Home Improvement Guarantee Fund
The Department of Consumer Protection maintains the Home Improvement Guaranty Fund. This pool of money was created and is replenished from annual assessments of registered contractors, and can be used to help satisfy an unpaid judgment to a homeowner. A homeowner may be eligible for up to $15,000 from the Fund if he or she had hired a registered home improvement contractor and the resulting problem meets certain criteria.
Phone: (860) 713-6110
Link to more info on CT Home Improvement Guarantee Fund
More info from the CT Department of consumer protection website.
Tips for Protecting Yourself
The Department of Consumer Protection can not resolve every consumer dispute. We rely on you – the consumer – to help us in our mission. You can do this in a few ways:
- Do Your Homework: Before making a significant purchase or hiring a contractor.
- Research the business you will be dealing with. Ask for references and then contact them. If you are hiring a home improvement or new home construction contractor, visit other job sites they have worked on, if possible.
- Check that your contractor or licensed professional has an active license or registration. Don’t take their word for it. Even if they give you their license or registration number, you should make sure it is active.
- Read your contract before you sign and know your rights. Check out our Consumer Fact Sheet: About Consumer Contracts in Connecticut for things to watch out for in everyday consumer contracts. Our Consumer and Publication pages have additional resources to help you protect yourself.
- Try To Resolve Your Dispute Yourself: Most Connecticut businesses are legitimate companies that want to be satisfied, repeat customers. If you have a problem with a business, call or write them a letter – explain the problem, show them the backup documents if you can, and ask for a fair resolution. If you can help yourself, that gives us more time to go after the companies engaged in patterns of fraud or abuse. Read on for tips and resources to help you resolve your dispute.
- Alert Us To Problems: Although we cannot solve every problem, we do want to hear about them. From your information, we learn when a business has a pattern of acting badly or a new scam is moving into the State. Where we see a pattern of bad conduct, the law provides us with tools to go after the business, or we can alert the public to protect others from being victimized. Click here to see if your complaint is one we have authority to deal with and, if appropriate, to file a complaint.