Don't Get Scammed by a Bad Contractor
Oct. 31, 2006 — -- When you ask Sally Lloyd and Christina Prete what they think of their home-improvement contractors, one word comes up: scoundrel.
Lloyd, in Freeport, N.Y., and Prete, in Wallingford, Conn., had different contractors, but they got the same results. Their bathrooms were torn apart and the jobs were unfinished.
"He seemed like a nice, honest person," Prete told "Good Morning America."
But the man wasn't registered as a contractor in Connecticut. He took her $2,200 deposit and took off.
That kind of behavior by contractors like the one Prete originally hired isn't surprising to Edwin Rodriguez, the commisioner of the Department of Consumer Protection in Connecticut.
"Chances are there's a reason why they're not licensed or registered. And it may well be because the workmanship is not good," Rodriguez said.
His state is cracking down. For the past five years, Connecticut has staged contractor stings.
Investigators have set up shop in homes and invited illegal contractors to come in and submit bids. When the deal is done, the contractors are busted.
The technique seems to be working. So far the state has nabbed more than 400 contractors.
Richard Maloney, a Connecticut director of trade practices, says at least 10,000 more contractors have registered since the stings began.
Bad contractors are a nationwide problem.
Home improvement ripoffs rank as one of the most common complaints to consumer agencies, according to Elizabeth Owen of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators.
Connecticut isn't the only place using stings to try to control the problem. California uses them; so does the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
There was so much repair work to be done after last year's Atlantic hurricane season that police in south Florida actually set up highway checkpoints to check contractors' licenses.
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