HI! WE JUST FINISHED blacktopping a driveway in the neighborhood, and we’ve got some extra materials left over. If you like, we can do your driveway too, for half price. Our boss will think we used up all the materials on the first job, and you’ll do us a favor by not making us drive back to the office with this load.
So begins one of the time-honored frauds in the home improvement field. Some blacktoppers collect their bargain fees, go back to the truck—and just drive away. Others stay to put down a black, oily concoction which washes away with the next rain, leaving a mucky residue on the front lawn.

A variation on this scheme has the seller offering a remarkable bargain “if you will merely allow our company to use your home as a model to show your neighbors and to display in our advertising.” The offer may be to install a new roof, to remodel a kitchen, to sell aluminum siding, or to waterproof a basement. The job either is never begun or is abandoned as soon as a substantial payment is received. In some cases, the work is performed, but with such cheap materials and shoddy workmanship that even the “bargain” price is a rip-off.

Some “home improvers” can more accurately be termed “house wreckers.” Consumers dealing with one New York contractor were left with gaping holes in their walls, plaster falling from the ceilings, and debris coating their floors. Others found themselves cooking their meals on portable stoves for months, because the home improver had disconnected the gas lines. One woman, who wanted a bathroom renovated for her elderly sick mother, was reassured by a promise to complete the job “immediately.” Five weeks later nothing had been done and the woman called to complain. “That same day a worker arrived and took the bathroom apart,” she said. “Then everyone disappeared again.”

Purchasing a home improvement job from an itinerant worker is very risky. While reputable businesses usually maintain offices in the community, shady characters frequently operate solely out of a truck, and can never be located when the victimized homeowner realizes what has happened. Government officials have become particularly familiar with the handiwork of one notorious band of gypsy con artists who travel in caravans throughout the country, cheating homeowners with an endless variety of home repair rackets. After going through a community, the clan picks up and moves on, before homeowner complaints bring out the authorities.

Scare tactics are common in these rackets. Sales agents for one furnace company posing as government safety inspectors, told furnace owners that “old Betsy” was about to blow and probably destroy the entire house. The “inspector” made this ominous diagnosis after totally disassembling the homeowner’s furnace. With the furnace on the floor in a thousand pieces, even the most reluctant homeowners agreed to buy the new model recommended by the phony inspector.

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Tags: home improvers, house wreckers, Purchasing a home improvement job