Code of Conduct

The ANA Standards-Pledged Provider Program operates under two interlocking codes of conduct: the conduct expected of contractors who hold a Standards-Pledged listing, and the conduct ANA itself commits to when administering the program. Both are stated here so neither side has to guess.

The Contractor Code of Conduct

A contractor who has signed the Pledge commits to the conduct described in detail at contractor-services-code-of-conduct, summarized here:

• Truthfulness in self-representation. Honest claims about credentials, licenses, insurance, bonding, capacity, and experience.
• Truthfulness in scope and price. Written contracts, written change orders, no surprise charges, no padded estimates, no unauthorized substitutions of materials.
• Permit compliance. Pull every permit the work requires, in the customer's name where law requires, schedule the inspections.
• Customer privacy and respect. No photos or recordings on the customer's property without permission; respect for the customer's home, family, schedule, and dignity. No discrimination in service, pricing, or scheduling based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, disability, source of income, or familial status.
• Worksite conduct. Show up on schedule or communicate in advance; leave the worksite clean each day; secure the property when leaving; safe practices around children, pets, and bystanders.
• Crew conduct. No intoxication on the worksite. No theft, no damage to property beyond the agreed scope of work, no taking of materials or tools that don't belong to the contractor or the contractor's crew.
• Subcontractor oversight. Subcontractors brought onto a job are the prime contractor's responsibility for conduct, insurance, licensing, and standard of work.
• Recordkeeping. Contracts, change orders, payments, inspections, warranty correspondence retained for the periods law requires (and not less than three years).
• Honest dispute behavior. Respond to customer concerns directly and in writing; participate in published dispute-resolution procedures when invoked; do not retaliate against customers who file complaints; do not threaten lien or litigation as a negotiating tactic before performing the work.
• Honest complaint handling. When a complaint is filed against the contractor, respond in writing within the 14-day window. Engage with the substance of the allegation. Do not retaliate against the complainant.
• Badge handling. Display the badge accurately. Stop displaying it the moment the listing is inactive (lapsed, revoked, or withdrawn). Do not use the badge in conjunction with claims that misrepresent the program — the badge is "Standards-Pledged," not "verified."

The ANA Code of Conduct

When administering the Standards-Pledged Provider Program, ANA commits to the following conduct:

• Independence in complaint review. A complaint is reviewed against the Pledge text in effect when the contractor signed it, by ANA staff or contractors who are not paid more if the determination goes one way or the other. Reviewers do not have a financial stake in the outcome.
• Due process. Every complaint named-against-a-contractor is shared with the contractor and the contractor is given 14 days to respond in writing. Determinations are issued within 30 days of a complete complaint package. Appeals are heard by a separate reviewer.
• Equal treatment. No advantage given to a contractor based on subscription length, multi-trade or multi-jurisdiction breadth, or any factor outside the substance of the complaint review. No disadvantage given to a contractor based on having previously appealed a determination, having previously had a complaint dismissed, or any factor outside the substance of the current complaint.
• No commercial conflicts. ANA does not sell leads, take commissions, run an auction, accept paid placements, or otherwise have a financial interest in any individual contractor's revenue. Subscription revenue is the only source of income from the program. The directory cannot be bought into a higher position.
• Truthful publication. ANA publishes what the contractor pledges, when the contractor pledges, when the contractor's listing is active, and when a pledge is revoked. ANA does not publish ratings, scores, rankings, recommendations, or editorial judgments about individual contractors.
• Permanence of the public record. Revocation entries on the revoked-pledges page are not removed, even after reinstatement. Annotations are added; entries are never deleted.
• Privacy. Complainant identities are not shared with named contractors without explicit complainant permission. Contractor account data is not sold or syndicated. Visitor data is not retargeted. See the Privacy Policy.
• Editorial independence. ANA's published Standards (the contractor-services-* pages) are written and updated independently of any contractor's input. A contractor's subscription does not buy any influence over what the Standards say. The Standards are reviewed annually and updated as published in the changelog.
• Transparency about limits. The "what this program is not" framing on the Badge Meaning, for customers, the Pledge, and complaints pages is published exactly because we want neither contractor nor customer to form an expectation we cannot deliver.

What violates this Code

For contractors: any of the conduct described as substantiable Pledge violations on the complaints page or in the contractor-services-code-of-conduct standard.

For ANA: any of the failures to honor the commitments above. ANA's own conduct can be the subject of a complaint sent to [email protected], separate from the customer-vs-contractor complaint channel. Substantiated complaints about ANA's own conduct are publicly acknowledged in the next quarterly aggregate report and result in corrective action.

Why both sides matter

A program that polices contractors but not its own administration eventually drifts. A program that polices itself but not contractors fails customers. The two codes interlock: the contractor's commitments to customers are matched by ANA's commitments to contractors and to customers. Neither set is novel — both are the conduct anyone running a legitimate directory of legitimate contractors should already be following — but stating both explicitly, in writing, in one place, signed and dated, is what makes the Pledge meaningful.

The law belongs to the people. Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 590 U.S. (2020)