The Pa. Attorney General’s Office consumer protection service for homeowners has been broken for nearly three months

A Pennsylvania state website and a hotline that help people vet home-repair contractors have been down for nearly three months — despite state law mandating they be available to the public.

The service, run by the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, is a required component of the Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, a 2008 law designed to protect people from home-repair fraud.

Yet, since August, consumers have been unable to verify whether contractors such as builders, plumbers, and electricians are registered. Such contractors are required to register with the state in order to work in Pennsylvania.

The attorney general’s office said the service was disrupted by an “unexpected system outage” that began Aug. 9.

“The statute requires us to set up a system for registration and to provide information to consumers,” said the attorney general’s spokesperson, Brett Hambright. “We set up that system. Due to circumstances out of our control, that system has been temporarily downed. We are in the process of restoring that system.”

The attorney general’s office has continued to take consumer complaints and has issued temporary registration numbers to contractors who have applied for licenses since August, Hambright said.

Hambright said he was not sure if the outage was related to an August ransomware attack that broke key systems and has led civil and criminal cases to be delayed for months, though he added that “the timing certainly aligns with the cyber incident.”

On hearing about the disruption, consumer advocates expressed concern.

Montgomery County-based consumer protection lawyer Andrew Milz said on Thursday he was surprised to learn that the database has been offline for so long.

“This is important information for consumers,” said Milz, who also teaches consumer law and litigation at Temple University. “The commonwealth recognizes this. The General Assembly put it right in the law.”

The database helps people determine whether someone claiming to offer home repair services is legitimate, Milz said. Licensure, he added, is the bare minimum of what a consumer should expect from home-repair service providers, and checking their license should be an essential step in vetting them.

He said this service is especially important at a time when home-improvement schemes involving solar panels, water filtration, security systems, and other upgrades are taking advantage of people who don’t know the law. His cases typically involve consumers, often older people, who were deceived into signing up for costly financing schemes.

“I would say, be wary of door-to-door sales,” Milz said. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Demand paperwork. And review it closely before you sign anything. And be cautious of folks asking for your electronic signature, or asking you to tap on an electronic device that you can’t read or see.”

State Rep. Danilo Burgos (D., Philadelphia) said he has reached out to the attorney general’s liaison for more information after learning about the outage from The Inquirer.

“I’m not going to speculate, but we need that back online as soon as possible,” said Burgos, who chairs the House Consumer Protection, Technology and Utilities Committee.

Burgos said his office has seen a rise in complaints about scams and fraud. He attributes some of this to the Trump administration, which attempted to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in February.

“The safeguards are not there anymore for consumers at the federal level, and that is very worrisome,” Burgos said.

Montgomery County-based attorney Alexis Roth said the 2008 state law provides “an extra layer of protection for consumers.”

Roth likened it to the state’s daycare system, which lists verified childcare providers and includes previous reviews from the state.

“Are you going to send your kid to a daycare that’s not registered with the state?” Roth said.

The law requires that contractors provide a written, signed contract before work is started, Roth said. Consumers have a three-day opt-out period. Contractors can charge only 10% for a deposit.

“There are very specific pieces of information that they have to provide to you,” Roth said, including their license number and the attorney general’s hotline to verify that they are licensed.

The act also helps protect contractors, she said. “One unique clause limits contractors’ liability,” which is good for them, she noted.

Additionally, Roth said, any breach of this law is automatically also considered a violation of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, another state law protecting people from deception and fraud.

The August ransomware attack has already delayed hundreds of court cases.

That month, state and federal courts in Philadelphia had to pause cases involving the state attorney general’s office. On Aug. 13, a judge halted about 200 civil cases.

The court also had to pause post-conviction relief cases, in which individuals convicted of a crime ask for a new trial. A judge extended that pause in mid-September.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania also extended a stay on cases through Oct. 2.

In addition, many other state websites experienced an outage earlier this week.

Pennsylvania Office of Administration spokesperson Dan Egan said in an emailed statement that this week’s outage was part of a broader disruption affecting Microsoft customers, and that there was no evidence of a new cyberattack or of a security compromise.

“The Office of Administration reached out to Microsoft immediately upon learning about the outage and is in regular communication with them as they work to address the issue and restore services,” Egan said.

The office of Gov. Josh Shapiro did not respond to an emailed request for comment.