are needed to meet an immediate personal emergency which may jeopardize the welfare, health, or safety of the consumer, or endanger property which the consumer owns. The supplier making a visit to the consumer’s residence and selling them personal items, such as cookware or power tools. SummaryArticle NameCalifornia Construction Contracts Guide & FAQsDescriptionThis California Construction Contracts page summarizes the terms and clauses every California construction company...

If the license or registration doesn’t match your contractor, you need to address that before the project starts. If your contractor is having someone else pull permits for them, that is a red flag. If they are registered with your city/county, and your city/county is an area that requires a bond, proof of the registration will also mean they likely have the legally required bond. In order to make sure your contractor is official, and can afford to compensate you if they damage your home during the project, you need to make sure they have insurance. While insurance does not cover correcting bad work, it can cover damage done to your home by your contractor. On far too many cases we have handled, contractors had signed up for insurance, just to get the insurance certificate needed to register with the building department, and then fail to pay their premium, resulting in the insurance policy being cancelled.

Pennsylvania Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act: What Residential Contractors Need to Know

If you want your floor boards screwed and glued instead of nailed, put it in writing. If you don’t want builder-grade windows…you get the picture. After the you arrive at your short list, pick a few contractors to meet with, and ask them for an estimate. You may find some of the contractors arrive late, or not at all. Ask them more questions, like where they currently doing work, and make it a point to drive by or visit that project to see how it’s moving along and looking. Make sure you are comfortable with the contractor and feel like they listen and take your concerns seriously.

We often see clients who hired a low-bid contractor and later find out the contractor left out a lot of the work that needed to be done, couldn’t do the work , or wants more and more money to complete the job. While the most expensive estimate may not be the best, in our experience, it is more often true that you get what you pay for. We have seen far too many clients left high and dry (or low and wet with water-filled basements) because their contractor didn’t have enough money to do the work, or used our clients’ money to pay for other projects, like a Ponzi scheme. Many people have heard that they have a three-day right to cancel certain agreements, but most people don’t understand what that really means.

Using the New AIA Residential Contracts: Guidance for Contractors & Home Builders

If you are going to hand over a check or cash, you need proof from your contractor that he or she received it. Request the permit from your contractor and make sure it is posted on site. Make sure the contractor that obtained the permit is the same one that you hired . That said, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing permits will usually be obtained by the subcontractor for that work, because they require a special license. There are at least seven things you need to force your contractor to show you before you allow them to do any work, and well before you pay any down-payment or deposit.

Worse, a contractor can file a foreclosure action against you to force your home to be sold at a sheriff’s auction to satisfy the lien. Even if no action is taken by the contractor, this lien stays on your property for up to six years after it was filed, and can prevent or complicate sales of the property, as well. The HCSSA requires contractors to perform work in accordance with the Home Builder Association’s Minimum Quantifiable Standards. These standards are written by the Ohio Home Builder Association, and include requirements for the grading of yards, limits on flooring height changes, and establishes other tolerance limits for projects.

Depending on the size of your project, you will be working with them a lot, and communicating a lot of information to them. You may not even know that a lien has been filed on your property. You should know, because the contractor is required to serve a copy of the lien on you shortly after it is filed.

So, if you are performing any of the work described above on property deemed a “private residence,” then read on to learn all the essential provisions in your home improvement contracts. This isn’t any exhaustive list of things to ask for or steps to take, and it won’t guarantee that you are 100% protected or safe. It will, as a practical matter, protect you from a lot of different, and very common, problems that arise on home improvement projects. If your contractor is asking you to make any payment, you must be given a receipt.