People hire contractors to perform certain construction work in their home or residence. Unfortunately, the reality of life is that things can and do go wrong for a variety of reasons which can lead to a lawsuit between the homeowner and the home improvement contractor.

Here, we explore another option for suing a so-called home improvement contractor.

Specifically under General Business Law Section 772 you can sue your home improvement contractor and get $500 PLUS legal fees. The legal fees aspect of this is obviously the most significant but people overlook this benefit because generally if you don’t have a legal fees provision in your contract, you can’t get legal fees if you win.

Section 772 states: “Any owner who is induced to contract for a home improvement, in reliance on false or fraudulent written representations or false written statements, may sue and recover from such contractor a penalty of five hundred dollars plus reasonable attorney’s fees, in addition to any damages sustained by the owner by reason of such statements or representations.”