No Fix No Pay!

"You open your home and wallet to contractors. But do you really know who they are? NBC Undercover investigates this underground economy and finds homeowners who are misled and ripped off."

The orginal newsreel is no longer available anywhere. Since 2011 the link below has been re-directed to a follow-up story…..
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=msnbc&vid=c435f953-78e0-4716-a6d8-1a57f23b05ae

This episode of NBC undercover shows California's Statewide Investigative Fraud Team (SWIFT) failing to shut down unlicensed scam artists! SWIFT is the enforcement division of California's Contractor's State Licensing Board (CSLB).

This hour-long episode described California as one of 19 minority States that require contractor licensing, and the only US State conducting sting operations. The program showed dope-smoking felons & registered sex offenders invoiceing over $500 with suspended, stolen, or no license number at all.

After hand-cuffing and questioning some, they were walked off the sting project. However, fleeced consumers have no power to recover damages. The crooks on this episode, all operated as General Contractors, failed to appear at licensing board "civil" hearings, and moved on to exploit others.

Investigators interviewed one contractor on this episode that denied responsibly for installing plumbing pipes, with exposed metal drains tied to an energized 120vac 20A circuit in the shower & bath.

Beyond escorting them off the sting project, it was amazing to learn the CA State licensing board has no subpoena, arrest, or incarceration authority for these repeat offenders.

There is no remedy for home owners that lose everything after contractor and material disappear, except more exploit from unpaid suppliers placing liens against home-owner property.

This episode did not mention that California can prosecute these thugs as felons in declared-disaster areas. This recent legislation was passed in response to home-owner losses from criminal contractors fleecing victims of the 2003 fires in Santa Monica, CA. The first CSLB felony arrests were made in San Diego.

Without State Protection
The public outcry from exploited disaster area victims could have mandated such criminals as felons everywhere, but amazingly legislators have preserved the "civil" safe harbor for the contractor associations, refusing to extend criminal-arrest authority beyond disaster areas.

The moral of this story is the public has no protection beyond disaster areas. Contractor thugs can disappear with deposits, and without paying suppliers. With no real barriers to criminal conduct these thugs know they can exploit more than just alien labor, especially when no home-owner protection exists beyond sting operations in disaster areas.

Roger Ruhle, DBA NoFixNoPay has worked as an electrician with both Union/schools and Merit-shop contractors in California, during the last 10 years. As a former paralegal and Business school graduate from California State University Fullerton, he references consumer protection issues and industry practices of the construction trades.

Some of the thugs caught on this episode were illegally using a license number registered to someone else. This common practice is difficult to check.

When caught they can claim to be an agent or foremen of the license holder, and the only way to check is by tracking down the actual contact for the license holder on record, and ask if the stories match.

The license holder can be a prior prison-cell mate, or other licensed contractor generating revenue from renting his license number. There's little risk vouching for an unqualified felon that rents a license, if naive property owners can't prove otherwise. And, if disaster strikes no valid claim exists against license-holder's bond, lacking legal employee or "Salesman" relationships. This kind of license fraud is a Tort in civil court, with no powers to subpoena or arrest.

Contracting has always been the number one trade of recovering ex cons & revolving felons. It's the next logical step from income generating crime, and tax free, cash exchange. At any given time, there should be plenty of license holders in need of extra cash; more than willing to rent out their license number to thugs on the street.

For this reason, Commercial property developers have learned to demand multi-million dollar liability policies, and check for claims records, accident history, & corporate name changes.

The goal is to eliminate Management using similar techniques to rotate license-holding RMO's (Responsible managing operators). Previous RMO's may have been suspended for burning down the building. Revolving licenses show no record of occupational hazards levied against owners, because accidents go away with the last license holder.

Commercial projects should go to builders paying the lowest GL insurace premiums, with a long history of the same license numbers avoiding accidents and enforcing OSHA mandated Lock Out Tag Out (LOTO), and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). Unfortunately, there is plenty of naive owners awarding contracts to these poorly qualified license grinders. Plenty of my paychecks came from these corporate-scum operators until mismanagement exausted their funding.

Electrician labor pool - criminals & BS'ers

Provided below is a Sept, 2008 abridged version of one frustrated employer posting a job to Craigslist in Orange County, CA.

If unwilling to put workers thru approved Electrical training, contractors in CA are required to hire CA certified electricians with 4000-8000 hours of proven experience. The above contractor shows his frustration trying to comply with this certification law, while being overwhelmed by criminals and BS'ers.

Every General contractor that had me in their employ uses illegal labor, especially for multi-million dollar projects. Inspectors and AHJ's have no mandate to check personnel records for card-holding certifications, much less for qualified training. The aforementioned criminals are frequently hired by corporate contractors, and become their minions in training. They also adapt well to contracting, considering the first sentence of my State's application for contractor's license, as quoted below:

Whether we believe past behavior is the best predictor of future performance or not, the CSLB warning clearly states that criminal felons make the majority of misrepresentations on contractor-license applications. Or, lots of honest felons are license holders.