One Sales Call, Three Licenses, and a Contract Signed at the Kitchen Table

Ohio licenses contractors by trade through the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, which issues separate contractor licenses for HVAC, refrigeration, plumbing, hydronics, and electrical work. A license is held by an individual, and the business depends on that individual as its qualifying licensee.

Within scope: the furnace, coil, and the central air addition are HVAC work.

Outside scope: the boiler and near-boiler piping are hydronics, and the 240 V branch circuit and its disconnect are electrical. The company cannot contract for either under an HVAC license, and it cannot cure the problem by having its own employees do the work - contracting outside the scope of the license is grounds for Board discipline regardless of who holds the wrench.

How to restructure, in order of preference:

1. Bring in a licensed hydronics contractor and a licensed electrical contractor. Each signs its own contract directly with the homeowner for its portion, or the company discloses them as subcontractors in writing with the homeowner's acknowledgment. Confirm each carries insurance and can pull its own permit.
2. Have the owner qualify for the additional licenses through the Board's examination and experience process - a legitimate long-term plan, but not a fix for a job starting Monday.
3. Remove those items from the contract, in writing, and let the homeowner contract separately.

Also verify whether the local jurisdiction registers or licenses technicians; if it does, the experienced technician is not automatically clear to work there.

A contract for $14,800 signed at the homeowner's kitchen table is a home solicitation sale. Ohio's Home Solicitation Sales Act, in Revised Code Chapter 1345, applies to consumer transactions over $25 closed somewhere other than the seller's place of business, and it gives the buyer a right to cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing.

The agreement must carry a written cancellation notice in the statutory form, together with a cancellation form the buyer can tear off and mail. The buyer must be told orally about the right to cancel at the time of signing. A one-page proposal with no notice and no cancellation form is defective on its face.

What must happen before Monday:

1. Do not start work Monday. Monday falls inside the cancellation window; starting performance does not shorten the buyer's right to cancel, and an emergency-repair waiver only applies to a genuine bona fide emergency, which a planned boiler replacement is not.
2. Issue a corrected agreement with the required notice and cancellation form, delivered so the three-business-day clock runs from the homeowner's receipt of the corrected documents.
3. Hold the $2,000 deposit in a position where it can be refunded promptly. If the homeowner cancels, the deposit is returned; retain nothing as “restocking” unless a statute or a valid contract term specifically allows it.
4. Also correct the scope while the contract is being rewritten, so the hydronics and electrical work are handled by properly licensed parties with their own contracts.

The right answer is not to rush the crew out to beat a cancellation window - that converts a paperwork defect into a consumer-protection complaint.

The permit request. The owner should say plainly that the company cannot install without the permits the local authority having jurisdiction requires. Permits are not a tax mechanism - they are how the inspector verifies gas piping, combustion air, relief valve piping, electrical grounding and the boiler's controls before the work is covered up. Working without one exposes the contractor to a stop-work order, fines, and Board discipline, and exposes the homeowner to an uninsured, uninspected installation that an insurer or a future buyer's inspector can reject. Offering a permit price breakdown is fine; agreeing to skip the permit is not. If the homeowner insists, the owner declines the job in writing rather than proceeding on a handshake.

Records to keep in the job file:

• The signed contract with the cancellation notice and cancellation form, the date and place of signing, and proof of when the homeowner received it.
• The license numbers and insurance certificates for every contractor and subcontractor on the job, and any written disclosure of subcontractors.
• Permit applications, inspection approvals and the final signed-off cards.
• The load calculation, equipment start-up readings and commissioning report.
• A written log of homeowner requests and the company's responses, including the permit conversation.

If a complaint is filed, the Board investigates and may impose a civil penalty, suspend, or revoke the license. The licensee is entitled to notice and an administrative hearing under Ohio's adjudication procedure in Revised Code Chapter 119, and can be represented by counsel. The file above is the defense: it shows written disclosure, licensed scope, notices and permits. Note that because the license is held by the individual, a suspension follows him personally and shuts down the company's ability to contract, which is why the paperwork matters as much as the workmanship.