PA Attorney General Sues Home Improvement Contractor: What the Contracts Allegedly Left Out
Pennsylvania's Attorney General is suing a home improvement contractor over unfinished jobs and contracts missing terms state law requires. The seven contract items the complaint cites, and what to check before you sign for a patio, wall or driveway.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday’s office has sued a home improvement contractor, JC Home & Construction Management, LLC, and its owner, Julian Caldwell, in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. The complaint was filed Nov. 5, 2026, and the office announced it on Nov. 6. It accuses the business of leaving jobs unfinished, doing substandard work, not refunding customers, working while unregistered and using contracts that left out terms state law requires.
The short version
The lawsuit relies on the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act (HICPA) and the state’s consumer protection law. According to the complaint, many of the company’s contracts lacked the contractor’s registration number, start and completion dates, subcontractor details, insurance information, the state’s toll-free number and a notice of the customer’s right to cancel. These are allegations in a lawsuit, not findings by a court. The useful part for anyone planning a patio, wall or driveway is the list itself: every one of those items belongs in your contract before you sign.
What the lawsuit says
The Attorney General’s announcement describes the company as New Jersey-based and says it also used the names JC Home Repair, JC Construction, JC Home Improvement and JC Home and Construction. The complaint walks through six customers’ jobs: five in Montgomery, Philadelphia and Delaware counties and one for a New Jersey resident. Prices it lists include $8,575 for a bathroom renovation and $90,900 for the third of three properties one Montgomery County customer hired the company to work on. The work listed across those three properties included landscaping. Two of the customers were 60 or older.
The complaint says the company’s registration with the Attorney General’s office wasn’t active from 2018 to June 13, 2022, from Aug. 16, 2023 to April 4, 2024, and from Dec. 29, 2024 to June 14, 2025. The office is asking the court to permanently bar Caldwell and the company from doing home improvement work or registering in Pennsylvania, and to order restitution, civil penalties and costs. In the announcement, Sunday says contractors “will be held accountable when they fail to deliver on their promises to consumers.”
What a Pennsylvania home improvement contract must include
HICPA covers most home improvement work over $500 and lists driveways, patios, fences, porches, garages and sheds among the projects it covers. Section 7 of the law sets 13 requirements for the contract. These are the seven the complaint cites:
| HICPA requires | Section | Why it matters on a yard job |
|---|---|---|
| The contractor’s registration number | 517.7(a)(1) | Lets you confirm the registration before work starts |
| The entire agreement, with required notices attached | 517.7(a)(3) | Side promises that aren’t in writing are hard to enforce |
| Approximate start and completion dates | 517.7(a)(6) | Gives you a schedule to hold the contractor to |
| Names, addresses and phone numbers of subcontractors known at signing | 517.7(a)(10) | Excavation, concrete or lighting work may be subbed out |
| An agreement to carry liability insurance (at least $50,000 each for injury and property damage) and the current coverage amount | 517.7(a)(11) | Machines, digging and heavy materials can damage property |
| The state’s toll-free number for checking registration | 517.7(a)(12) | A second way to verify who you’re hiring |
| Notice of your right to cancel within three business days | 517.7(a)(13) and (b) | Time to reread the price and scope after signing |
Two other HICPA rules matter at signing. A contractor can’t demand or take payment before the contract is signed. On contracts over $5,000, the deposit can’t exceed one-third of the price, plus the cost of any special-order materials named in the contract.
How we’d read it as a builder
It’s easy to judge a contract on price and start date alone. This complaint is a reminder that the paperwork is where you’re protected. Look up the registration number on the Attorney General’s contractor search before you sign. The office notes that registration is not an endorsement of a contractor’s honesty or quality of work, so treat it as the minimum check.
On hardscape jobs, the scope line matters as much as the legal items. “Install patio” isn’t a scope. A good one names the square footage, the paver or block, the base depth and stone, the edge restraint and where the water drains. Two quotes can land thousands of dollars apart simply because one includes work the other leaves out, like hauling the dirt away or restoring the yard, as our breakdown of why excavation quotes differ shows. Tie payments to finished stages, like excavation and base, then pavers, then cleanup, rather than to calendar dates.
Watch the subcontractor line too. If someone other than the contractor’s own crew will dig, pour or wire, the contract should say who. Ask whether a permit is needed and who pulls it. For walls, our guide to retaining wall permits covers when a town or an engineer gets involved.
Builder’s note: Ask for the contract a day before you sign it, and read it somewhere other than the kitchen table with the salesperson waiting. Check the seven items in the table above, the deposit and the payment schedule. If something is missing, ask for it in writing. A contractor who balks at putting dates and subcontractors on paper is telling you something. Our guide to hiring a pavers contractor lists the questions to ask before you compare prices.
Sources: PA Office of Attorney General, Attorney General Sunday Sues New Jersey-Based Home Improvement Contractor (Nov. 6, 2026); Commonwealth v. JC Home & Construction Management, LLC, complaint, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas; Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act (as amended); PA Office of Attorney General, Home Improvement
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Written and reviewed by Thayne Muthler, owner of Muthler Landscaping & Construction (PA HIC #PA212584). How we check facts: editorial policy.