Families of Every Income Level
And Age Have Lost Thousands
By Michael Gormley
Associated Press
BROOKLYN — The state Consumer Protection Board is starting an investigation that it hopes will hit scammers where you live.
The home improvement investigation began with soliciting complaints and stories from New Yorkers in April and continued Friday at Brooklyn Borough Hall with the first of three public hearings as the board prepares cases and public education efforts. Testimony is being taken from consumers, contractors who want to clean up the field and regulators.
“We want to get ideas and learn from experience with a goal of trying to enhance the protections and remedies consumers have and also to promote best practices,” said board Executive Director Mindy Bockstein.
The topic was chosen because every year it draws the most complaints to consumer protection agencies.
“It’s a bankbook issue,” she said after the Brooklyn hearing. “It impacts affordable housing, it impacts the economy, it impacts the retail industry. We’re talking about homeowners, whether they are senior citizens who can’t make repairs themselves any longer, or people who want to make renovations to stay in their house longer so they don’t have to go into an assisted living facility.”
She said families of every age and income level have reported that they lost thousands of dollars to contractors who take the money and never show up.
“They spent thousands of dollars for nothing, and now they need money to address the defects or, worse, they are homeless,” Bockstein said.
The board will also provide tips for homeowners. Among them are: don’t pay cash, use a contract such as the one made available on the board’s web site (http://www.consumer.state. ny.us) and check references. Another tip: The law gives you three days to cancel a home improvement contract in writing.
More hearings are scheduled May 16 in Albany and May 30 in Syracuse.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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