Unfinished Business: Is enough being done to shut down unlicensed contractors?

SALT LAKE CITY — It’s a frustrating pattern: unlicensed contractors walking off jobs, leaving homeowners out thousands of dollars.

In February 2023, I was on the hunt for a fencing contractor who had been paid but then abandoned several jobs. A year later, I reported on a contractor who was paid to build decks but then he abandoned several jobs. Most recently, I reported on a landscaper who was paid and then abandoned several jobs.

And those are just three of the dozens of complaints about contractors which the KSL Investigators regularly get from viewers.

In each of the three cases mentioned, the contractor’s customer never received a promised refund; was falsely told by the contractor that he had a contractor license; and each contractor had been cited by state regulators for improper business practices before getting hired. Cited, but not shut down.

That’s because Utah’s professional licensing department has a lot less power to hold contractors accountable than you might think.

“If they don’t have a license, we can only issue a citation,” director of Utah’s Division of Professional Licensing Mark Steinagel said.

Now make no mistake: contracting without a license is also a crime. Here in the Beehive State, it’s a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 for a first offense. It goes up to $2,000 for additional offenses.

In other states—such as Florida, California, and Colorado—unlicensed contracting can be a felony for people who do it more than once. That’s not the case in Utah. And getting Utah prosecutors to take these misdemeanor cases isn’t always easy, Steinagel said.

“We would have a hard time convincing prosecutors who have to deal with such tough things, like rapes and child abuse and murderers, and to convince them with their limited resources to take a case like this,” he said.

But he also said this is something that is improving.

Prosecutors filed criminal charges against each of the contractors in the cases I’ve already mentioned above. However, in two of those cases, the contractor didn’t show up to court. The one that did, the fencing contractor, told the judge he was broke.

“This is a conversation we have often with individuals,” Steinagel said. “We will do everything we can to try to resolve it because there are people who do wrong things. The money may be gone. That is extremely frustrating.”

Steinagel said he knows jilted homeowners are frustrated with the remedies, which are admittedly few. He says that is why folks must have those awkward conversations with a contractor before hiring them.

Don’t just ask for a license—verify it. You can look that up on the state’s licensing verification website.

While you’re at it, demand references and call them up. And always, always get a written contract with clear expectations.

You can also do the same public records requests that I do when reporting on these stories. Ask the Utah Department of Commerce for any records of action they have taken against your contractor. If you see that he or she has been cited repeatedly—run!

“When you see someone do this multiple times over many months,” Steinagel said. “They know that they have already taken money and used it inappropriately with multiple people, and yet they’re still going to do it to your mother.”

While operating without a license is not a felony in Utah, other contractor crimes can rise to that level. For example, in some cases where enough money has been taken by an absent contractor, prosecutors have levied “theft by deception” charges. That’s a crime that could mean jail time.