There Are Crooks Out There... But You Can Protect Yourself From Home Repair Scams

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There Are Crooks Out There... But You Can Protect Yourself From Home Repair Scams

It wasn't just that Norman Jones didn't complete the home improvements he was hired to do that maddened Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri L. Schornstein, who recently prosecuted him for fraud.

It was that the D.C. contractor left residents in "much worse shape" than if they had never tried to fix their houses at all.

"He did demolition work" or attempted repairs he never finished, Schornstein said. That left the homeowners exposed to the elements as well as to refinance loans he engineered. New siding blew off in the first windstorm. Rain gushed into basements from open trenches. Kitchens were stripped and left unusable.

Jones was the first home improvement contractor convicted on federal charges in the District; he not only defrauded 10 D.C. residents but took some over state lines to sign mortgage loans or other documents, she said.

Jones, who last month was sentenced to 61/2 years in prison, may also be the first home improvement contractor ever convicted in any federal court because of his aggressive marketing, Schornstein added.

Complaints about home improvement work are legion. Home repairs were the No. 1 and fastest-growing kind of consumer gripe last year, beating those reported to consumer protection agencies about car sales and household goods, according to an annual survey by the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and the Consumer Federation of America.

The home improvement category has the dubious distinction of having held one of the top three spots in the groups' surveys for the past five years.

The question homeowners have to ask themselves is: Why does it keep happening?

Why don't we learn to check references and licenses? Why do we agree to pay everything upfront and then wonder when the contractor disappears in the night? Why do we trust those who knock on our door and offer a "great deal" on asphalt or windows that are supposedly left over from other jobs? Because we are greedy, too trusting, unaware of the importance of licensing or don't realize how frequently scams occur, say consumer advocates.

"The single biggest problem is that consumers just aren't aware of the problems that occur and just aren't aware of what it means to have a license," said George Rose, the just-retired director of the Montgomery County Division of Consumer Affairs.

After 28 years with the agency, including five at the helm, Rose says he has heard all the scams again and again. They often involve consumers who hire unlicensed contractors.

"The first indication that you're dealing with a crook" is when someone knocks on the door offering leftovers, Rose said. Another sign is when the contractor "doesn't show up, says he's ordered the wrong size and has to reorder" or promises to come out immediately if the consumer pays extra.

Just by trying to do business, unregistered contractors are violating state law in Maryland, the District and Virginia, where there are some exceptions, and are subject to prosecution.

In Virginia and Maryland, homeowners who are hurt by licensed contractors have a chance to get some money back through state reimbursement programs, but there is little help for homeowners who use unlicensed contractors.

"You can sue them all you want, but if they don't have any money, you can't get it. You can't get blood out of a turnip," Rose said

People too often ignore licensing because they're pinching pennies, say consumer advocates. "I don't like to say people look for the 'cheapest' option in selecting a contractor. Let's say 'least expensive' instead," said Nancy Sabella, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators.

"But this is not an area where you can afford to cut corners, because there can be big losses," she said.

Home improvement is the industry in which a firm is most likely to go out of business and reopen under another name, according to her survey.

Consumers "often don't come forward because they think they were duped and they're embarrassed to admit it," prosecutor Schornstein said. "They think it might be just an isolated incident."

In the Jones case, she said, it was only when a grand jury began to investigate one allegation "that we found out how many other cases were out there."

Jones was indicted last year on multiple counts of fraud. He pleaded guilty on the eve of his trial in September to interstate transportation of a person in execution of a fraud scheme. That was for driving a 70-year-old District woman into Maryland to obtain a mortgage to pay him $ 18,500. Schornstein presented evidence that he did only $ 3,000 of work -- putting up siding that blew off in the first windstorm.

U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson sentenced Jones to 78 months in jail and ordered $ 141,000 in restitution. The judge imposed a longer sentence than called for in federal sentencing guidelines because Jones's actions caused so much financial harm. Jones, 45, has appealed.

Prosecutors say Jones targeted elderly and low-income homeowners, advertising on television and in fliers. He made seemingly earnest door-to-door spiels. He showed his license number, which had expired, and told prospective clients that he was bonded and insured. He even drove prospects past houses that he claimed he had improved but had not.

Now, many of his clients cannot afford to clean up the damage and repay new loans, prosecutors say. Some went into bankruptcy, others sold their houses to avoid foreclosure.

Joyce McKeithan of Southeast Washington, for instance, is still living with an open trench and an unfinished siding job that lacks insulation. She has no functioning kitchen. She filed for bankruptcy to stop foreclosure on a $ 43,000 mortgage loan Jones helped her secure.

Mary Barnes, 72, uses a microwave oven because her kitchen was left "unusable" by Jones.

Tijuana Thomas-Jackson lived for several weeks with a four-foot trench dug around her 80-year-old house in Southeast. The workers ripped out the finished basement's walls and then tacked up black plastic garbage bags outside to supposedly waterproof the basement.

Because the basement then leaked "like a sieve," Thomas-Jackson paid the subcontractor to finish. After losing her home insurance, she declared bankruptcy to get money to make other needed repairs.

Thomas-Jackson warns others to "please beware." She checked with the Better Business Bureau and the District licensing agency before hiring Jones in 1999, but says that was not enough. The bureau had no complaints on file then, she said, and the license hadn't yet expired.

"You need to check farther than that," she said. "You need to check references. And don't ever give them a whole lot of money upfront."