Evening star., 1960-06-06

had to have a crooked notary
later to swear that the papers
were signed in his presence.
| I'VE would figure out every
thing with pen and then hand
it to the homeowner to sign on
the dotted line. We were taught
always to use a pen. 1t was sup
posed to be psychological. A pen
seems more permanent and
gives the homeowner conf
dence. Also, he has to sign his
name in ink. We weren't sup
posed to give him time to think
while we switched from a PEN
Gil to a pen.
Comes the Surprise
Nine times out of ten, the
first time these homeowners
knew they had signed a second
trust note was when they got
the payment book from the
buyer of the note.
I'VE were taught to make the
contracts for the work as vague
as possible. We would write
Remove wallpaper in living
room and replace with paint,
but we said nothing about fill
ing holes. Or we'd write that
we would put on roofing, but
say nothing about needing
flashing around the edges.
When the building inspector
came and said the roof needed
flashing, we would tell the
homeowner that would cost
more. The more unspecific we
made the contract, the more we
could add charges to it later"
Now Mr.. X explained the
final irony-how homeowners
have to pay for work that is
never done.
If the homeowner has bor-
rowed on his home to pay the
contractor and his note-or
promise to pay-haS been sold
by the contractor to a third
person, the homeowner has to
pay the third person regardless
of whether the contractor has
done the work.
If the contractor has ar
ranged an FHA-insured loan
for the homeowner, the bank
or savings and loan associa-
ton will pay the contractor
after the homeowner and the
contractor have both signed a
paper saying the work is COM
pleted. This paper is known as
a completion certificate. Once
the lending institution has
paid the contractor, the home
owner has to start making pay
ments on the loan.
The trick, said Mr.. x, is to
get the homeowner to sign the
completion certificate before
the work is done.
When we handed the home
owner that sheaf of papers to
sign," he said, wed include
the completion certificate. AS
soon as the loan was arranged,
we'd send out a workman.
Maybe he'd tear out some steps.
We'd call this 'spiking the job
We had done some work so the
homeowner couldn't get out of
the contract and we couldn't
be accused of taking money
under false pretenseS.
Then we'd take the signed
completion certificate to the
bank and in a few days, we'd
get our money. After that, we'd
take our time doing the work.
Some jobs never did get done"
FHA Ignored
Mr.. x explained how 'FHA
regulations were ignored both
as a sales pitch and to tie up
the homeowners.
I'VE would tell the home
owner that we would write up
the contract for more than the
improvements were worth and
give him the difference to pay
of other debts or to buy a
television set or a washing ma
chine. We didn't tell the home
owner it was against the law
to use FILA home improvement
loans for anything but home
improvement.
"As soon as we got our
money from the bank, we
would give the homeowner a
piece of it. That way. he
wouldn't start complaining
about the work not being done.
1t really tied him up"
The promise to kick back
part of the loan for something
beside home improvements has
a variation. Mr.. x stayed here,
but the travelling home i'm
provement conman keeps the
kickback as part of his com
mission"
Methods Vary
Mr.. x said, that when he first
went into business for himself,
he intended to operate honestly
but he found himself selling
jobs faster than he could per-
form. So he used a variety of
methods to stall off the GUS
tomers-methods that many
Washington area homeowners
now know only too we'll.
Il would tell them I was
waiting for the architect to
draw up the plans or that the
materials were unavailable
right now or that there was a
lot of red tape to getting a per-
nit to do the work. Sometimes,
I'd blame it on the weather
"a legitimate excuse sometimes
used by legitimate contractors).
When I couldn't stall them
any other way, I'd say, All
right, don't worry. I'll make the