Scam Season

Well, we've been in our house for little over six months and this was the first real warm weekend here in Northern New Jersey. That means it's time for scam season to begin blooming.

We had our introduction this afternoon as I was busy cleaning up after painting our hallway and Mrs. Lawhawk was watching television. There was a ring at our doorbell and a guy was at the door wondering if we wanted to have our driveway repaired.

Mrs. Lawhawk called me down and I proceeded to listen to the spiel. Let's just say, it sounded pretty familiar.

The guy, who never gave his name, claimed that he had just come from another work site and had some leftover asphalt and that for the "cheap price of $4 per square foot", he could go ahead and refinish our driveway. I told him I wasn't interested and that he should leave his business card. Sadly, he said that he didn't have any on him.

Let's break this down:

1. A good asphalt paving company will know how much materials are needed for a job and will deliver only as much as needed.
2. You can't simply drive by my house and claim that you've got spare asphalt. I live on a cul-de-sac. You've got to be trolling for unsuspecting homeowners who are going to be taken in for scam.
3. The guy's driving a shiny car that doesn't provide any markings or business decals on it (and in retrospect should have probably taken down the plates to alert the authorities that these guys were out and about).
4. The guy was simply going to thrown asphalt down on top of an already degraded surface? That's not how to get the job done right. You have to properly prepare the surface, including getting rid of the existing blacktop and leveling it properly.
5. Would you ever give a job to a guy who comes right off the street without any references or knowledge about his work? I certainly wouldn't.

I interviewed three roofers for a job that is starting this week, and have dealt with about six or seven garage door guys looking for a company we were comfortable with and would be in our price range. Our home is our most expensive and prized possession. We're not going to hand over a chunk of change to some guy who will probably take the money and run without doing any work, or worse demand additional payment after he starts.

These scams are found throughout the country and here's just a sampling of what you can find on Attorney General pages: New York, Missouri, Iowa, Arizona, and North Dakota.

Without fail, these con arts will take people's hard earned money and leave them with big headaches. As we head into the spring, watch out for the con arts coming out of the woodwork.

Sensible precautions can help weed out the con artists from good contractors. They include:

• Obtain several estimates from different contractors.
• Be wary of requests for money up front without work being performed.
• Obtain a list of references.
• Get everything in writing.
  
• Do not be pressured into agreeing to anything you do not understand or do not want.
• Check with the Better Business Bureau and the Consumer Protection Bureau at the Attorney General's Office to see if complaints have been lodged about the companies.
• Avoid paying cash for any work done as it becomes impossible to track down contractors who take the money and run. Checks and credit cards provide a paper trail and a certain measure of protection against fraud.
  
• Deposits should generally be about 30% of the price - dicker on the terms if the company is demanding more up front. Avoid giving over all the agreed-upon price before the work is completed and you've signed off on all work. Once you've paid over the amount due, you've lost leverage to fix any problems or assure that the work will be completed in a timely fashion.
  

We've used a service called ServiceMagic, which has led us to finding several leads for work done on the house. We found a company that refinished our floors through them, but in other instances, we've found that word of mouth references from friends and colleagues to be helpful. They are helpful in that they provide licensing information and references, along with guides for how to select contractors for specific jobs and what is involved in various projects.

Still, many people are taken in by these scams annually, especially senior citizens. These con artists prey on those who don't know any better or think that they're getting a good deal to get work done. It couldn't be further from the truth.