Home Improvement Fraud
It was supposed to be their 'Forever Home' but it turned into a nightmare. Whether it is an addition that wasn't built to code, hidden fees and excessive billings, bait and switch work, or workmanship issues the field of Home Improvement Fraud offers a heightened amount of protections to homeowners. The most general way of understanding this law is to break it down into Form and Function.
The Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, or HICPA, was passed as a law to combat a terrible practice of contractors making a good sales pitch, collecting a substantial down payment, and not getting the work done in a timely or acceptable manner. The Form portion of the law has a number of requisite sections that must be included in any HICPA contract. Ultimately, this section requires that the scope of work, the price of the work to be done, and the timeframe for the project are all explicitly spelled out and signed. Not having a valid HICPA contract can be quite problematic to contractors that want to get away without delivering on their promises.
The Function portion of the law defines all sorts of fraudulent, and therefore impermissible, activities. False or misleading statements to induce entering into the contract, advanced payments for work that wasn't completed, or altering the agreed-upon work without approval from the homeowner. All of these actions and more constitute HICPA fraud and exposes the contractor to a significant amount of civil liability.
The Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, or HICPA, was passed as a law to combat a terrible practice of contractors making a good sales pitch, collecting a substantial down payment, and not getting the work done in a timely or acceptable manner. The Form portion of the law has a number of requisite sections that must be included in any HICPA contract. Ultimately, this section requires that the scope of work, the price of the work to be done, and the timeframe for the project are all explicitly spelled out and signed. Not having a valid HICPA contract can be quite problematic to contractors that want to get away without delivering on their promises.
The Function portion of the law defines all sorts of fraudulent, and therefore impermissible, activities. False or misleading statements to induce entering into the contract, advanced payments for work that wasn't completed, or altering the agreed-upon work without approval from the homeowner. All of these actions and more constitute HICPA fraud and exposes the contractor to a significant amount of civil liability.