Senate adopts judiciary amendment to S183 to refocus home-improvement fraud statute on intent to defraud

The Senate accepted the Judiciary Committee’s amendment to S183, a revision to Vermont’s law addressing home-improvement and land-improvement fraud. Committee reporter (Senator Norris, speaker 11) summarized that courts had previously interpreted the 2015 changes to the statute as criminalizing breach of labor contract and raised separation concerns with the Thirteenth Amendment; the committee’s amendment reverts to language that requires proof a contractor knowingly entered a contract intending to defraud the customer at the time of contracting.

Senator Norris described the amendment as refocusing the crime on fraudulent intent rather than on breach of contract and said the amendment also adds language to cover change orders — written modifications to a construction contract — so that knowingly entering a change order with intent to defraud could constitute the offense. The committee reported a 5–0 vote in favor of the amendment and asked the Senate to concur; the Senate voted in favor by voice vote, and the Presiding officer announced the amendment had been adopted and third reading ordered.

Committee testimony listed multiple witnesses and legal counsel; the reporter emphasized the ‘‘knowingly’’ standard raises the bar for prosecutors compared with prior statutory language. The Senate’s floor action amended the bill as recommended by the committee and ordered third reading; no final floor roll-call tally on passage was recorded in the transcript excerpt.