Victim Location 80237
Type of a scam Home Improvement
My husband and I recently bought a house in Denver & had a few electrical items that were to be addressed by the sellers, per the inspection resolution. We tried for nearly a month to obtain an invoice for the electrical services the sellers said were meant to be completed either Dec 7 or 8, 2019 so we could rest assured they were addressed. We finally received a SquareUp invoice forwarded to us via email from our realtor dated Dec 30, 2019 which stated some of the electrical work (installing proper receptacles and fixing the wiring to an attic fan) was paid for, in cash for $350, on Dec 31, 2019. The sellers told our realtor that the individual they hired to complete the work was a certified master electrician and a friend of the sellers. Our objection resolution indicated 14 areas that needed to be addressed; this invoice covers only two. Following closing, my husband and I hired a licensed electrician to do an inspection and he confirmed that one of the items indicated on the invoice was not completed at all & provided pictures that showed little to no change from the pictures taken by our inspector during the home inspection. Further, the address listed in the invoice is residential and the phone number provided simply rings five times before disconnecting. Business email and web site were not provided nor are they easily found via a Google search. Additionally, when searching for licensed electricians in Colorado at https://apps.colorado.gov/dora/licensing/Lookup/LicenseLookup.aspx there are no listings for "Lewis electric llp" and only one listing for "Lewis electric" which brings up "Lewis Electric, Inc" which is a different company in the Denver metro area (which I discovered when I called to try to get more fidelity on the invoice). We didn’t lose money through this transaction because the "work" was "paid" by the sellers, but we will have to pay for legitimate services ourselves if the sellers refuse to reimburse us. Also, come to find out, it takes about 20 minutes to setup a SquareUp account and an EIN number is not required. It looks like a bogus or semi-bogus invoice was created to give the appearance that licensed/certified work was completed when it wasn’t in order to attempt to meet the legal obligation of the inspection resolution.