Judge orders fines and restitution for victims
SACRAMENTO -The Contractors State License Board (CSLB) and California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the settlement of a lawsuit today that will force SRVS Charge Inc. (SRVS) to pay $3 million in penalties and restitution.
This is the largest enforcement judgment in CSLB’s 80-year history.
Companies operated by SRVS, the parent company, cheated an estimated 6,000 Californians each year out of millions of dollars by charging exorbitant prices for substandard electrical, plumbing and heating/air conditioning repair performed by unlicensed and unqualified individuals.
"The Board is serious about cracking down on illegal operators who are ripping off consumers and giving licensed, legitimate contractors a bad name," said CSLB Registrar Steve Sands.
Months of investigation by CSLB found that SRVS had been involved in overpriced, substandard home repair since 1989. The defendants operated various service and repair companies that employed unlicensed electricians, plumbers, and heating and air-conditioning technicians in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the Sacramento region. These companies routinely targeted elderly Californians.
Over several years, CSLB and the Attorney General shut down affiliates of SRVS. But the defendants continued to run their company under a labyrinth of interchangeable business names and fraudulent contractor license numbers. When CSLB either revoked a license or received an excessive number of complaints, the company would establish a new corporate identity, and continue its bogus business practices.
The company’s use of multiple business names made it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to hold these fraudulent operators accountable for incompetent and incomplete work. These companies often denied their customers refunds, in spite of the "100% satisfaction guarantee" that were promised in their ads.
CSLB conducted undercover stings against service technicians suspected of using these fraudulent licenses and referred instances of the illegal activity to the San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Clara, and Sacramento County District Attorney’s Offices. In one instance, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office found that a service technician had also committed burglary and theft. That technician is now being prosecuted for those crimes.
The settlement was conducted in San Diego County Superior Court.