Legal Options Available to Homeowners Who Use an Unlicensed Contractor If a unlicensed contractor does a job for a consumer — be it a remodel or some other improvement– where the costs of the services and the materials exceed the threshold amount (typically $500), the homeowner is not obligated to pay the unlicensed contractor for services and materials rendered. The state licensing board which oversees the building and construction iondustry in your state could bring an action against the unlicensed contractor and impose penalties for working without a required license. → Read More
Suing Your Home Construction Contractor or Builder for Construction Defects A homeowner can file a lawsuit against a home builder or contractor (licensed or not) for a defect in an improvement. The written contract controls the obligations owed to the homeowner by the licensed contractor and vice versa in the absence of conflicting state law. Different claims and causes of action that a homeowner could bring against the contractor depends essentially upon the factual progress of the work of improvement such as delays, defective construction, invalid mechanic’s liens, improper charges, and failure to obtain required permits, inspections and certificates of improvement. → Read More
Builder Warranty Claims for Death, Disappearance or Insolvency of the Builder While a builder’s or contractor’s warranties are designed to protect you, sometimes your builder will die, disappear or will be insolvent (bankrupt or without assets) and you may not be able to recover the money that the law entitles you to. → Read More
New Home Warranties Because most homeowners aren’t in a position and don’t have the knowledge to ensure that every aspect of their new home build is done properly, the obligation falls on the builder to ensure that the property meets basic minimum standards so that it is habitable and reasonably well constructed. As such, most states require some type of new home warranty to be provided. In addition, many builders will provide written warranties as part of construction contracts to inform homeowners of their warranty rights and which may expand upon the protections offered by state law. → Read More
How to Use Credit Reports to Select Tenants You’ve found a seemingly good tenant for your rental, but you want to check their credit report just to make sure. Unfortunately, their score is worryingly low. What should you do now? → Read More
How to Protect Your Lease from Foreclosure If you have rented a home and signed a lease in good faith with a landlord, you are protected under the law in the event that the landlord has financial problems and ends up facing foreclosure. The law ensures that you cannot just be kicked out of your home in the event of foreclosure if you have a lease in place. → Read More
Can a New Owner Increase Your Rent After the Building Owner Dies? If someone acquires, whether by inheritance or purchase, a building with tenants, that person is bound by any existing leases. As a result, the person inheriting the building cannot change any terms or conditions of the lease, including the rent, in the middle of a lease term. → Read More
Remaining Tenant’s Rights When Co-Tenant Breaks Lease A lease is a contract. As a contract, it is enforceable by the parties to the contract. That means that the landlord can enforce the lease against the tenants, or the tenants against the landlord. → Read More
Tenant’s Rights When Lease Falls Through Before Signing Can a landlord change his or her mind after a deposit is paid but before a lease is signed? Security deposit refunds are often a matter of state law or even city ordinances. As such, the rights conferred by security deposits (and rights to recover security deposits) vary greatly all over the United States. Generally, however, if you give a security deposit for an apartment that you don’t ever take possession of or sign a lease for, then you are entitled to have the entire deposit returned. → Read More
Can Extreme Hardship Stop an Eviction? A landlord does NOT need to take the extreme hardship of a tenant into account in filing for eviction; and the courts will also not consider it in determining whether or not (or when) to grant eviction. → Read More
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption