Editorial: Get tough on shoddy contractors

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 8:46 a.m.

For far too long, unprofessional swimming pool contractors have been roaming the Las Vegas Valley ripping off consumers. They have left in their wake not only poor workmanship, but also in some cases mud holes where the pools should have been built. Worse yet is that many such consumers, who refused to pay off loans for unfinished or shoddy work, are at risk of losing their homes through foreclosure.

Put yourself in the shoes of those consumers and you can easily see why they would be upset. The state adopted new pool regulations in 1997 following hundreds of complaints about unscrupulous contractors, but it is now obvious that those revisions did not go far enough.

The latest fiasco involves former customers of the now-defunct Cascade Pools of Las Vegas, who have gone to court in an effort to stop foreclosures against them. The state Contractors Board yanked the license of former Cascade owner Gregory Majeroff last fall for failing to make full disclosure to customers about pool construction. He was also chastised by the board for failing to disclose to consumers his ownership in United Federal Financial Corp., another defunct company that was involved in pool construction loans. But this did not stop distraught customers from getting foreclosure notices.

That is why we strongly urge the Nevada Legislature this session to pass Senate Bill 216, authored by state Sens. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, and Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas. Their bill, which is supported by the Contractors Board, would close many of the loopholes that allowed the situation with Cascade to occur. SB216 would make it illegal to foreclose on a homeowner for a loan involving an incomplete swimming pool. Pool contractors also would be forbidden from affiliating with loan companies or even from referring customers to particular lenders.

This is a sound piece of consumer legislation because it will help force pool companies to complete jobs and build pools to contracted specifications if they hope to get paid. SB216 also would boost consumer confidence in the swimming pool industry by adding backbone to existing regulations. It is our hope that passage of this bill will make shady pool contractors a thing of the past.