Pennsylvania Unlicensed Contractors, don't do it

I want to keep this blog focused on technology, but sometimes I also have to discuss issues important to people.  As a resident of the Pennsylvania, I recently had an issue with a home improvement contractor leaving a project before it was finished and also doing subpar work.  I am sure you have all heard it before.  "I know this guy who is cheap" or "he is a little down on his luck, but does great work while saving you a bundle."  There are others, that can go on and on.  All I can say is this, if he/she is unlicensed/unregistered with the Pennsylvania Attorney General office, don't do it.  (http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/hic.aspx?id=4313)  Of course the Better Business Bureau can always help also.

Again, don't do it. 

In July of 2009, Pennsylvania politicians signed the Home Improvement Contractor Protection Act (HICPA) into law.  It appears that the initial reaction from contractors was not favorable, but it does do a lot to protect the homeowner/buyer.  Buyers of a product can be picky.  Now I am not a lawyer, but I have been using the Internet to do research with the state and communicating with legal representation about an issue that happened to me.   A contractor, unlicensed and not registered, helped guide me to doing a basement refinishing project.  From the beginning, he started skipping tasks to make the project a success.  After his second payment, he decided that the mess he made at my property was too much for him to resolve and left the job and never returned.  Of course in his words "you ain't gettin' a dime out of me" rings in my head after the local township deemed his work too subpar to allow the work to stand.  You name it and he did it.  Here are a couple of the issues:
No fire block
Not proper head height clearance
Drywall holding pipes up, which caused a leak due to the pressure he applied to the pipe
Faulty wiring not up to code
Never removing trash
Never leveling the floor before the entire project started, (I know)
Never upgrading the electrical service, so it looks like the extensions from "A Christmas Vacation"
....and a partridge in a pear tree.

I believe any resident of Pennsylvania, or any state for that matter, should know some of these facts.

HICPA will make doing business in the state of Pennsylvania harder for contractors with these new limitations and rules, but in the long run, this should also weed out those individuals and business that are giving home improvement contracting a bad name.  Businesses proned to ripping off buyers, the home owners and business owners that hire these contractors, will eventually have to find other business to run to or clean their acts up.  For those contractors that are honest, I understand the pain of changing regulations and hope this law does not interrupt your business too much, but just imagine a world where the buyers do not have to assume you are out to "get them."  Of course this will not stop the never ending buyer changing the project scope in the middle of an improvement.

Some things to know about contractors:
- Unregistered probably means unlicensed, which could also mean uninsured.  This also means probably work that did not obtain the proper permits and inspections. Interesting.  If you hire a contractor that is uninsured, any damage done from faulty work is on you.  If the contractor falls on your property, there is nothing to protect you from paying.  A lawer may be able to expand upon this, but it appears that you may be held as the employer of a worker and be responsible for any damages he calims on your property and not be liable for any damages he caused due to faulty work.  Any work done by the contractor not up to code will be the homeowners responsibility, and most of these fraudulent contractors know this.

- "Side work" does not mean cheaper money wise, but can mean cheaper produst wise.  After 3 contractors came into my property to look at the wiring, lack of fire blocks, subpar material, and heartache, they all felt my pain.  What was explained to me as a deal, was not.  All 3 contractors came in and stated they would have done the work fully licensed and insured for about the same or less than the price quoted to me by the unlicensed contractor. So much for thinking a friend was doing me the right thing.
- HICPA give PA residents rights and ensures all contractors are registered and abiding by these laws.  Remember these laws are supposed to protect the consumer, but I am sure they are also set up to ensure the "Feds" and State are making the most money they can from all of the tax income lost due to unreported work.  The insurance companies probably have a hand too since registration requires the contractors to carry at least $50,000 of propert damage coverage.  HIPCA will track the registered business to determine bankruptcies and conviction in the past, protecting the buyers. 
- What does HICPA do for you? It changes the entire business.  All contracts must abide by the law and include new aspects on all contracts and it also gives the buyer a 72 hour window to cancell any contract without reason.  Contracts must include the following:
     1. Total price of the project which includes limitations on the amount of money the contractor can take in the first payment, which is typically no more than 1/3rd the total cost of the project, minus special order materials.
     2. Estimated start and stop dates, which they will be held liable too unless written otherwise.  The buyer can be compensated for not meeting deadlines.  If you are told it will take 3 weeks, the contractor is required to have this in writting on the contract.
     3. No more P.O. Boxes in the evnt that you have to track them down.
     4. Description or work with a complete material list, that can't be changed unless stated in writting.  No more "bait and switch" of materials, say replacing the cherry wood with MDF "because it paints up nicely."
     5. Any subcontractors that are hired by the contractor, will also need to be registered and listed beforehand.
     6. List their registration numbers.  If they don't have it, don't use them.
     7. Include the "Right of rescission" to cancell if desired.
(source: http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/uploadedFiles/Consumers/HIC/Section%20517.7%20Home%20Improvement%20Contracts.pdf)
A complete "Q and A" can be found here: http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/hic.aspx?id=4339

Here are some other notes.  If you do get swindled, don't worry.  Make sure you track critical information from the contractors, such as license plate numbers, times of work and what was completed, log any conversation.  Use electronic media when you can.  Pictures and other licensed contractors estimates and suggestions are also vital if you have to go to court.  This will all act as a log of events in the event you have to go to court, which is not a big deal.  If the amount of damage is under $8K, it costs about $150 to open a case at a magistrate office where you will evenutally go to court, explained to me as similar to Judge Judy, and state your case.  If it is over $8K, you will need to register with the court of common pleas.  In the event of this, it was recommended to me to get legal representaion.  No matter which course of action, remember to attempt to solve it without the courts before you enter a case.  Remember that the contractor has several reasons to settle a dispute before the IRS, local government license and inspection units, the state governments, and even other contractors and unions finding out about them.  Remember that some of these crimes can also be felonies.  Please cleck with your local government for your laws.

Just remember, not registered, no business.  With no registration, that person/business by law is NOT allowed to offer or perform home improvement services, and carries fines and possibly other legal actions by the state.  Registration is required for all contractors after 7/1/2009 and is valid for 2 years where they will have to renew.

Shop safely and wisely!  On a personal note, if you run into a contractor with the intials "JVW" from North Wales, PA; think twice.  Now that that is off my chest, I feel better and I can get back to my next IT project utilizing transaction replication.

SSMS 2008 Export/Import of Aliases and Registered Servers can fail

Every Microsoft DBA either has to build their support workstations from time-to-time, or perhaps help a new member of a team setup SSMS to support various production servers. In an enterprise environment, being able to migrate over Alias server and registered server lists can save a lot of time with setup. I am surprised at the number of entries on the web that can't understand the need to do this. We manage hundreds of SQL Server instances and alias servers as part of our enterprise management. During a rebuild, I found this issue and I hope to help others with this issue in the future, and save us all some time to do the important stuff.

 

All of this information was collected from various sources on the Internet, but I want to compile it in one place.

 

The alias servers can be imported to a new machine running SSRS2008 (2005) by exporting HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\MSSQLServer\Client\ConnectTo and importing it on the new machine running SSRS. As with everything from Microsoft, they do not recommend this, but it does work. Make sure you backup these entries prior to running them on the new machine in case you have to rollback.

 

The other issue appears straight forward, but exporting registered servers does have some issues.

 

A basic import of the registered servers (and groups) from workstation 1 was performed by opening SSMS and right clicking 'Local Server Groups' --> Tasks --> Export. During this selecting the 'Do not include user names and passwords in the export file' option is selected by default. This REGSERV file can be exported, moved to the second workstation, and Imported in the same way. If you decide to unselect the 'Do not include user names and passwords in the export file' option, you may have issues when importing these entries or when opening SSMS the next time with either of the following errors:

 

IMPORT ERROR:
The operation 'Import' failed. (Microsoft.SqlServer.management.RegisteredServers)
Key not valid for use in specified state. (System.Security)

 

The issue at hand is that data encrypted on one machine can't be decrypted on the other. The "Do not include user names or passwords" omits the encrypted data so the file can be opened on another machine. If you have a list of say 10 registered servers with 9 using Windows Authentication but one using SQL authentication, the import will bail on the entry with the SQL authentication and throw the above error. if you try to open the server it bailed on or if you close and reopen SSMS, the following error will occur. I also saw this as you click on the Registered Server view in some cases.

 

Microsoft .NET Framework
Unhandled exception has occurred in a component in your application. If you Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue.

 

Key not valid for use in specified state.

 

If you select the Continue button, you will not be able to open the registered Server view.

 

To fix this:
The Registered Server entries are stored in the regSrvr.xml file found in the Document and Settings\\Application data\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell directory. Every time registered Servers view is opened, the RegSrvr.xml is checked. If it does not exist, the view will create a new regSrvr.xml, without any entries of course. You can fix this by closing SSMS, deleting (or renaming) the regSrvr.xml file, and reopening SSMS. A new regSrvr.xml will be created.

 

You can go back to the original server and perform the export ensuring the 'Do not include user names and passwords in the export file' option is selected and import it on the other workstation you wish to duplicate the registered Server list to in SSMS. Windows authenticated connections will have to be entered manually during your first connection to them.

 

I hope this helps save you some time setting up SSMS and possibly researching potential issues.

 

Thomas Palmer

Also posted to: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic872254-391-1.aspx

It is about time to Blog

As an IT professional, I have tried to avoid blogging for the longest time.  Well that time has come because I have stolen enough infomration from people about our trade for many years.  It is about time I start returning the favor to others.  I do want to thank all of the authors and sires that have helped me solve many complex issues over the years.  If I could I would thank each and every one of you personally.

My intentions are to use this blog to primarily focus of production DBA jobs and duties, but it will also deviate from this topic when there is other useful information for people.  My hopes are to use the various print and digital media available to me to help others resolve issues and inform them.  Hopefully I can help you in your daily production support tasks.

i will also try to post topics that are useful in my personal life from time-to-time.  The intent is to make people more knowledgable on various topics to protect you and hopefully make your life easier.

Comments are always welcomed!