Posted on 08/19/2006 9:07:28 AM PDT by Incorrigible
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Dishonest Contractors Running Rampant in New Orleans AreaBY GREG THOMAS |
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NEW ORLEANS -- Nearly one year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita pounded south Louisiana, many owners of damaged homes are getting hammered again: this time financially by fraudulent, unscrupulous and unlicensed contractors, state officials say.
The number of complaints against builders and home-improvement contractors has reached epidemic proportions, said Charles Marceaux, executive director of the Louisiana State Licensing Board for Contractors.
Since Katrina, the state has issued 463 citations to contractors for shoddy work and failure to obtain the appropriate state license. In the year leading up to Katrina, the state issued only 237 citations.
The fines levied against contractors also have jumped. So far this year, nearly $500,000 in fines have been levied against unlicensed builders and contractors, up from between $100,000 and $200,000 in the years leading up to Katrina, Marceaux said.
John Luther, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans, also has noticed an increase in complaints from consumers.
"Since post-Katrina, there are many, many (contractor) scams," Luther said. "We had an amazing complaint from one woman who thought she did everything right. She checked and he had a license. It was fake. She checked to see if she had paid for supplies, discovered they had not been paid for, and the suppliers put a lien on her house. The contractor disappeared. The insurance money is gone with him.
"We have people calling and crying every day," Luther said.
Thousands of contractors from across the country have descended on the New Orleans area in hopes of snagging a piece of the massive post-hurricane rebuilding effort. More than 4,500 new licenses have been issued by the state since the storm, Marceaux said. Before Katrina, the office issued about 1,900 new licenses each year.
Many of the new contractors are appropriately licensed and provide honest labor. But others are not. Builders working on jobs valued at more than $7,500 must have a state home-improvement registration, while those working on projects worth more than $50,000 must obtain a residential builder's license.
Applicants for the home-improvement registration must have workers' compensation insurance, while applicants for builder's licenses must have both workers' compensation and full liability insurance. Both groups must past tests before receiving certification.
It's in a consumer's best interest to use a state-licensed contractor. Seventy percent of all consumer complaints about shoddy or incomplete work involve unlicensed contractors, Marceaux said.
That's a lesson Gwendolyn Williams learned the hard way.
A large tree fell on her home in the Lower Coast Algiers neighborhood, cracking it in two. She got a $90,000 settlement from her insurance company and hired a contractor to do $70,000 worth of work.
Williams got into a dispute with the contractor after paying him nearly $40,000. He insisted on more money for roof work, which she says was included in previous payments. The builder walked away, and Williams had to hire a new builder and pay to finish the work out of her own purse.
Carl Bourque and Lloyd Hayden, investigators for the state licensing board, said the contractor Williams hired appears to be unlicensed and could face a fine of up to 25 percent of the $70,000 contract.
Cheryl and Rico Clayton, a New Orleans couple, say their contractor absconded with $13,000 they paid him. The contractor never finished work on a rental property and their own home.
He showed the Claytons a copy of what he said was a state license. The document was actually a copy of the incorporation papers the contractor had filed with the secretary of state's office when he set up his business.
The state is investigating both cases.
Aug. 18, 2006
(Greg Thomas is real estate writer for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. He can be contacted at gthomas@timespicayune.com.)
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Problem is, pretty much anybody that can swing a hammer in that area, now calls themselves a "contractor".
Didn't I recently hear that, since Chocolate Boy turned down $5 million from a recycling contractor from Texas, to haul off the 50,000 junked cars, he now is saying that it has/will cost the city $25 Million to do the job?
Friggin Liberals
I am sure they are made to feel right at home among all the other criminals..
Chocolate Boy can't get enough "pinch off" from 5mil, but give him a shot at 25mil. Wonder if he'll keep it in the freezer?
Yes, but over and over again we've heard here on FR how N.O. wouldn't be rebuilt without the illegals or the SCUMBAGS who hire them!
LOL
Poetic justice!
Heck, a big story on dishonest contractors was on TV this last week.
(Dateline NBC?)
They even showed a couple of high-bucks Californians that had been
screwed over by contractors.
During the campaign for mayor some asked, "Who'd want to be mayor now?"
I had merely to recall Mr. Willie Sutton's famous statement about why rob banks.
"Because that's where the money is."
She checked and he had a license. It was fake.There should be a simple (note that: simple) website/800-number to VERIFY that the license you are shown is real. Can't Mayor Nincompoop make that happen?
dishonestly, shouldn't be a handicap, down there
No surprise. After Hurrican Fran hit the Raleigh area in '96, we were innundated by crooked contractors, many, if not most, from Louisiana.
BINGO!
According to the Libertarians that's how it's supposed to be.
I wonder how long the wait is for these 'contractor liscences' and how much they cost. I wonder how much these state regulations are hurting their people. There seems to be plenty of fraud with them, so why not just scratch them.
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