Long Island family living in camper after contractor guts home and then vanishes

A couple on Long Island and their three young children have spent the past month living in a camper behind their home.To see their beautiful house from the outside, the scenario doesn’t make sense.But take one step inside, and the situation becomes very clear. The Salientino family lives in Shoreham and hired a contractor—and former friend—to remodel their home this summer.

They handed over $96,200 for various appliances and materials, and the contractor immediately got to work gutting the house. But that’s seemingly where the work has ended.When local news outlet ABC7 visited the family on their property, they found the inside of the home in shambles—nothing but exposed wiring, plywood floors, and spray-painted directions on where the kitchen appliances should be installed. Checking that your contractor is licensed can be accomplished by looking through online databases, like the Better Business Bureau, your local chamber of commerce, and trade associations.“Licensed contractors pay into a state fund that reimburses homeowners if the contractor does not complete the job in a satisfactory manner,” Morris Katz, owner of Katz Contracting, tells Realtor.com.It wasn’t until well after the damage was done that the family learned their contractor was actually on Suffolk County’s Consumer Affairs “Wall of Shame,” for operating without a valid contractor’s license.While licensing rules and regulations vary from state to state, even county to county in some places, it is still ill-advised to hire a contractor without a license regardless of the laws. You also want to make sure that your contractor has insurance.

Having an insured contractor means their work is backed by a provider, so if any damage is caused to your home in the process of a renovation, their work is covered.Most states have contractor insurance databases you can access online.   After you’ve tracked down a licensed contractor, your next step would be to check if ...