BIA urgently warns flood victims of contractor fraud

Mar 26
2 min read

Well it's been an interesting week here at Cypac. The Manoa floods were bad, like really bad. In fact, some of our own footage ended up on Hawaii News Now. The good news is that nobody was hurt and well, maybe some of us wanted an excuse to get new cars anyway 🫠

In response, BIA Hawaii posted public service announcement urging flood victims to be especially vigilant of contractor fraud. BIA Hawaii represents the state’s largest network of craftsmen and contractors. With this most recent disaster being called the island’s most severe flooding in over two decades, you can bet that we will need trusted, qualified professionals to support the rebuilding effort ahead.

The BIA is encouraging us to do a thorough research of our choice of contractors before committing to any home repair or rebuilding work to avoid scams, shoddy work and straight up having someone take your money and run.

The Takeaway

BIA Hawaii has put together their top 5 tips to selecting a contractor:

Check them out online. The DCCA’s Professional Vocational Licensing website is at https://cca.hawaii.gov/pvl/
Verify what they tell you. The contractor’s permanent business address can be looked up in Hawaii's Business Express portal: https://hbe.ehawaii.gov/documents/search.html
Get it in writing. Insist on a complete, clearly written contract before work begins. It will sure help you sleep at night.
Ask for references. And when they give them to you, actually call and follow up to see what kind of work they did.
Avoid paying for cash up front. This is the simplest way contractor scams work. Someone comes, makes promises, asks for a large cash deposit, then disappears. If you're talking to a contractor that's pressuring you into a large up-front deposit, it might be time to seek a second opinion.