Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
Whether it’s replacing an aging front porch or putting an addition on a home, many Mainers will face some home improvement project that they can’t manage on their own.
While there are many skilled and trustworthy contractors throughout the state, hundreds of Mainers file complaints about contractors doing unsatisfactory work — or not completing it at all — every year.
The Maine attorney general’s office has received at least 500 complaints of bad contractors each year for the last five years, according to Danna Hayes, a spokesperson for the office.
Contractors failing to complete work is the most common complaint, followed by someone performing inadequate or inferior work, according to Hayes.
Maine doesn’t license or regulate home contractors, which can make holding them accountable when something goes wrong seem complicated, said James McKenna, a volunteer lawyer with Pine Tree Legal Assistance. But, there are ways homeowners can ensure they’re treated fairly.
Before any work is performed, it’s important for both parties to create a clear, complete contract, which is required for any projects that will cost more than $3,000.
The document must include the estimated dates when the work will begin and end, the total cost of the project, and a description of the work and materials that will be used, among other information.
“If the contractor does something or doesn’t do something outlined in that contract, then your legal position is much stronger,” said McKenna, who retired from the Maine attorney general’s office after specializing in consumer law for 33 years.
If the price or scope of the project changes in any way during construction, a written order outlining the tweaks must be signed by the homeowner.
To avoid a situation where a homeowner pays the deposit and the contractor doesn’t show up when expected, McKenna said the contract should have a line emphasizing the importance of the start date.
“If you don’t put ‘time is of the essence,’ then you have to work with the contractor,” McKenna said. “You don’t have the right to immediately cancel the contract unless you’ve made it clear that a certain start date is important.”
If a contractor never arrives and starts the work they’ve been paid to do, then the homeowner can cancel the contract and pursue getting a refund, which may require taking the contractor to court, McKenna said.
Having a clear contract with all the necessary provisions can help a property owner bring an issue to small claims court, where they can seek up to $10,000 in damages.
This is perhaps the more direct way to correct an issue, such as a contractor not finishing a project or using different materials than previously agreed, if a client and contractor aren’t able to solve the issue alone.
”It’s very informal — you can just go by yourself, you don’t need a lawyer,” McKenna said. “You bring your contract, tell the judge your story, and if the contractor doesn’t come, then you get a default judgment.”
Taking legal action could require another contractor to evaluate the work someone did to estimate what a homeowner’s damages are.
For example, if a homeowner paid a contractor $10,000 to renovate a bathroom, but another professional estimates that the quality of the work or materials used are worth only $7,000, the homeowner would be entitled to $3,000 in damages, McKenna said.
Enlisting the opinion of a local code enforcement officer could also strengthen someone’s case if a contractor did sub par work that doesn’t meet local or state code requirements for homes, McKenna said.
A homeowner typically can’t get all their money back on a project that didn’t turn out how they wanted, McKenna said.
“If a contractor did some work and it was good work, they should get paid for that,” McKenna said. “If you go to court asking for damages, what you’re asking the court to order is to put you in the position you should have been in if the contract had been followed.”
If someone wants to avoid court, McKenna said they could try persuading a contractor to redo or fix their previous work, but that could be difficult.
“It’s also hard to go to small claims court and have a judge order a contractor to go back and do the work in the way that the contract required,” McKenna said. “It’s called ‘specific performance,’ but courts are reluctant to order specific performance because it’s very hard to enforce.”
The Maine attorney general’s office also has a mediation program that allows residents to file a complaint about a contractor, and a mediator will contact the contractor or their company. Sometimes, filing a complaint is enough to get a conflict resolved, McKenna said.
“That gets the business’ attention,” McKenna said. “They don’t want to have a bad record with the attorney general’s office.”
To avoid an issue altogether, McKenna recommended thoroughly vetting a potential contractor by asking for recommendations and references, and checking if the Maine attorney general’s office has received any complaints about a potential hire.
Being on-site while workers are there to check in occasionally could also allow a client to catch a potential misunderstanding or honest mistake before it’s completed, McKenna said.