Legislative Issues

Advancing Member Concerns

As 'the voice of the housing industry', NAHB fights for your interests. Ranked 11th on Fortune Magazine's "Power 25" lobbying organizations, NAHB has the strength in numbers to defeat affordable housing initiatives - on Capitol Hill, in your home state, and in the communities where you do business.

"Busy Legislative Season For HBRANH"

Potential builder & remodeler licensing ... Potential home improvement contractor registration ... Consumer notice & request to repair procedures ... Minimum written contract standards ... Proposed changes relative to appeals of decisions relating to current use taxation ... Proposed use of impact fees to purchase public open space ... Health Insurance ... Mt. Sunapee expansion ... Affordable housing.

HBRANH members and lobbyists have been very busy during this current legislative session as the association represents the interests of all members before the state's legislature. The HBRANH has, not only identified bills of importance to our members, but also authored two of its own bills that are making their way through the legislative committee hearing process. For an up to date list of all bills that we are following, as well as copies of testimony submitted, please go to the association website, http://www.hbranh.com/index/legislativeissues.

CASE STUDY: Builder & Remodeler Licensing?

One of the hottest topics for our members and the building industry that is being discussed in the legislature and in the media has to do with the relationships between "home improvement contractors" and their customers.

Several front-page articles have detailed the poor experiences that some consumers have had with their contractors and these highly visible stories have provided the backdrop for Senator Lou D'Alessandro (Manchester) to introduce a bill (SB 198) to register home improvement contractors.

Prior to the bill being introduced, HBRANH leaders and staff met twice with the senator to discuss our concerns with his bill. We asked him to support a more comprehensive bill to study the issues in depth that the HBRANH had authored, HB 307.

As stated in Senator D'Alessandro's bill, the purpose "is to provide consumer protection for the people of New Hampshire by registering and regulating home contractors".

In testimony given before the Senate Public and Municipal Affairs Committee we stated that the language in this bill will not accomplish the purpose and drew the distinction between a registration program, as called for in this bill, and a true licensing program which we feel may have merit.

Our testimony further stated that registration will not address consumer issues nor will it be a benefit to those many legitimate and quality conscious contractors who have to compete with the unqualified and unscrupulous ones.

To address these concerns our association is taking a series of steps to work towards solutions that will result in increasing professionalism in the industry, increased quality assurances in construction projects, and better relationships between consumers and builders.