California Business and Professions Code 7159, first enacted in 2004, was intended as a consumer protection measure to protect homeowners hiring contractors for home improvement work. The legislation sought to meet this laudable goal by dictating the terms to be used in home improvement contracts. covering everything from mandatory contractual language, lists of documents to be included, legal warnings to be provided, dispute resolution procedures, dictating where to initial, where to sign and even font size.

The legislation unfortunately made it impossible to provide a homeowner with anything more than a complex multi-page legal document which many homeowners viewed with suspicion. The unintended consequence is that those contractors who violate the law and use a short but simple one or two-page, but illegal contract end up obtaining work. Those who follow the law and use the multi-page legally mandated contract end up losing customers because the contract is long, complex and frightening.