What to do if your contractor will not finish the job

OREM, Utah — Remodeling can be a hassle, to say the least, and having to watch a contractor drag out a home improvement project, unfinished, can be quite infuriating. So, what can you do to get the contractor back on track?

It was way back in May that Brandon Young hired a company to pour concrete in his backyard.

He paid half down, $7,500.

Young said the contractor showed up at first, moved around some dirt, but then did not show up again to finish the job.

He said day after day, week after week, his contractor kept breaking appointments.

“It got to a point where I just said, ‘Hey, can we get our money back?’” Young said. “And that’s when it turns pretty dark and dirty. I started getting texts. ‘Screw you, I’m not giving your money.’”

Frustrated, Young filed a complaint with the Utah Division of Consumer Protection and took his case to small claims court.

With that process moving slowly, he decided it was also time to call the KSL Investigators.

“I want our money back,” Young said.

The KSL Investigators reached out to the contractor, AM/PM Concrete, and spoke to the company’s owner.

He refused to talk about any of this on camera, but by phone, he blamed a “concrete shortage” for the delay.

When asked if Young can expect a refund, he said, “we have court for that.”

But as KSL’s Matt Gephardt dug deeper, he found Young is not alone in his frustrations with AM/PM Concrete.

“There have been a couple of different complaints about this particular contractor,” said Zach Whitney, spokesperson for the Utah Division of Consumer Protection.

In October, the agency cited AM/PM Concrete for violating the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act, saying the company “received (a $7,500) payment” from both Young and another Utahn, “then failed to furnish the services.”

AM/PM Concrete now faces a potential fine of $10,000, but Whitney says that is not the citation’s primary purpose.

“The goal is to correct that bad behavior and to get them to make amends with the person they have wronged and correct that action in the future,” Whitney explained.

“It’s just incredibly disappointing,” said Young about the experience.

He said he has yet to see a refund from AM/PM Concrete.

He is suing. His case is scheduled on the court calendar for next month.

Contractors in Utah are required to be licensed.

You can look up the contractor on the Utah Department of Commerce’s Licensee Lookup and Verification System.

That same tool can also show you if the state has slapped a contractor with disciplinary actions.