Last Friday, the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing announced it had completed a two-week sting operation to catch fraudulent construction activity. As a result of the investigation, over $20,000 in fines were issued across the state. Changes in industry and technology have forced state officials to find new ways of finding rule-breakers.
The investigation focused on trouble spots of unlicensed activity across northern and southern Utah. Mark Steinagel, Director of the DOPL, said that trouble spots rose alongside increased demands in the housing market.
“The trouble spot isn’t necessarily a location, it’s kind of a practice. So, the trouble spot is, more and more people going into the industry, bidding jobs, representing they’re licensed without being licensed," he said. "Then many of those, they’ll take money from somebody and run, or not finish a job, or other things. We decided to hit both northern Utah and southern Utah, targeting those issues.”
The division has often relied on complaints called in by the public in order to nab unlicensed contractors. Steinagel said that the internet has changed the way officials investigate.
“Historically, our primary source of complaints has been people calling in. In today’s world, we’re finding that the newer advertising on Craigslist or other online classified ads," he said. "Or we’ll find them with door-to-door hang tags or other types of advertising like that. We also, even without calls, try to go through areas of high development and hit building jobs; we call them field checks.”
A total of 32 citations were issued during the investigation.
