Consumers’ Best Protections are Education, Documentation

In April, a New Jersey handyman was sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison for collecting more than $11,000 for home repairs and renovations he never completed.

This bit of news might not be very interesting to anyone other than the man’s victims. That’s because home improvement scams are quite common in every U.S. state. As soon as spring flowers emerge and the lawn turns a lush shade of green, the Better Business Bureau and state Attorney General offices see a spike in complaints from consumers, who feel they were cheated by a relative stranger in the security of their own home.

The Better Business Bureau (www.bbbonline.org) and the National Consumer Law Center (www.consumerlaw.org) list home improvement fraud among the biggest consumer complaints. An estimated 300,000 reports are registered in the U.S. annually. The elderly, in moderate and low-income neighborhoods, are prime targets. Actually, unscrupulous handymen are under-reported, because many homeowners are too embarrassed to admit that they got taken. (more…)