The One-Page Proposal: Contract Deficiencies, CCB Complaint, and a Cash Helper
You hold a CCB residential specialty (HVAC) license. In April a homeowner accepted your one-page proposal, printed on your letterhead, to replace a 1995 gas furnace and add a 3-ton heat pump. The page listed the equipment, a total price of $14,800, and "50% deposit, balance on completion." It showed no CCB number, no start or completion dates, and no consumer notice of any kind. She signed it at her kitchen table after you knocked on her door. Mid-installation you found a rotted plenum and added $1,850 of work on a verbal "go ahead." You also brought in a helper you pay in cash; he is not on your CCB license and holds no license of his own. The system now short-cycles on high-pressure lockout. She refuses to pay the $2,400 balance, disputes the extra work, and says she will file a CCB complaint.
1. Identify every Oregon contract and consumer-notice failure in this transaction and state what the agreement should have contained.
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Residential construction work priced at $2,000 or more requires a written contract, and this job at $14,800 clearly crosses that line. A compliant contract must identify the contractor by name, business address and CCB license number; identify the owner and the property; describe the work and materials with reasonable specificity; state the contract price and the payment schedule, including how the deposit is handled; and give start and completion dates. It must also carry the required consumer notice language, including how to contact the CCB and the owner's right to file a complaint.
Two more failures compound the problem. Because the contract was signed at her home after an unsolicited visit, this looks like a home solicitation sale, which carries a three-business-day right to cancel unless an exception applies (for example, the buyer initiated the contact and specifically requested a repair call). No cancellation notice was given, and starting work inside that window without a written request creates separate exposure. The $1,850 change order was also verbal. A written change order signed before the work, with price and scope, would have made that amount collectible. Analyze the deal as written: the missing CCB number and notices are correctable paperwork defects, but the unsigned change order means you must prove the owner authorized the work.
2. The homeowner files a CCB complaint. Describe how the complaint process runs and the first moves you should make.
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The CCB will notify you of the complaint and give you a window to respond in writing; it typically expects the parties to try to resolve the matter directly first, so respond on time and in detail rather than ignoring it. Attach your proposal, texts, invoices, the equipment nameplate photos, and your commissioning readings.
Your first moves: (1) Fix or diagnose the short-cycling immediately and document it, because a system that trips on high-pressure lockout is a real defect and a complaint about workmanship will be judged on the equipment, not the paperwork. Check condenser airflow, charge, and whether the previous overcharge or a restricted coil is the cause. (2) Send a written, itemized response that separates the undisputed balance from the disputed change order, and offer a specific resolution, such as crediting the undocumented $1,850 in exchange for prompt payment of the $2,400. (3) Do not record a construction lien or file suit without checking the deadlines and pre-lien notice rules with an attorney; doing either while the CCB process is open often hardens the dispute.
A license is a business asset. A pattern of missing contract language and unsigned change orders is exactly what turns a $2,400 collection problem into a disciplinary sanction.
3. What is your exposure from the cash helper, and how does it change your position in the complaint?
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Oregon requires anyone performing construction work for compensation on a structure to be licensed, and your license covers the people who work under it. Bringing an unlicensed helper onto a permitted job is a violation that attaches to you, not to him. Expect the CCB to treat it as a separate allegation, which can produce a sanction, a requirement to pay restitution, or license suspension, independent of whether the furnace works.
The practical damage is worse than the technical one. A complainant who learns the helper was unlicensed now has a credibility weapon: she can argue the whole installation was performed by unqualified labor and that the workmanship defect is systemic. She may also raise a wage claim, and if the helper is injured on the job, your liability exposure is significant. If he is truly an employee, you owe payroll taxes and workers' compensation coverage.
The corrective path is to put him on the books or replace him with a licensed or properly registered person, document the change, and address it head-on in your response rather than waiting for the investigator to find it. Volunteering the correction and showing a remediation step reads very differently from being caught.