Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin and George Whalen, Director of the Rhode Island Contractors' Registration and Licensing Board (CRLB), located within the Rhode Island Department of Administration, announced that the Office of Attorney General and the CRLB successfully shut down a fraudulent paving contractor recently and secured $32,450 in restitution for 12 customers.
In July, the CRLB and Office of Attorney General received a number of complaints from consumers alleging negligent and improper work, breach of contract as well as allegations of elder abuse and price gouging by MTY Paving.
After an investigation, the CRLB revoked MTY Paving's contractor license, prohibiting the company from operating as a contractor in the State of Rhode Island. Further, the Office of Attorney General, which serves as legal counsel to the CRLB, filed a motion in Rhode Island Superior Court to enforce the actions taken by the CRLB and ordering MTY provide restitution or otherwise resolve the matters.
Following the injunction, the CRLB staff worked with MTY's attorneys to resolve the matters and to provide 12 claimant homeowners with $32,450 in total restitution.
"The homeowners in this case recognized they got duped by MTY Paving and did the right thing by contacting the CRLB and my Office to file a formal complaint, which allowed us to take action. I am glad we were able to provide restitution to the homeowners who trusted MTY Paving to provide a good serve at a fair price," said Attorney General Peter Kilmartin.
"As proven in this case, working as a team enables us to accomplish much more for homeowners. We hope to continue our efforts together to protect the consumers in our great state," said George Whalen.
About the Contractors' Registration and Licensing Board (CRLB) The mission of the CRLB is to safeguard consumers' rights related to contracted improvements to real property while providing a fair and positive environment for the construction industry. The CRLB is an office within the Rhode Island Department of Administration's Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance.
The Office of Attorney General provides legal counsel to the CRLB. As legal counsel to the Board, the Office enables residential homeowners to avail themselves of the dispute-resolution process at the CRLB in lieu of pursuing a private action in court. When a contractor fails to pay restitution to a homeowner as ordered by the CRLB, the Office of Attorney General plays an active role in enforcing compliance to ensure that homeowners have some measure of recourse. Through a cooperative partnership between our department's Civil and Criminal Divisions, unscrupulous contractors can be criminally prosecuted in District Court. This process has a proven record of restoring money owed to homeowners and of keeping bad contractors from repeating their offenses.