The State of Alabama enacted the Home Repair Fraud Statute in 2006, in an effort to deter owners from having contractors take advantage of them when having work done to their home.  The Home Repair Fraud Statute is a criminal statute that carries a penalty for a first offense of a Class A misdemeanor and restitution and for a second or subsequent offense a class C felony and restitution.

You can file criminal charges against your contractor for Home Repair Fraud if you have experienced one of the following situations:

(1) If you enters into an agreement with a person for home repair, and the offending person knowingly engages in any one or more of the following deceptive activities:

a. Misrepresents a material fact relating to the terms of the agreement, misrepresents or conceals a preexisting condition with the property involved, or the creation or confirmation of another’s impression which is false and which the offending person does not believe to be true, or promises performance which the offending person does not intend to perform or knows will not be performed.

b. Use of any deception or false promises in order to induce, encourage, or solicit a person to enter into an agreement to perform work on a home.

c. The contractor conceals their real name or the name of his or her business or business address or provides a false name.

d. Use of deception, coercion, or force to obtain a person’s consent to change the terms of the original agreement.

(2) A contractor damages your property in an attempt to get hired to perform the work to fix the damage

(3) A contractor instructs the homeowner that he is affiliated with the government, a governmental unit or a public utility, with the purpose to persuade the homeowner to into a contract with the contractor to allow them to perform work on the home.

To file a claim for Home Repair Fraud, you need to call your local Police Department and file a police report for Home Repair Fraud.  Make sure you provide the Police Department with the name of the statute and the code section of the statute.  The Alabama Code Section for the Home Repair Fraud Statute is 13A-9-110 thru 115.