Illinois Home Repair and Remodeling Act - Why is it Important for Contractors and Homeowners?

I wrote an article for the Northern Illinois Home Builders Association newsletter "Northern Lights" this month (not yet available online) on the Illinois Home Repair and Remodeling Act (HRRA) and the flurry of recent court decisions involving the HRRA.  The HRRA was enacted in 2000 and had very few cases litigated to the appellate level - until last year. In the past six months there has been on average an appellate opinion interpreting the HRRA per month, and the Illinois appellate courts do not all agree on the interpretation of the Act.  In an attempt to clarify these murky waters, in the next few weeks I will be writing a series of posts on the HRRA and its interpretation in each of the five Illinois appellate districts.

I am not alone in writing on this topic.  Before proceeding further with my own comments, I would like to acknowledge and recommend the following sources from my colleagues and fellow Illinois construction law attorneys.  Michael Huseman has written extensively about the HRRA at the Northern Law Blog.  Joshua Glazov of Construction Law Today and Garrett Kern of the Illinois Construction Law Blog have also posted on it.  Finally, as a non-blog source, my fellow Dupage County Bar Association members James Ryan and Matt Caruso have contributed several articles on the HRRA for the DCBA Brief magazine, most recently in the January 2010 issue.

Nate Hinch is an attorney and partner at the law firm of Mueller, Reece & Hinch, LLC.  He has offices at 404 N. Hershey Road, Suite C, Bloomington, IL 61704, and 809 Detweiller Drive, Peoria, IL 61615, and can be reached by phone at (309) 827-4055 and email at nhinch@mrh-law.com.

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