Worker has no license? Be wary

Steffi Gaines felt confident when she hired a contractor to remodel the kitchen and dining room of her Los Angeles home.

He had been recommended by her handyman, who knew him from church. When she asked whether he was licensed, the contractor provided a number.

Several months into the $32,750 project, Gaines said, the contractor stopped showing up at her Mt. Olympus home. Her kitchen floor was still ripped apart and the exposed electrical wiring twisted around rafters like spaghetti on a fork.

As it turned out, the license number the contractor had given Gaines belonged to someone else, according to state records.

Now, more than three years later, she says she is still paying to fix things that weren’t done right.

“It’s been one problem after another,” she said.

Californians spend an estimated $10 billion annually on home remodeling and construction projects, officials say. Many have provided fertile ground for unlicensed contractors.

“It’s safe to say that there are thousands of people out there breaking the law by contracting without a license,” said Pamela Mares, a spokeswoman for the Contractors State License Board. “There’s a lot of money out there, and they know it.”

Last year, agency investigators teamed with local authorities to target more than 700 unlicensed contractors across California.

Undercover sting operations in March, including one in Van Nuys, resulted in 175 misdemeanor citations being issued for alleged violations, including contracting without a license and illegal advertising.

The problem, authorities say, is not just with unlicensed contractors.

In Los Angeles, the city attorney’s office has filed 156 criminal misdemeanors against licensed and unlicensed contractors since April 2006. So far, officials say, there have been 56 convictions and nearly $800,000 in restitution ordered for victims.

“We hear a lot of sad stories,” said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.

To help protect the public, state authorities say, they require that would-be contractors work first as journeymen or apprentices for four years before they can apply for a license of their own.

After being licensed, they must carry workers’ compensation insurance if they have employees and a $12,500 bond that can be used to provide restitution to consumers who file complaints or sue them successfully.

In fiscal year 2006-07, the agency received more than 15,000 complaints from the public regarding contractors. About three-fourths of them were lodged against licensed contractors, state records show.

Complaints investigated

During that period, 11,500 complaints were formally investigated. Of the cases involving licensed contractors, 105 were referred to local prosecutors and 195 licenses were suspended.

Gaines said she should have been quicker in confronting her contractor, Anthony Lopez.

She said she knew problems were developing when Lopez and his two workers started skipping days.

In February 2006, four months after her project began, she wrote a letter to Lopez. “If you don’t commit to a schedule of dates and times,” Gaines wrote, “I will be forced to hire another contractor and charge this extra expense back to you.”

Gaines provided The Times with copies of $27,000 in checks that were cashed by Lopez and a woman named Nancy Kremer. Gaines said Lopez asked that checks be made out to Kremer, whom he identified as his wife.

The pair listed the same address on various records during that period.

Before hiring Lopez, Gaines could have checked the license number he provided -- 686188 -- by searching the online database of the Contractors State License Board, at www.cslb.ca.gov.

Had she done so, she would have found that the license expired in March 2000, more than five years before Gaines began her remodeling project. Records also show that the license had been issued to a person with a similar name, Anthony S. Lopez, who owned a company called T&L; Construction.

Gaines’ contractor had identified his company on Gaines’ contract as Anthony Lopez Custom Carpentry. But state records, which date from 1991 to the present, show that no license was issued to an Anthony Lopez who operated Anthony Lopez Custom Carpentry.

The Times provided Lopez’s birth date and driver’s license number to officials at the License Board so they could check other internal agency records to further verify his license status.

“I have no information that shows that he either was or is licensed,” said Rick Lopes, spokesman for the agency.

Gaines gave a reporter copies of three letters of recommendation that she had received from Lopez. One was from Kremer, who said Lopez did a remodel of her living room that was “master craftsman quality.”

Gaines said that she spoke to Kremer but that Kremer never mentioned that she listed the same address as Lopez. (When Gaines wrote the checks, she said, she did not make the connection to the letter of recommendation.)

The Times left repeated messages for Kremer on the voicemail of the telephone number listed on her letter of recommendation, but the calls were not returned.

In phone interviews, Lopez declined to answer repeated questions about the license number on the contract he signed. He said he finished the project except for two doors.

“I lost my pants on it,” he said of the job. “I put my own money to finish.”

‘Happening every day’

Anthony S. Lopez said in an interview that he was unaware of anyone using his old license. But he added that he wasn’t surprised. “It happens all the time,” said Lopez, who works at another company under a different license.

Mares, the agency spokeswoman, said anecdotal evidence suggests that such violations are “happening every day.”

Gaines said she didn’t file a complaint with the contractors board because she was unaware of the process.

She said she had to use money intended for her daughter’s wedding to help cover an additional $8,000 to fix items that she said Lopez failed to complete or do properly, such as reinstalling and grounding electrical wiring, patching holes and painting walls.

Gaines said she hopes her story will help others avoid similar problems.

“People need to know how to get to the bottom of who they are hiring,” Gaines said.

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robert.lopez@latimes.com

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Advice from the license board

* Any contractor working a job worth $500 or more must be licensed in California. Ask to see a contractor’s “pocket license.” Check the number with the Contractors State License Board at www.cslb.ca.gov, or call (800) 321-2752.

* Know the limits for deposits. Contractors cannot ask for more than 10% of the total cost of the job or $1,000 -- whichever is less -- unless the contractor has a special bond.

* Make sure your contract is as specific as possible. Check the website of the license board for advice on contracts and binding agreements, or call to ask for a copy of the Consumer Guide to Home Improvement Contracts.

* Know about the complaint process. Consumers have up to four years from the time of an alleged violation to file a complaint. You can fill out an online form or call (800) 321-2752.

* Be as informed as possible about the construction and remodel process. Consumers can order pamphlets on everything from screening contractors to filing court claims by calling or checking an online list of publications.

-- Robert J. Lopez