More Ontario homeowners say they’ve been victims of paver scams, where they’ve been overpaid for shoddy work and left with piles of debris lining the driveway in their front yards.
Carol Simmons of Aurora said someone came to her door last month and said they were working in the area and wanted to know if she wanted her driveway paved.
“Our driveway desperately needed to be done, so we thought why not go with these people if they’re here in the area paving the driveways,” Simmons said.
Although the contractors were friendly at first, once the job was done, they immediately demanded $5,000 in cash and said they would then return to clean up a large pile of asphalt debris on their front lawn.
“We asked them if they were going to come back and clean up the mess in our front yard and they said yes, but they never came back,” Simmons said.
Asphalt debris is extremely heavy and Simmons has no way of disposing of it.
“We don’t have any more money for someone to take it, so we have to split it up and I’ll have to take it to the dump myself. I’m 60 years old, so I’m not happy about it,” Simmons said.
A paving company also went door to door in Pickering and Huu Nguyen also contracted a company to do his driveway.
But when the driveway was finished, Nuyen complained about the quality of the work, and the company promptly drove off, leaving a huge pile of asphalt waste in his front yard.
Nuygen’s neighbor, Mike Burchell, contacted CTV News concerned about Nuyen’s predicament and reached out to other people on his street who also had problems with the pavers that went door-to-door.
“What I see here is really unfair, it’s just unethical. This is an innocent man who paid them in full,” Burchell said.
Both Simmons and Nuyen tried to contact the asphalt companies to get them to come back and remove the asphalt debris, but in both cases the addresses on their contracts were false and their phone calls went unanswered.
The Barrie Police Department said some paving companies going door-to-door use “similar-sounding” names similar to legitimate and reputable paving businesses, but have no fixed location and operate as “fly-by-night” operators .
Barrie Police have issued an alert for paving scams in the Barrie area after being contacted by several victims and local businesses who said a contractor was using a business name that sounded very similar to their company name.
“The public needs to be aware that these pavement scams are happening. It’s not just in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), it’s happening north, east and west of the GTA,” said Peter Leon of Barrie Police Communications.
Leon added “we need to hold these individuals accountable and if we can, we will charge them with fraud because we are dealing with rogue operators.”
Simmons said it’s unfortunate because bad operators ruin the reputation of paving companies that work hard and do a good job. “I really think they’re hurting the industry,” he said.
Always be wary of anyone who comes to your home and tries to pave your driveway or for any service. Don’t be pressured, check references, don’t pay up front and remember you don’t have to talk to salespeople who come to your door.
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