Amendment to Home Repair and Remodeling Act

On July 12, 2010 the Illinois General Assembly amended the Home Repair and Remodeling Act (815 ILCS 513/1 et seq.) (the “Act”) to add clarification to a section of the Act which many Illinois courts had previously found ambiguous.  This amendment essentially adopts the holdings of several Illinois appellate court cases which have held that a contractor’s failure to strictly abide by each of the Act’s requirements does not  prevent that contractor from later suing the homeowner for breach of contract or to foreclose its mechanics lien.

Under the recent amendment to section 30 of the Act, homeowners must prove actual damages pursuant to section 10a of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act to recover damages for a contractor’s violation of the Act.  It is now clear: a contractor’s failure to execute a written contract with the homeowner, provide a homeowner a consumer rights brochure, or provide the homeowner with proper notice of contractual provisions requiring arbitration or waiving the homeowner’s right to a jury trial will not invalidate the contractor’s contract with the homeowner or invalidate the contractor’s mechanics lien on the homeowner’s property.

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