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<\/a>In 2014, the Ohio Attorney General\u2019s Office received more than 2,500 complaints about household goods or property improvement. The office also filed 14 civil lawsuits and pursued several criminal cases involving home improvement.<\/p>\n
To help Ohioans protect themselves, Attorney General DeWine encouraged consumers to look for signs of a potential home repair scam, including:<\/p>\n
Requests for a large down payment<\/b>. If one has to pay half or more of the total price in advance, be skeptical. Scam artists often try to pressure consumers to make large down payments before any work is started.<\/p>\n
Requests for cash payment<\/b>. Be wary if people are told they must pay in cash versus other forms of payment. If something goes wrong, it will be difficult to recover cash payments.<\/p>\n
No notice of one\u2019s right to cancel<\/b>. In Ohio, consumers generally have a three-day right to cancel a contract that results from a door-to-door sale. Under the Home Solicitation Sales Act, sellers are required to notify consumers about this right.<\/p>\n
Work that will begin immediately<\/b>. If someone offers to perform work on a home right away, be skeptical. Some traveling scam artists claim they have leftover materials or that they \u201cjust happened to be in the neighborhood,\u201d but after taking consumers\u2019 payments, they leave without doing any work or after doing a poor job.<\/p>\n
No written contract or references<\/b>. If a contractor won\u2019t provide a written contract detailing the costs, the work to be done, and the starting and end dates, consider doing business with someone else. Also be skeptical if a contractor refuses to provide references of past customers.<\/p>\n