Our Story

John Hochbaum first had the idea for Contracting Trust over a decade ago. He had been a General Contractor specializing in remodeling for more than 25 years and had numerous clients where he was fixing jobs from bad Contractors or they had been ripped off by shady Contractors. Some people had accepted bids from remodelers, handed over their deposit (many times as much as 50%) and then never saw the Contractor again. Or, John heard stories of Remodelers getting half way through a project and realizing they had underbid it and just abandon the project leaving the client literally “holding-the-bag”, out of money and only partially through construction.

On the other hand, many remodelers experienced working with difficult clients that became unreasonable towards the end of a project and wouldn’t make payments without getting more work done for free. Many of these remodelers were stuck and had to perform the work without proper compensation in order to get paid. Even the National Association of Home Builder’s (NAHB) trained Remodeling Contractors to include in their budgets (and proposals) up to 3% for these kinds of losses.

It took John several years to develop the idea for Contracting Trust. And, since it had never been done before, it took several more years to secure an underwriter willing to fund the money required to secure the risk – there are warranty companies that guarantee building and remodeling projects after they are completed – but not before, nor during. Contracting Trust is the very first to provide a complete warranty from build start through one year after completion.

John Hochbaum

John officially began Contracting Trust in 2007. He recognized a problem in the industry and wanted to resolve it. “I have a great passion for the industry and wanted to come up with a way that people could hire remodelers that they know are going to be dependable, and where good remodelers could be recognized for their professionalism, quality, and responsible reputation.”

Contracting Trust combines the two services of guarantying a Contractors work to provide peace of mind for the Homeowner or Building Owner while also guarantying fulfillment of the financial obligations to the contractor. This spread the risk equally between the two contractual parties – they jointly shared the risk, and the responsibility. Contracting Trust puts both parties on an even playing field. John created a system that allows people to do business together with peace of mind for both parties. Both the Owner and the Contractor now know that the remodeling contract will be fulfilled as promised.