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“Our Remodelors™ Council was tired of the bad rap that remodelers get,” said Kory Boling, the association’s member services director. “So many times the only news we would hear about remodeling were those stories of some old lady who just got ripped off.”
Every year, the consumer affairs section of the Attorney General’s office received hundreds of home repair fraud complaints, with consumers claiming losses that can exceed several thousands of dollars. Each May, he now visits local builders associations and holds press conferences to discuss what his office is doing to answer those complaints and protect the state’s consumers.
Alabama requires all of its contractors to be licensed. Last year, remodeling without a license was upgraded to a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of as much as $2,000.
For local councils in other parts of the country that are interested in starting up their own consumer protection programs, Boling says that it is best to start in the consumer affairs department of the Attorney General’s office. That’s where calls from irate fraud victims are fielded.
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