Delaware’s Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Unit developed new regulations establishing clear rules for the state’s Home Improvement Services industry
In 2021 it received about 80 complaints, which grew to 200 in 2022, and in the first 7 months of this year about 120 complaints were received.
The regulations are based on those complaints received by the DOJ according to the head of DOJ’s Consumer Mediation Unit Brian Eng.
"Because this is a major area that we see complaints in, year after year, there was the decision made that this was an area where we could use regulations to better protect consumers," said Eng.
The Consumer Protection Unit has investigated the conduct of home improvement contractors, and identified practices that harm consumers frequently.
Brian Canfield is a Deputy Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Unit.
"These regulations provide transparency to consumers to allow them to make informed decisions when choosing to use a home improvement contractor, and they protect consumers from dishonest home improvement contractors," said Canfield.
The new regulations require home improvement contractors to provide customers with a written contract listing all materials and a completion date. And they cannot characterize a binding contract as an estimate.
Contractors also can’t obtain a certificate of completion from a homeowner before the work is actually completed.
A list of the regulations can be found on the Consumer Protection Unit page of DOJ’s website.
The regulations went into effect on November 1.
