Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has sued a New Jersey-based home improvement company and its owner, accusing them of taking customers' money for remodeling jobs that were abandoned, botched or never refunded (via Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General). The complaint, filed Nov. 5 in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, names JC Home & Construction Management LLC and owner Julian Caldwell. The company also did business as JC Home Repair and JC Construction.
According to the complaint, the company lists a registered business address in Chester, operates from Caldwell's home in Williamstown, N.J., and previously ran out of Darby, Delaware County.
The lawsuit lays out six customer cases dating back to 2019, in Montgomery, Philadelphia and Delaware counties plus one in New Jersey. The jobs ran from a bathroom remodel to whole-house renovations. One Montgomery County customer signed a $90,900 contract and is seeking a $36,000 refund across three properties. A Philadelphia bathroom job priced at $8,575 was never finished, and the complaint says the work caused a leak and a ceiling collapse. A Delaware County customer over 60 paid about $8,771 to have floors raised, and the complaint says the job was left unfinished with the floor sinking. Another Philadelphia customer over 60 paid more than $30,000 toward a $41,570 basement renovation that wasn't completed and later won a $20,900 default judgment that went unpaid. The state says more customers may not have come forward yet.
The complaint makes three main claims. First, unfinished or unworkmanlike jobs. Second, doing home improvement work without a valid registration. The state says Caldwell ran JC Home Repair from 2018 to 2020 without registering, the LLC went unregistered from July 2020 to June 2022, and registrations were deactivated in 2023 and 2024 before a new one was issued in June 2025. Third, contracts that were missing what Pennsylvania law requires, including the registration number, start and completion dates, subcontractor names, insurance details, the state's toll-free number and the customer's cancellation notice. Some jobs ran on electronic estimates in place of a contract, according to the filing.
The case is brought under the state's Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law and the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act. The AG is asking the court to permanently bar the defendants from the home improvement business in Pennsylvania, deactivate any registration tied to them, order full restitution and impose civil penalties of $1,000 per violation, or $3,000 when the customer is 60 or older, plus costs. These are allegations, and the defendants haven't had their day in court.
"Contractors doing business in Pennsylvania must follow our laws and will be held accountable when they fail to deliver on their promises to consumers," Sunday said in the release. Anyone who hired the company can file a complaint online, call 1-800-441-2555 or email consumers@attorneygeneral.gov to be considered for restitution. PhillyVoice also reported on the suit.
Why it matters for Contractors
This case is a checklist of what gets a contractor sued in Pennsylvania, and most of it is paperwork. Registration with the AG's office costs $100 every two years, requires proof of at least $50,000 each in liability coverage for personal injury and property damage, and your PA number has to appear on every ad, estimate, proposal and contract, according to the AG's registration portal. The law covers jobs over $500. Every written contract also needs the items this complaint says were missing: start and finish dates, sub names, insurance details, the state hotline number and the cancellation notice. An emailed estimate isn't a contract. If your registration has lapsed or your contract template is old, fix both before your next signed job. Honest shops compete against outfits like this, and the best answer is being able to show customers your registration and a clean, compliant contract.