Pool company disappears after draining homeowners

Art Nadler

Friday, Jan. 30, 1998 | 10:19 a.m.

Homeowners Annette and Richard Laffey are mad -- mad that a local swimming pool company left them with an unfinished pool, and mad that the state Contractors Board didn't tell them about pre-existing customer complaints.

Esquire Pools, located at 3015 E. Sunset Road, appears to be out of business. The office is empty and no one answers the phone. The Contractors Board has attempted to reach them by certified mail, both in Las Vegas and at another office in Florida, but there has been no response.

"The office was vacated, and we have received no contact of where they have relocated," said Tom Knapp, director of investigations with the Contractors Board. "It's certainly not a dead issue. We want to know where the hell they are."

Esquire Pools stationery says it has been in business since 1960. But according to state records, it was only issued a license in Nevada on Oct. 14, 1996. Jean Arnold is listed as president and Lisa Marie Noll as secretary.

A receptionist who answered the company's phone in Florida said Thursday that Noll was not available for comment. She also said they had nothing to do with the Las Vegas company.

The whole scenario is all too familiar to the Laffeys, who have been following the reoccurring nightmare in Southern Nevada of unscrupulous builders taking money and not finishing swimming pools.

The Legislature last session passed stringent guidelines for swimming pool contractors to follow, and Clark County in November countered with its own rules and regulations. All have been designed to protect the consumer from getting ripped off.

So how could it happen again?

The Laffeys think the Contractors Board could have done more to protect them.

Annette Laffey said she had talked to inspector Dean Williams about Chuck Noll of Esquire Pools, who identified himself as the owner. She said Noll renigged on the contract to complete her $23,000 swimming pool by Dec. 19, 1997.

Laffey said she asked Williams if there were any complaints filed against the company, and she said he said there weren't any.

Two workmanship complaints, however, had been filed -- one on Oct. 13, 1997, and another on Dec. 14, 1997.

"We are not authorized to tell anybody if complaints have been filed," Williams said. "They (homeowners) have to live up to their contract, or they are in breach of the contract. We have no way of knowing if they (a pool company) will shut the door until they do it."

Laffey said based on Williams advice to honor her contract, she reluctantly gave a final check of $7,000 to John Starkovich, general manager of Esquire Pools.

The pool remains unfinished and in need of a deck, plastering, wall replacement, diving board and slide. Another contractor told Laffey it will cost her an additional $6,000 to finish the project.

As of Thursday, Knapp said seven complaints have been filed against Esquire Pools. Because the company moved without telling the Contractors Board, he said it is in violation and could face disciplinary action.

"It just makes me wonder who is out there to protect us," Annette Laffey said. "We are kind of at the mercy of the Contractors Board."

The Contractors Board's next meeting will be in Reno on Feb. 11. The board meets in Las Vegas, 4220 S. Maryland Parkway, Building D, Suite 800, at 8:45 a.m. on Feb. 24 and at 8 a.m. on Feb. 25.