Home Repair Fraud

Overview

Unlicensed contractors solicit work door-to-door. There are multiple ways for home repair fraud to occur. Some of them include:

• The suspect may take a large deposit and never return to do the work.
• The suspect may actually do the work, but the victim finds out later that it is so shoddy and inferior that it must be torn out and replaced at the victim's expense.
• The suspect may also change the agreed upon price after the work is performed and intimidate a vulnerable victim into paying the higher price.
• Some suspects will alter checks after they are written (elevating the amount from $100 to $9,100).
• Some suspects target victims who have impaired vision, mental states or physical abilities and charge repeatedly for work that has already been performed or is never actually performed.