I want to tell your readers about a situation involving a landscaper in this county that didn’t perform his work and would not return our $3,000 down payment.
The state has a criminal charge that is called home improvement fraud, which is available to homeowners who have been cheated. This is a criminal charge that is much more effective than civil court. I would encourage anyone who has hired a contractor to do work on your property and it has not been completed to check into this option.
We had no out-of-pocket cost to collect this money. We filed a police report and supplied evidence. The prosecuting attorney did the rest. The landscaper was arrested and forced to post a cash bond. To make a long story short we ended up with the $3,000 from the cash bond. This is much better than a civil judgment you will never see. We want to thank the Kosciusko County sheriff’s office, prosecuting attorney’s office and Linda from victims assistance. It was 19 months from the time we paid the down payment till we got it back. The wheels of justice turn slow but, in the end we did get justice.
