What Your Contractor's Contract Should Say in Pennsylvania

A contract is the least exciting part of any project, which is exactly why people skim it. Pennsylvania doesn’t let contractors keep it vague, though. The Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, HICPA for short, sets out what a home improvement contract has to say, and a contract missing the required cancellation notice may be voidable by you. Knowing the list before you sign is the cheapest protection you’ll get on the whole job.

When the Rules Apply

HICPA covers work on a private home or the land next to it when the total price is over $500. That includes a single-family house, a building with two units or fewer, or a single condo or co-op unit. New home construction and commercial property are outside it (AG on HICPA). For a job over $500, the contract must be written, legible and signed by both you and the contractor, and you get a copy at no charge (AG on HICPA, PHFA HICPA info sheet).

One rule comes before everything else. A contractor may not demand or take any payment before the contract is signed (AG contractor brochure). If someone wants a check to “hold your spot on the schedule” before there’s paper, that’s not how it works here.

What the Contract Has to Include

The Attorney General’s office and the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency both publish the list. Pulled together, a HICPA contract should have:

• The contractor’s registration number, written as “PA” plus the number, where you can read it clearly (PHFA).
• Names, addresses and phone numbers of the contractor and any subcontractors they know about. A post office box alone doesn’t count as an address (PHFA).
• The date of the transaction (PHFA).
• Approximate start and completion dates (AG contractor brochure).
• A description of the work and the materials, with specifications that can’t change without a written change order signed by you and the contractor (PHFA).
• The total price and the payment schedule (AG contractor brochure).
• Insurance information. A self-insured contractor has to say so in the contract (AG contractor brochure, PHFA).
• Whether a permit is needed and who gets it (PHFA).
• The Bureau of Consumer Protection’s number, 1-888-520-6680 (PHFA).
• A notice of your right to rescind (AG contractor brochure).
• Signatures from both of you (AG contractor brochure).

The registration number shows up on more than the contract. Contractors have to put it on their ads, estimates and proposals too (AG on HICPA). If the estimate doesn’t have it, look the business up at hicsearch.attorneygeneral.gov before you go any further (PA Attorney General).

Your Three Days to Change Your Mind

You can cancel a home improvement contract without penalty within three business days of signing it. That holds wherever you signed, whether at your kitchen table or in a showroom. Emergency work is the exception (AG contractor brochure, PHFA).

It’s the contractor’s job to give you the written notice of cancellation, and the Attorney General’s office says it has to be “exactly as written in the law.” If that notice is missing, the whole contract “may be voidable even after the three days has passed” (AG on HICPA). So look for it before you sign. Three business days isn’t much, and it’s meant for the evening after a salesman leaves, when you sit down and actually read what you agreed to.

Deposits

Pennsylvania limits deposits on larger jobs. The Attorney General’s office describes a down payment of one-third of the total price, or one-third plus the cost of special-order materials, as generally appropriate (AG contractor FAQ). Published summaries of the law don’t agree on the dollar amount where the cap kicks in, so I’m not going to give you one. If you’re being asked for more than a third up front, ask the contractor to show you in writing what the extra is for, and call the Bureau of Consumer Protection if the answer doesn’t sit right.

Special-order materials are the usual reason a deposit runs higher, like custom windows or a cabinet order. Misrepresenting something as special order, or its cost, is one of the practices the law prohibits (AG contractor brochure). A real special order has a supplier, a product and a price you can see.

Time and Materials, and Arbitration Clauses

Not every job has a fixed price. Since a 2014 amendment, contractors can offer time-and-materials contracts, but they have to tell you in writing that the cost won’t run more than 10% over the initial estimate you agreed to. Anything beyond that needs a written change order you sign (AG on HICPA). Old houses are where this comes up, because nobody knows what’s behind the plaster until it’s open.

If your contract sends disputes to arbitration, PHFA’s summary says the clause has to be in capital letters, in 12-point bold type, on its own page, or a court may void it (PHFA). Read that page slowly. It decides where any argument ends up.

What I’d Add That the Law Doesn’t Require

The legal list is the minimum. These are the plain additions I’d ask for on any job worth signing a contract over:

1. Who hauls the debris and where the dumpster goes. On a rowhome with an alley that won’t take a roll-off, that’s a real conversation.
2. Daily start and stop times, and whether anyone works weekends.
3. How the house gets protected. Floors, landscaping, the neighbor’s side of a shared wall.
4. What happens if they find something, like rot or old wiring, and how it gets priced before it gets fixed.
5. The warranty in writing, with what it covers and for how long. A “lifetime” warranty with no terms attached isn’t a warranty.
6. Final payment tied to finished work, including the final inspection when there’s a permit.

None of this is hard to put on paper. A contractor who has done a few hundred jobs has a contract that already covers most of it, and the rest takes one more line. If they push back on writing down what they’ve already told you, believe the pushback over the pitch.