CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Whether it is doing a shoddy job or taking money and doing no work at all, home improvement scams are on the rise nowadays.
One Tri-State resident, Eva Gaida, says when she was scammed, she was shocked to learn that these cases rarely lead to criminal charges.
Gaida saved her money in order to begin repairs in her fixer-upper home, but quickly lost that money with little work done in a situation she says taught her a lesson.
One year later, her home still is not done.
“That’s crazy too because that’s not just like, ‘Oh we wanted a shelf redone’ – There is a hole in the floor,” she told FOX19 NOW.
The homeowner says she saved up the money to fix the floor and faucets in her bathroom which she calls “barely functioning.”
When it came to hiring someone who could fix it, she turned to social media.
“I made a post about it asking for contractor recommendations. It was a pretty popular post, I got a lot of responses to it,” she said.
It was from those responses Gaida found a contractor, but says once she paid the deposit, things seemed off.
“He was pushing me to start the project pretty soon, which probably should’ve been my first red flag, and then later that day, things were off,” she explained. “He was lying about, you know, unimportant things and I was getting a bad feeling so I said ‘Can we please you know not do this work together anymore?’ And he said, ‘Yeah sure I will refund you.’ Well, he never did.”
A police report shows Gaida told officers the contractor refused to refund roughly $1,900.
However, the real surprise was when she learned from officers that it was a civil matter and would not be pursued criminally, she said.
“You would think that it’s theft, you know? You would think that this is like a robbery,” Gaida said.
FOX19 NOW reached out to Asst. Section Chief of Consumers Melissa Smith for an explanation.
“Criminal cases, in general, require intent, so are you, as the consumer, able to provide the prosecutor with something that might show intent? [O]n top of that is, unfortunately, criminal prosecutors really have a lot going on on their dockets. But it’s always good to put the criminal prosecutor or local police department on alert so that they can look for a pattern of practice of these activities,” explained Smith.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) data shows reported home repair scams have skyrocketed in recent years. More than 82,000 home repair scams were reported in 2022, which is triple the amount in 2019.
When it comes to protecting yourself, the FTC suggests checking to make sure the repair companies have licenses and insurance, get three written estimates, never pay using cash or wire transfer, and do not start work until you have signed a written contract.
FOX19 NOW reached out to the contractor, but he declined to comment.
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/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/V7NUF52MTFGDLFWGG32HJ5S2I4.jpg "Nearly 60% of homeowners surveyed are putting off home repairs due to cost")
