Facing a contractor dispute in PA? Everyone knows the feeling, whether it has happened to you personally or to a friend or relative, where a construction project on their home doesn’t go as planned. A person’s home is their castle, and we naturally want everything to be perfect. Most contractors do their jobs well and only want to please their customers and get paid. But sometimes trouble strikes: on occasion, a contractor messes up and doesn’t deliver on his or her promises. That’s where the law can get involved. If you’re facing a contractor dispute in PA, here are answers to common questions you may have, as well as information about pursuing construction litigation!
Do I still have to pay?
The first question homeowners often have amidst a contractor dispute is whether they need to write the final check when they’re unhappy with the work done on their behalf. Ordinarily a contractor will be entitled to some payment when he or she has done some good work. If 80 percent of a project was completed properly, you will have a hard time paying only 50 percent of the agreed upon value.
Naturally issuing that final payment can be a major point of leverage in resolving the situation, and you should use it to your best advantage. But if you end up in court, you may owe for the work which was actually done, less any amounts you are owed to repair the contractor’s faulty work.
What am I owed?
If you have to sue a contractor for breaching a construction contract, what can you expect to win? Generally speaking, any judgment would be limited to the lesser of two different ways to measure your damages:
1) the cost to repair the contractor’s errors, or 
2) the difference in value between what should have been built and what actually was built. That means that, for example, if you hire someone to build a bay window on your home and they mistakenly place it two inches to the left of where it was supposed to be, a court may not measure your loss based on the cost to tear out an otherwise workable window and replace it with one done to spec. It might instead look at how much less the slightly-off-center window is worth than a correct one would have been.
When it comes to proving the amount of damages, you may need evidence in the form of estimates and reports from other contractors showing why the work was done incorrectly, and how much it would cost to repair it. Sometimes a contractor dispute in PA will come down to just how much it ought to cost to fix a project which has gone wrong. Normally a contractor can fix his or her own work much more cheaply than a new person could. However, that doesn’t mean that the contractor is entitled to a discount from what it would cost you to fix his or her mistakes.
Taking a contractor dispute in PA to court
If you go to court, both sides will have to present testimony regarding what went wrong and what that error has cost you. The other side will contend that you are overstating things, and at the same time may countersue you for any unpaid work that was done. It can be a stressful time. Preparing for your day in court and cross-examination of the other side are two of the many reasons why people hire attorneys to help handle these matters.
Even when innocent homeowners go to court and win, they may be surprised to discover that they aren’t really “made whole,” because they still have to account for the costs of legal fees. Win or lose, most lawyers involved in this sort of litigation expect to be paid for their time. One important feature of the American legal system—lawyers call it the “American Rule” to distinguish from rules in other nations—is that each litigant pays his or her own lawyer’s fees absent some specific exception or contractual provision. One such exception is that a homeowner may be entitled to claim legal fees under the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, discussed below. You should not count on being awarded your lawyer’s fees. When deciding whether to pursue a lawsuit, you should factor in the costs as well as the potential benefits.
Check your contract
No matter what type of work you have done on your home, from decks to pools to new kitchen cabinets, you should be aware of your rights in the event of a contractor dispute. Generally speaking, the first thing to try is to alert the contractor to the trouble and let them fix it. At times, however, that won’t work; you might lose faith in a contractor or they just can’t seem to get something right even after repeated attempts. In those situations you may end up in court.
Your rights under any contract for home improvement services will depend on the actual language of the contract that you signed. The contract may address the particular specifications at issue, when and how the contractor is to be paid, or how disputes should be resolved. Your lawyer will need to review the document to advise you of your rights. Pennsylvania’s Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act (HICPA) and Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL) place certain requirements on what must or must not be in a home improvement contract.
Home improvement contracts must strictly adhere to the following specific requirements and include the following information to be valid and enforceable against homeowners:
- Must be in writing, legible and contain the entire agreement between the parties;
- Must be signed by the homeowner or an agent and the contractor or salesperson on behalf of the contractor;
- The home improvement contractor must agree to maintain liability insurance covering personal injury in an amount not less than $50,000 and insurance covering property damage caused by the work of a home improvement contractor in an amount not less than $50,000 and identifies the current amount of insurance coverage maintained at the time of signing the contract;
Additionally, it must include the following items:
- The home improvement contractor’s name, address, telephone number and registration number;
- The names, addresses and telephone numbers of all subcontractors on the project known at the date of signing the contract;
- The date of the transaction;
- The approximate start and completion date of the home improvement project;
- A description of the work to be performed, the materials to be used and a set of specifications that cannot be changed without a written change order signed by the owner and the contractor;
- The total sales price due under the contract or includes a time and materials provision wherein the contractor and owner agree in writing to the performance of the home improvement by the contractor and payment for the home improvement by the owner, based on time and materials (there are further requirements for a time and materials provision);
- Amount of any down payment plus any amount advanced for the purchase of special order materials, listed separately;
- The toll-free number where the homeowner can contact the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General to verify the home improvement contractor’s registration;
- A notice to the homeowner that they may rescind the contract without penalty within three business days of signing the contract.
If the contract fails to comply with HICPA’s requirements, it is invalid and unenforceable against the homeowner. On the other hand, these requirements are the homeowner’s shield to a potentially fraudulent claim by a contractor. But it’s also important to note that a contractor who understands these requirements can ensure his or her contracts are enforceable under HICPA.
Support for a contractor dispute in PA
Ultimately, the question in any lawsuit will be whether you can convince a judge or other fact-finder that the contractor’s work was not done correctly, and you should be awarded a money judgment covering your costs to have it fixed.
Often homeowners and contractors disagree about whether work has in fact been done properly, what repairs might be necessary, and what those repairs would actually cost. In every lawsuit, the fact-finder has to decide which party is right. The key is demonstrating the contractor’s errors by pointing to expert opinions, failed inspections, and photographs of the work itself.
An experienced construction litigation attorney can help you develop a strategy of what evidence to present and how. If you have fallen victim to inadequate construction work, consider consulting an attorney to help protect your rights as you address a contractor dispute in PA.
