Officials: Vermont home-contractor registry leaves fraud gap under $10,000

Deputy Secretary of State Lauren Hibbert told the Vermont House Committee on Energy and Digital Infrastructure on April 23 that the state's registry of home contractors provides new consumer protections but leaves a significant unregulated space for fraud on projects under $10,000.

Hibbert, who previously led the Office of Professional Regulation and directed the contractor registry's legislative path, said the Office filed a regulatory-status report in September 2024 required by Act 182 (2022). "We found three things," she said: "homeowners would benefit from an additional protection from consumer fraud; there's no assurance of work quality or building safety standards for single-family homeowners; and the voluntary certifications we plan to build won't resolve problems with not having quality-of-work oversight."

The finding matters because the registry triggers on a single job worth more than $10,000 and that threshold creates an unregulated gap, Hibbert said. "A homeowner who contracts for a major improvement on her home for $8,000 can be defrauded," she warned, adding that OPR's original sunrise recommendation in 2018 proposed a $1,500 threshold.

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