What to settle before signing

The contract has to be written, and has to contain specific things

Maryland requires a home improvement contract to be in writing, and requires particular items to appear in it. Among them:

• The contractor's name, address, telephone number and license number.
• The license number of any salesperson who sold the contract.
• The approximate dates when work begins and when it is substantially complete.
• A description of the work and the materials.
• A notice telling you how to reach the Commission that licenses the trade.

A price on headed paper with a signature line is not that contract. If that is what you have been handed, the items above are what to ask for before signing anything.

Two limits on money

No payment at all before the contract is signed. Not a holding deposit, not a materials advance, and not a reduction offered for paying early.

No more than one third of the contract price as a deposit. Past that first third the schedule is a matter of agreement between you and the contractor — but the opening limit is not negotiable downward by them.

Both are easy to check and hard to argue about, which makes them a useful early test of who you are dealing with.

Cancelling, and the clocks that run

Which right applies depends on how the sale happened, not on how you feel about it afterwards.

Sold in your home. If the salesperson came to you, the contract can be canceled before midnight of the fifth business day after the transaction — seven business days if the buyer is at least 65. The seller has to give you a separate notice of cancellation stating that right. If no such notice was handed over, that is itself worth raising.

Secured by a lien on the home. A home improvement contract secured against the residence carries a separate three-business-day right to rescind.

Both clocks start at signing. Neither waits for work to begin, and made-to-order units are frequently ordered inside those windows.

Questions worth asking before the pen comes out

• Insert or full-frame? Stated in the contract, not described in conversation.
• What happens to the interior trim and the exterior capping, and whether putting them back is included.
• What the lead time is, in weeks, and what happens if it slips.
• What the warranty covers — glass, frame, hardware and labor are often four different terms from three different parties, and "lifetime" is a word that needs its subject named.
• Who is doing the work. The firm that signs the contract must hold the license; the crew may work under it.
• What happens if something is found behind a frame. Rot at a sill or a bad header is the one thing nobody can price in advance. Agree how a change gets priced and approved, rather than what it will cost.

If it goes wrong afterwards

Maryland maintains a Guaranty Fund that can reimburse actual loss caused by a licensed contractor — work left incomplete, done incorrectly, or abandoned. It is capped per claimant, capped in aggregate per contractor, and has a filing deadline.

It applies to licensed contractors. That is the practical reason to look the license up before signing rather than after: hiring outside the register puts the job outside the fund at the same time.

Common questions

Is a verbal agreement binding? The requirement here is that the contract be written. A conversation is not the contract, and the items listed above are what the written one has to carry.

Can I be charged for the measurement visit? Ask before booking. Measuring and quoting are frequently part of the sale, but that is a matter for the contractor rather than a rule, and it is better established on the phone.

The salesperson says the price holds only today. Is that normal? Pricing is theirs to set. What is not theirs to set is the cancellation period, which exists regardless of what is said about the offer expiring.

This site does not give legal advice. The points above are the ones that come up most often and are worth checking against your own contract and, where it matters, with someone qualified to read it.