Contractor Scams: How to Avoid Being Ripped Off

A lot of the time the people doing the scams are unlicensed contractors. People hire unlicensed contractors thinking they will save money but end up spending more money then they would have.

Thank You for this article. I got one home building contractor that promised to build my wife and I a house and he did absolutely no work at all on our property. He has taken our money for doing nothing at all. He has stolen over $12,000 and his contract was missing the mandatory start/finish dates and mandatory cancellation policy. The state has made him revise all his future contracts because of this. He took almost $8,000 for a first draw and then when he did not show up to do any work, I later found out from the state that his contract was no good and they told me to get rid of him. He told me he needed more money in order to pay for his expenses or he would not sign a release. He said he needed $5,000 to cover his employees expenses or he would not let the escrow agent release my family’s remaining funds. He took over $12,000. He did not build the house he promised and did not even start. He did no work at all, he took money for doing nothing. I’m taking him to court.

Another contractor which owns his own business (electrician) heard what happened to me on the grapevine and thought he could jump on the band wagon and rip me off too this summer. This electrician tried to charge me almost $5,000 for doing an electrical hookup to my current home recently. All I asked him to do and all that he had to do was run power from my garage’s existing panel to the new home about 20 yards away. He trenched it. He did not give me any contract, proposal or bid what so ever . He demanded cash the next day ($5,000) after only working for part of 2 days and all he did was run power from my garage that already had power and a meter to the house. I called other electricians when he asked for this high dollar amount and they all told me around $1,000 for this kind of thing, then I knew he was a rip off. I found out later that he does not even have a proper state contractor’s license in the state here since he is from another state and he only had a tradesmen license here in this state. He is only allowed to charge up to $1,000 with this tradesmen license. All the other licensed electricians I had come and look at my property recently gave me estimates of $800-$1,500 for exactly what this rouge not properly licensed electrician is trying to extort now $7,000 in trying to sue me over.
Please send me a any info at che1793@yahoo.com