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Bill would broaden Maryland Home Improvement Commission's discretion to pay claims and allow attorney fees from guarantee fund
Summary
Senate Bill 578 would give the Maryland Home Improvement Commission broader discretion to pay guarantee-fund claims and to award attorney's fees from the fund; sponsor and a witness described cases in which homeowners say they could not access the fund despite arbitration and court rulings in their favor.
Senator Clarence Lam asked the Economic Matters Committee for a favorable report on Senate Bill 578, which would amend the Maryland Home Improvement Commission (MHIC) guarantee fund statute to allow the commission greater discretion to award eligible claimants and to permit the commission to award attorney's fees from the fund at its discretion.
Lam told the committee the bill removes the word "expressly" from the statutory language that MHIC uses to interpret arbitration awards and fund eligibility. He said the change responds to an appellate decision (Brzozowski v. Maryland Home Improvement Commission) that courts have applied in a way that narrowed homeowners'…
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