Home Improvement Contractor Faces Criminal Charges After Ghosting Client
Winter is delightful when you are warm inside your home. Under ideal circumstances, being snowed in for days feels like a cause for celebration. You can get creative modifying recipes so that you can prepare them with the ingredients already in your kitchen; you get to be proud of yourself for your frugality and your cooking ability. You can go in your room and read an entire book; when you emerge at mealtimes, your children get to see with their own eyes how much enjoyment someone can get from reading an entire book, and maybe one day they will take this lesson to heart. If enough days go by before the snow melts and your workplace reopens, you might even make some progress on decluttering your house. Of course, all of these plans hinge on having a functioning heating system. If your house is too cold, you can’t do anything except huddle under blankets by the fireplace, assuming that you have a fireplace. Imagine going through an entire winter playing phone tag with a home improvement contractor who promised to fix your heating system but eventually stopped responding. If you suffered financial losses because a home contractor abandoned an unfinished project, contact a Philadelphia home contractor fraud lawyer.
Contractor Collected Deposit for Heat Pump Replacement Project and Then Disappeared
A heat pump can be an economical and environmentally friendly way to keep your house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They work by drawing in heat from the ambient air outside and using electricity to make the temperature inside your house warmer or cooler. Like any home appliance, they require maintenance and eventual replacement.
As the temperatures grew cooler in the fall of 2022, a homeowner in Cumberland Country hired Jason Smith to replace the heat pump in his house. The two signed a contract in October 2022, and the customer paid Smith $5,500 as a deposit. Smith cashed the check and promptly stopped responding to communications from the client.
Eventually, the homeowner contacted the Lower Allen Township police. In December 2024, they served Smith, now 51, with an arrest warrant for charges of home improvement fraud. As of January 2025, the case against Smith is still pending.
Even if the home improvement contractor who defrauded you does not face criminal charges, or even if the contractor faces charges but is later acquitted, you still have the right to seek legal remedies in civil court. If the cost of the project was low, you might be able to recover compensation in small claims court. If you paid more than a few thousand dollars, you may need to go through the full process of filing a civil lawsuit.
Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com About Recovering From Home Improvement Fraud
A Philadelphia consumer law attorney can help you get back the money you lost if a home improvement contractor accepted payment but never completed the work. Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.
Source:
abc27.com/local-news/camp-hill-man-charged-with-home-improvement-fraud-after-refusing-to-replace-homeowners-heat-pump/
