Gov. Rod Blagojevich has signed legislation that will help simplify home repair contracts. House Bill 2594 requires home repair contracts to increase consumer awareness of contract clauses that waive the homeowner's right to trial by jury for repair disputes.
"Protecting homebuyers and homeowners improves family and neighborhood stability," said Kevin Jackson, Executive Director, Chicago Rehab Network. "Too many people have been ... left with no options for recourse by home repair contracts they did not fully understand."
HB 2594 will simplify home repair contracts by requiring proof that a homeowner accepts or rejects any section of a contract that requires binding arbitration or waives the homeowner's right to trial by jury. Home repair contracts often contain sections that require a homeowner to waive the right to a trial by jury or to agree that any disputes between the homeowner and the home repair company to be settled through binding arbitration.
Sponsored by Rep. William Delgado and Sen. John Cullerton, HB 2594 is effective Jan. 1, 2006.
"Few things are more frustrating than paying for an inadequate service or product. Finding out you unknowingly signed away your right to legal recourse is one of those things," said Sen. Cullerton. |
