Utah cracks down on unlicensed contractors

SALT LAKE CITY — The state is cracking down on unlicensed contractors. They conducted a crackdown in October after getting complaints about jobs being abandoned.

The Division of Professional Licensing’s Chief investigator Bob Main said contractors would leave fully paid for jobs half done.

“They’ll bid a job and then not finish it for one reason or another and leave a home owner a half done job and majority of money paid off often times,” said Main. 

The Utah Division of Professional Licensing handed out about 130 thousand dollars in fines, mostly involving construction companies who hired unlicensed contractors.

Main said the violators were turned over to law enforcement who then also followed up with the victims. But Main said the cost to pursue legal action is often not worth it. 

“And the cost to go after an individual. The attorney fees might out weight what they could possibly get back and there’s no guarantee they’re going to get it back,” said Main. 

The DOPL tries to help as much as they can, but Main said they can only go so far. 

“In those cases we take action as far as administrative. And then we refer them to law enforcement in hope that law enforcement will take up the case. We also let them know that we’d be willing to testify in any criminal proceeding and work with law enforcement.” 

The sting was conducted last month from October 14-to-the 25th. They ended up issuing 77 citations in all. Many of the violations were found with just one construction company.

Main said licensed construction professionals are less likely to defraud consumers and leave them with half finished jobs.