PA Consumers Ripped Off by Home Repair Fraud

Has this happened to you? Share your story.

Source: AARP.org | August 13, 2007

Home improvement is important for preserving the safety and value of a homeowner's property. Improvements can increase a home's value and allow owners to adapt their home to meet their changing needs and age in place.

While most contracted home repairs are completed professionally and satisfactorily, tens of thousands of homeowners annually receive inadequate, unprofessional, or fraudulent home repair work. Home improvement complaints have ranked consistently within the top five of all complaints received by the PA Office of Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Current Pennsylvania laws are generally inadequate to provide sufficient protection to consumers.

Share Your Story

AARP supports the following options to significantly improve consumer protections against home repair fraud in Pennsylvania:

• Enact contractor requirements, including licensing, experience, examinations, and disclosing financial solvency and any previous fraud convictions
• Specify prohibited acts, such as deception, misrepresentation, and failing to perform
• Create monetary reserves such as recovery or guaranty funds to compensate aggrieved consumers
• Establish criminal penalties and civil remedies
• Create a private right of action for consumers

Also, it is important to note that older homeowners are often more vulnerable than younger homeowners because they are more likely to:

• Be home during the day when fraud perpetrators tend to operate; be females living alone; be too trusting of door-to-door salespersons; and be owners with more physical and mental limitations
• Have relatively large amounts of cash on hand or readily accessible in a checking account
• Be less likely than other homeowners to take action against fraudulent home improvement contractors
• Older homeowners tend to be less knowledgeable about their rights as consumers, less suspecting of deceptive sales practices, and more susceptible to fears they will be deemed incompetent to remain in their homes and manage their own affairs should they complain

Share Your Story
Have you ever experienced fraudulent home improvement practices? If so, please share your story with AARP Pennsylvania.

Here are some details you may wish to include in your personal story:

• What type of home repair work was being done?
• What was wrong with the repair work -- incomplete, shoddy, or unprofessional?
• How did you try to resolve the situation?
• Was the contractor helpful in satisfying your complaints? What steps were taken?
• Did you end up losing money? If so, about how much?

Thank you for sharing your personal story of home improvement fraud. We will not share your personal information. If your story is selected for use, only your first name, age, and city or town name will be published.

If you have any questions, please contact Karen Seeber in the Harrisburg office of AARP Pennsylvania via email or toll-free 1-866-389-5654.