Home Improvement Fraud Charges for Plymouth Township Couple Accused of Swindling Clients

How financially feasible it is to monetize your hobby depends on what your hobby is. Most of the time, you stop deriving enjoyment from your hobby turned business long before your enterprise turns financially profitable. Just ask the poor soul who had so much fun dressing up her dog in cute outfits and taking pictures of it that she decided to try to launch a social media career for the pooch. She maxed out her credit cards buying expensive camera equipment and dog clothes. As everyone could have predicted, the dog’s career as an Internet celebrity never got off the ground. If your hobby is DIY home improvements instead of taking an inherently cute animal and making it marginally cuter by dressing it in expensive clothes, don’t get too carried away with Schadenfreude just yet. Making a home contracting business profitable is not as easy as it sounds. Home improvement projects are time consuming, and when you are operating a small business, you are constantly racing against the clock to ensure that clients do not go online, or worse, to the police, and complain that you accepted payment but then did not complete the job. From a client’s perspective, whether a building contractor fell behind schedule for reasons outside their control or whether the contractor defrauded you depends on whether the contractor has a history of walking away from unfinished projects. If you lost money when a home contractor abandoned an unfinished project in your house, contact a Philadelphia home contractor fraud lawyer.

Five Clients Pressed Criminal Charges, but Many Others Complained

Eric and Rachelle Catenacci are a married couple who own a home contracting business in Plymouth Township, and they have gotten on the bad side of many of their former clients, if we judge from the reviews of them online and from the criminal complaint that prosecutors filed against them earlier this year. The five clients mentioned as accusers in the criminal complaint describe a similar pattern of dishonest business practices by the couple, and other clients who did not press criminal charges but spoke to journalists about the couple corroborated these complaints.

The clients who complained said that they paid Mr. and Mrs. Catenacci a deposit for a home renovation project. The project would then run into delays, with the defendants making excuses about why they had not gotten started on the work. When they told the clients that they were ready to start, they requested additional payment for expenses that they claimed were unforeseen, and most of the time, the projects did not make it to completion. In some cases, the defendants even left building materials outdoors to spoil or left structures of the clients’ houses exposed to the elements.

Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com About Home Improvement Fraud

A Philadelphia consumer law attorney can help you if a home contractor misled you about the cost or timeframe for a home improvement project.  Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.

Source:

nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/catenacci-construction-eric-rachel-arrested-charged-fraud-incomplete-work-plymouth-township/4265767/