Alan Bush finally has a new driveway. It was just finished earlier this year.
Finally, because he’d first planned to re-do it nearly six years ago.
Back in 2021, Gulf Coast News detailed Bush’s driveway disaster : how he’d paid a deposit to a paver company that never did the work.
He tried filing a lawsuit in small claims court, but that went nowhere.
He filed reports with law enforcement, but to this day, no one from the company has been criminally charged.
Bush felt like a crime had been committed. All these years later, he still remembers what the officer told him while taking the report.
"He said more than likely, he'll get away with it. Because it’s so hard to prove intent,” Bush said.
“I think the state attorneys would argue that they don't have the weapons that they should have,” attorney Kevin Jursinski told Gulf Coast News.
Jursinski specializes in Construction Law and teaches classes on the rules in Florida.
“The biggest challenge for the state attorneys or law enforcement is, what is the intent of the contractor? Is he just poor management, doesn't do a very good job?” Jursinski said. “Do they have the intent to take that person's deposit and not build a house? That's the line that's drawn, because if you don't have criminal intent, you don't have a crime."
In 2019, Florida lawmakers worked to better define criminal intent.
Language added to the state law now requires contractors to apply for permits within 30 days of being paid. Once permits are issued, the contractor has to start work within 90 days.
If that doesn’t happen, it could be ruled as “intent to defraud.”
But Bush’s case proves those changes didn’t solve everything.
“The laws seem to have no teeth,” he said. “There's nothing to stop this from continuing.”
Earlier this year, brand new legislation was filed. It would have required new education for contractors, created a time frame for money to be returned to customers and added certain criminal penalties.
But just this month, it died in both the state House and Senate.
Bush isn’t sure what the answer is to stopping bad contractors. He just wants someone to find one.
“I would 100 percent want them to be held accountable. One way or another,” he said.
It can be tough to get your money back when a job goes south. Bush never did.
That’s why the key is what you do before you hire someone. Jursinski said it’s important to research the contractor and make sure they have the proper licensing. It’s also important to fully read what you’re signing. He also advises against giving contractors big deposits.
“People give too much money up front to the contractor,” he said. “That's a recipe for disaster every time."
Jursinski also pointed people to the Florida Construction Industry Recovery Fund , which is available to people if they win a civil case but cannot collect a judgment from a contractor.
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