South Carolina H 5056: Home Repair Consumer Protection Act

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 5056 Text of Previous Version (Jan. 29, 2026) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 5056

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS 
BY ENACTING THE "HOME REPAIR CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT" BY ADDING CHAPTER 31 TO 
TITLE 37 SO AS TO REQUIRE WRITTEN AND SIGNED CONTRACTS FOR CERTAIN HOME REPAIR 
SERVICES, TO PROVIDE CERTAIN RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS OF HOMEOWNERS WHO ENTER 
INTO HOME REPAIR AGREEMENTS WITH HEIGHTENED PROTECTIONS FOR ELDERLY HOMEOWNERS, 
TO CREATE THE OFFENSE OF HOME REPAIR FRAUD AND TO ESTABLISH PENALTIES, AND TO 
ESTABLISH CERTAIN PROHIBITED ACTS OF CONTRACTORS OR THEIR AGENTS WHICH CONSTITUTE 
AN UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICE.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. Title 37 of the S.C. Code is 
amended by adding:

CHAPTER 31

Home Repair 
Consumer Protection Act

 Section 
37-31-10. For purposes of this chapter:

 (1) "Contractor" means a general or 
mechanical contractor licensed under Chapter 11, Title 40, or a residential 
specialty contractor licensed under Article 1, Chapter 59, Title 40, who owns 
and operates a home improvement business or who undertakes, offers to 
undertake, or agrees to perform any home repair or improvement.

 (2) "Defect" means a deficiency in or a 
deficiency arising out of the design, specifications, surveying, planning, 
supervision, or observation of home repair work that results from any of the 
following:

 (a) use of defective or substandard 
materials, products, or components;

 (b) violation of the applicable 
building codes in effect at the time of the home repair work;

 (c) failure to conduct home repair work 
in accordance with accepted trade standards for good and workmanlike 
construction at the time of construction;

 (d) material deviations from the terms 
of the contract; or

 (e) creation of unsafe or uninhabitable 
conditions.

 (3) "Home repair" means the fixing, 
replacing, altering, converting, modernizing, improving of, or making of an 
addition to any real property primarily designed or used as a residence, in 
which the total price for all work agreed upon between the contractor and owner 
is more than five hundred dollars.

 (a) "Home repair" includes the 
construction, installation, replacement, or improvement of driveways, swimming 
pools, porches, kitchens, chimneys, chimney liners, garages, fences, fallout 
shelters, central air conditioning, central heating, boilers, furnaces, hot 
water heaters, electrical wiring, sewers, plumbing fixtures, storm doors, storm 
windows, awnings, and other improvements to structures within the residence or 
upon the land adjacent to the residence.

 (b) "Home repair" does not include:

 (i) the sale, installation, cleaning, 
or repair of carpets;

 (ii) the repair, installation, 
replacement, or connection of any home appliance including, but not limited to, 
disposals, refrigerators, ranges, garage door openers, televisions or 
television antennas, washing machines, telephones, hot water heaters, satellite 
dishes, or other appliances when the persons replacing, installing, repairing, 
or connecting the home appliance are employees or agents of the merchant that 
sold the home appliance or sold new products of the same type;

 (iii) landscaping; or

 (iv) the construction of a new home.

 (4) "Owner" means:

 (a) the owner of a private residence, 
including any person authorized by an owner to act on the owner's behalf to 
order, contract for, or purchase home repair work; or

 (b) a person entitled to the 
performance of the work of a contactor pursuant to a home repair contract.

 (5) "Substantial completion" has the 
meaning provided in Section 15-3-630.

 Section 
37-31-20. (A) Any contract or 
agreement for home repair services described in this chapter in the amount of 
one thousand dollars or more shall be in writing and signed by both parties. 
The contract shall include:

 (1) the name, address, and phone number 
of the contractor;

 (2) a description of the work to be 
performed, the materials to be used, and a set of specifications that cannot be 
changed without a written change order signed by the owner and the contractor;

 (3) the date of the transaction;

 (4) the total cost, including parts and 
materials listed with reasonable particularity and any charge for an estimate;

 (5) the approximate start date and 
completion date;

 (6) notice informing the owner of the 
right to cancel the contract within three business days after the date the 
contract was signed or, if the owner is sixty-two years of age or older, within 
five business days; and

 (7) inform the owner that notice of 
cancellation may be mailed or delivered to the contractor's address stated in 
the contract, or by any alternative method agreed upon by the p