Topic : Legality Authentic Home Improvements v. Mayo Facts: Authentic Home Impro
ID: 388880 • Letter: T
Question
Topic : Legality
Authentic Home Improvements v. Mayo
Facts: Authentic Home Improvements (Authentic) performed work on Diane Mayo’s home. Mayo sued for return of the money she paid. In court, Authentic admitted that it had no contractor’s license when it began the work, but had expected to obtain it shortly. The court ordered Authentic to return the money Mayo had paid. Authentic returned to court when it discovered that the license had in fact been issued soon after work began, and thus it should not be obligated to return Mayo’s money but should be paid its full fee for the work completed.
Question: Doesn’t the result in this case amount to a windfall for the homeowner? Why doesn’t the court care about that? Wht would happen if everyone treated their licensing responsibility like Authentic Home Improvement did? Explain.
Explanation / Answer
In this specific condition as the contractor was not having any kind of licence when he began to work, direct liability and negligence is presented. Each and every contractor must have a licence to start working just like a you need a licence to drive. As the specific company was having in expectancy of licence to be approved, does not mean they have right to start the work in the anticipation of the licence.
Definitely this an amount of the windfall to the home owner as he / she won the case on the basis of contractor's negligence on not having the licence and operating to fix his home.
If everybody would have treated the specific licensing responsibility like authentic home improvement then there would have been a large number of non licensed contractors working on the anticipation of the specific licence.
Any form is not authorised to work unless and until they receive a licence rather than just anticipating licence. This type of approach would provide negative impact on the overall serviceability as many of the contractors would start to work without having any licence or educate certification.