NEW YORK—The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) released the results of its multi-country enforcement sweep targeting unlicensed home improvement contractors in New York City, Nassau County, and Westchester County in a press conference on Tuesday.
The DCA conducted 1,524 inspections over the 10-week enforcement sweep, and issued 468 violations, 17 of which are criminal arrests and 175 in which the contractor’s vehicles were seized.
“I think [the enforcement sweep] does send a very strong and hopefully on-going message to contractors about how seriously we take this effort,” said Mintz. Over the last year, the DCA found a 17 percent increase in the number of licensed contractors, and a 25 percent decrease in the number of consumer complaints regarding home contracting.
“We see that as an encouraging sign,” he said, while making it clear that the DCA will continue its work to further solve the problem.
Gary Brown, director of the Westchester County Department of Consumer Protection said that for many years, home improvement contractors have been the county’s number one consumer complaint, and the vast majority and the most serious of the complaints concern unlicensed contractors.
Roger Bogsted, commissioner of Nassau County Office of Consumer Affairs, emphasized the dangers of hiring an unlicensed contractor, saying that one of the unlicensed contractors brought to the State House during the enforcement sweep was the alleged rapist of a 15-year-old, while another has a record for being a drug dealer.
“If you attempt to bring an unlicensed contractor into your home on the promise of a really low price [and] good work, you are really playing Russian roulette with your own life,” he said.
Brooklyn resident Mila Odessky spoke at the press conference about her experience of hiring an unlicensed contractor to remodel her kitchen. The contractor asked her to pay $7,000 in cash, and did not finish the job. When she and her husband called the contractor, he refused to talk to them. “We assumed everybody has a license [and] everybody do the job they promised,” she said. Luckily, they turned to the DCA for help, and got $5,000 back.
“If somebody is knocking on your door, if somebody is telling you not to worry about the details because maybe there is a language difference, if somebody is telling you to pay up front, paying cash, if they tell you the job costs more than they originally told you, then these are signals that something is very wrong. And what I want people to know is that we can help them” DCA Commissioner Jonathan Mintz said. “We bought back $7.6 million to New Yorker’s pockets last year.”
Mintz said that when hiring a contractor, one should be sure they have a license, get a referral for the contractor, and consult the DCA model contract, which spells out important terms. He also said that one should not pay in cash or pay more than one third of the price before receiving the service.
To find out whether your contractor is licensed, you can call 311, where you can talk to DCA staff in 173 different languages. Another option is to go to the DCA Web site to get the information.
The DCA also provides the service of translating contracts for non-English speakers, so they can understand the terms before signing the a contract.
The most effective way to eliminate unlicensed contractors, Mintz said, is to do outreach and educate the public.
“As powerful as I believe combined we can be, as strong as our efforts are against unlicensed contractors, there is actually a group that has far more power than we do, and that’s consumers. If consumers stop hiring unlicensed contractors, [the] problem would be solved. There would be none.”
He said that the DCA distributes brochures and guides, and participates in community events to inform people about the risks of hiring unlicensed contractors.
