There were quite a few comments in response to Friday’s post about a guy going door-to-door on our street offering tree trimming and landscaping services. Nothing unusual there, except that his business card listed what appears to be a fake contractors license number.
I wanted to let you know what happened, especially in light of the cynicism expressed by some about the likelihood of regulatory action.
Just a couple of hours after the item was posted, I received an email from a supervisor in the state’s Regulated Industries Complaints Office, which enforces licensing requirements for regulated professions and vocations. It encouraged me to file a complaint about the incident.
And I did.
Here’s the message I received:
Another state employee notified me of your recent blog regarding what appears to be an unlicensed landscaper using a non-existent license number. Depending on what he is offering/how much he charges, he may be offering contracting services for which a license is required. In any case, he appears to be using a fictitious license number. In 2012, the legislature enacted several laws to address unlicensed contracting including a statute that make is a misdemeanor to “use … any word, title, or representation to induce the false belief that the person is licensed under chapter 444 to engage in contracting activity.”
Please consider making a complaint to my office. The complaint can be anonymous; however, it is usually more difficult to establish a violation without testimony regarding how the card was used, or what representations were made by the individual. This individual may have been complained about before to my office. You can also report the individual to HPD, since it appears that what he is doing qualifies as a crime.
So I scanned the business card that had been given to me, which included the obviously incorrect and apparently false license number, and submitted it.
I don’t know about you, but I’m impressed by the proactive stance shown by RICO in this instance.
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Thank you, Ian. It’s good to know they’re following up on this.
The response is an indication of the wide reach of your blogging, Ian.
The posts discouraging people from reporting possible fraudulent activity seemed rather odd. Me thinks that mere cynicism was not the sole motivator. The contradictory and convoluted reasoning used in an attempt to convince everyone here that state regulators are do-nothing folks smacked of desperation. Almost as if some people are trying to protect somebody’s “side business.” Hmmm.
Perhaps you should say more about how you deduced the license number was fraudulent, or maybe give a link to the database.
I had a card dropped off the other day from someone offering similar services, the license on it started with a “W”. I looked over at https://pvl.ehawaii.gov/pvlsearch/ and couldn’t find any “license type codes” starting with W, but don’t know if that is the right or only place to look.
That “W” license number was the same thing I caught. There aren’t any contractors license categories that begin with a W. Actually, I don’t think any of the license codes start with W.
Huh. I wonder if it was the same crew; we’re in Kaimuki, so not all that far from you.
We had a similar guy do some concrete and rock wall work for us recently, it never occurred to me to check his license since he’d done work for a neighbor and it looked OK to us.
Allen,
I’m with you. Hawaii has a silly cultural habit of jumping back and forth between “aloha” and “in-your-face confrontational yelling!!!” and back to “aloha.”
otherwise known as: “passive-aggressive.”
people tend to avoid confronting problems then get all teenage emotional when problems begin unavoidable. this is falsely referred to as “respect”.
A “W” prefix sounds like a general excise tax license. You can search through the state GE tax license database at:
https://dotax.ehawaii.gov/tls/app
A friend emailed this comment to me:
————————————————
Today’s comments struck a stray brain cell. “W” is associated with the excise tax license individuals obtain for business such as consulting .
Check form G-49 from the dept. of taxation. See Tax ID line.
Years ago we had a “licensed” clairvoyant . Same story.