Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine September 2024

HVACR NewsMagazine September 2024

Hearings & Outcomes

created and the contractor is informed about the date and the proposed penalties. 6. The penalties can be a. Up to $250 per code infraction b. Suspension of license c. Revolking of license 7. The Board holds the hearing. a. The contractor can testify at the hearing or via Zoom b. The contractor can bring counsel if desired c. The Board questions the inspector d. The Board questions the contractor if present or online. e. The Board goes off record to discuss the proposed penalties f. The Board goes back on record and a motion is offered and passed to find the defendant contractor guilty or innocent and to establish the penalties if there are any. 8. The Contractor is formally notified of the decision and the Department works out payment if the Board determined a fine. 9. If payment is not forcoming, the Department can file a civil suit to get a judgement against the contractor. Regretfully, none of this is restoration for the homeowner. Frequently, they paid the offending contractor most if not all of the quote and then had to pay another contractor to fix the system. Should the homeowner take the offending contractor to court, they will at least have the results of the hearing to use as evidence in their suit. The NewsMagazine hopes that by making these hearings public, it will encourage homeowners to be more careful about who they hire. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

Hearings and their Outcomes?

Yes, the NewsMagazine will now be including results of the HVACR License Board hearings. It is hard to appreciate what our inspectors and the department are doing to protect consumers and the industry without being present in the hearings. The Board meets monthly and almost all have at least one hearing. There would be more but some are pleaded out meaning that the defendant agreed to their guilt and the proposed penalty. At least they stepped up in the final stages of the process. What is the process? 1. A consumer complaint is logged. Sometimes the complaint is from a homeowner directly to the state office and sometimes it comes through the local inspector. The local inspector would bring in the state inspector when there is a question of code or the contractor is completely unresponsive. 2. The State Inspector visits the home, frequently with the local inspector. A report is made which includes comments from the homeowner, the local inspector, the contractor, and a list of code infractions and documenting pictures. 3. The contractor is given time to make the corrections. If the contractor is not licensed, another contractor must be hired by the homeowner to make the repairs. 4. If the licensed contractor fails to make the corrections, additional contacts are made. 5. If the licensed contractor still fails to make corrections, a hearing report is

Coming in November