Voters in St. Johnsbury, Concord and Kirby: Please join me Saturday, March 16, 8:00 AM, at Kitchen Counter Cafe, Railroad St., St. J., for coffee and conversation.
Caledonian-Record readers may have noticed a front page article on March 4 about another case of home improvement fraud (https://caledonianrecord-vt.newsmemory.com?selDate=20240304&goTo=A01&artid=3&edi[...]ord).
A St. Johnsbury homeowner hired a contractor to fix his roof and paid $10,500 downpayment. The contractor started the job but never finished. A month went by with the roof partially done, and the contractor stopped responding to the owner. According to the article, it cost the owner $29,000 more to finish the job "under emergency conditions."
It may surprise readers — or not — to know we have no contractor licensing in Vermont.
I introduced a bill in 2021 to establish a builder registry — no credentials or testing requirements — as recommended by a "sunrise" report by the Office of Professional Regulation (Secretary of State). The bill passed House and Senate by early 2022, and Governor Scott vetoed it, claiming it would burden small contractors.
However the Senate Natural Resources & Energy Committee picked up the bill and added it to a housing bill they were working on. They increased the project cost threshold requiring registration from $3,500 to $10,000, but otherwise retained all the language from the vetoed bill. Fortunately for Vermont consumers, the Governor signed that bill (S.226/Act 182 of 2022).
The focus is consumer protection. Contractors must register with OPR, have liability insurance, give customers written contracts, pay a modest fee, and generally follow the law. Although it's not full licensing, it's a small but important step. After a phase-in period, registration is mandatory as of April 1, 2024.
OPR's webpage is live now: https://secure.professionals.vermont.gov/prweb/PRServletCustom/app/NGLPGuestUser_/V9csDxL3sX[...]ser.
Unfortunately it's a terrible interface. You can only download a spreadsheet list; search for "residential contractors." If you have some spreadsheet skills, you can search and filter the list. But the registration is lacking important information, such as the contractor's service area and what trade services they provide.
There are also intended to be optional, voluntary certifications, such as safety training, specialty qualifications, or energy efficiency certification. OPR has not set these up yet.
I am currently working on getting improvements made to the registration and setting up voluntary certifications in energy and building codes.
Did you know that we have a mandatory energy code, but do not have a residential building code in Vermont? Working on that too.