State senator Beck calls for RREM protections

The water was rising. Holly Toohey saw on TV that superstorm Sandy was turning toward New Jersey, toward her home on Fairview Place in Neptune.

She and her husband, who live four houses away from the Shark River, were watching to see whether the water would rise only as far as it did with previous storms.They thought it would be fine.

But the water came into their home, rising up through the heat vents.

"It was waist-deep before we knew it," she said.

Approaching the third anniversary of the disaster, Toohey joined state Sen. Jennifer Beck at a news conference Wednesday evening. The senator spoke about a proposed law that would increase protections for those enrolled in the Rehabilitation, Rebuilding, Elevation and Mitigation program.

She pointed out that nearly 7,000 homeowners are still going through the RREM program to elevate and rebuild thier homes.

"Some of that is due to bureaucracy, some of that's due to the fact that HUD didn't give us our last round of federal money until April of 2015," she told a reporter from the Asbury Park Press. "But there have been problems with the program and we've had a lot of complaints in my office as we've dealt with some, close to 400 different homeowners."

"And I've introduced a bill that is intended to correct a lot of those wrongs."

The whole text of the proposed law is available below. Some highlights of the bill include:

The Consumer Fraud Act would be expanded to punish contractors who use shady commercial practices, fail to comply with RREM standards or the Uniform Construction Code, or willfully or unreasonably fail to do work in a timely manner.

The Division of Consumer Affairs would establish a hotline for complaints from applicants about builders, and publish substantiated complaints online.

If an applicant completes a grant under the RREM program, and it turns out federal rules don't allow the grant, the state would pay the applicant.

Consumer Affairs could revoke a builder's license after finding that, in connection with RREM, the builder committed fraud or did negligent work.

Builders would be obligated to avoid asking people to leave their homes until necessary.

If the builders can't finish construction within 90 days of the notice to proceed, they would have to pay rental compensation for each day the applicant couldn't go home.

Andrew Ford: 732-643-4281; aford3@gannettnj.com