Ohio AG: Over $130K swindled from homeowners; Three men facing lawsuit

COLUMBUS — Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is suing a home landscaping contractor and his partners for allegedly swindling more than $130,000 from homeowners.

Daryl Allen, the contractor, is accused of taking payments for decks that were never built, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office stated in a press release.

Allen had already been prohibited from conducting a construction business after the Attorney General’s Office accused the contractor of shoddy home-improvement work.

In December 2019, Yost’s Consumer Protection Section filed a lawsuit against Allen and his company, Deck Builders Unlimited. In January 2021, the court prohibited Allen from conducting business until he paid more than $47,000 in consumer damages and a $50,000 civil penalty. However, he has not paid either dues.

To circumvent the restriction, Allen allegedly teamed up with two men, Bernard Crist and Shane Bates, who registered two new deck-building companies with the Ohio Secretary of State, according to the lawsuit. The three operated Good News Builders and Columbus Deck Co. LLC.

“Name changes don’t make bad business practices disappear,” Yost said. “My Consumer Protection Section is here to safeguard homeowners from these scammers.”

The lawsuit is in response to 12 unresolved complaints, one against Columbus Deck Co. LLC and 11 against Good News Builders, all of which were submitted to Yost’s Consumer Protection Section and the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the spokesperson stated.

The 12 complaints totaled $132,139.80 in financial losses with cases dating back to September 2020, the spokesperson informed.

Allen, Crist, and Bates are accused of violating the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act by accepting money from consumers without delivering the promised goods or services or providing shoddy work and failing to correct it, according to the lawsuit.

The defendants are also accused of violating the Ohio Home Solicitations Sales Act by failing to provide consumers with proper notice of the three-day right of rescission.

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The state’s filing seeks to require the defendants to reimburse the customers, pay civil penalties, and pay court costs. It also requests an order to prevent the defendants from engaging in business as a supplier until those debts are paid.

Yost reminds consumers to take the following steps before signing a contract for home-improvement services:

Check with the Attorney General’s Office and BBB for any complaints against the contractor.
Make sure your contract includes notice of your right to cancel a door-to-door sale. Contractors generally cannot start working until the three-day “cooling-off” period ends.
Get written estimates from several contractors before making a final decision.
Check to make sure that the written contract includes any verbal promises, the start and end dates, and an itemized list of all significant costs, labor and services.
Be wary if the contract requires a large down payment or requires that you write a check directly to the contractor instead of his or her company.
Check with the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office to confirm that the business is registered properly.

Anyone suspecting unfair business practices should contact the Ohio Attorney General’s Office at their website or call 800-282-0515.

Ohio AG: Over $130K swindled from homeowners; Three men facing lawsuit

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