HANCOCK COUNTY — A county couple who invested tens of thousands of dollars to have some remodeling work done on their home ended up calling law enforcement on the man they contracted to do the work when it wasn’t finished.
Prosecutor Brent Eaton noted cases like this are a good reminder for homeowners to do their research on a contractor prior to any business transaction.
Steven Nathan Norris, 41, 6800 block of West Brier Creek Drive, New Palestine, was arrested Feb. 5 and charged with a Level 6 felony count of home improvement fraud where the contract price is more than $10,000. He’s also facing a Class A misdemeanor count of home improvement fraud where the contract price is $1,000 or more.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the homeowners, who live in New Palestine, told sheriff’s department investigators that they had contracted with Norris, the owner of Limitless Builders LLC, for two projects at their home, but he had not finished the work.
One contract was for a renovation project in their kitchen totaling $30,321.06. The other was for other work throughout the house for a total cost of $27,477.09.
While the kitchen remodeling was completed, the rest of the renovations associated with the second contract were not, the homeowners said, according to the affidavit. Norris had stopped working on the project in September 2019, they said.
Norris, the affidavit said, had, among other issues, failed to do work on any of the bedrooms or finish a brick wall that surrounds their fireplace, as they had hired him to do.
The couple entered into a third contract with Norris in October 2019 for changes in the first two contracts that included fixing items that were broken during the remodeling of the kitchen, for which an additional charge of $2,781.61 was added, the affidavit said.
Once the third contract was signed, Norris never showed up and gave the couple a series of excuses for not completing the work, the affidavit said. He told the victims that he had suffered from lung problems; that he had been in jail; and that he had fallen at another job, the affidavit said, adding that he also told the couple he had suffered from COVID-19.
In the summer of 2020, Norris returned to the residence and began working on the fireplace wall. The wall has been half-completed ever since, the affidavit said.
Norris left several tools in the homeowners’ garage. They contacted their insurance company to see if it could help with the incomplete work. The insurance company investigated the work and reached out to Norris in late fall 2020, the affidavit said.
Norris told the homeowners he could not talk to them because he had contacted a lawyer, the affidavit said. In January, Norris informed the couple he would not be returning to complete the work because of an animosity between himself and the homeowners, the affidavit added.
Eaton, whose office filed the charges against Norris, said it’s important for consumers to check to see if the people they hire to do work on their homes are insured or bonded.
“See if they may have reviews with the Better Business Bureau or perhaps other private sites where there are reviews of service,” Eaton said. “Generally, it’s useful to get things in writing if possible to make certain there is not a disagreement on what service you wish to have and the costs of the service.”
Eaton said the best business-customer relationships are those in which both the buyer and seller are clear as to what work is expected to be done and what is to be paid in what time frame.
He said it’s always prudent to avoid providers who don’t seem to be insured or bonded, or ones that may not have reviews of their work.
“Avoid providers that seem evasive or non-responsive to your questions and seem to be in a hurry to get your money,” Eaton said. “It can be helpful to rely upon people in your life that you trust like friends, family, social groups to see what if any personal experience they may have had with a provider.”
All of these things can help to prevent an unfortunate misunderstanding, or even keep a consumer from becoming the victim of a potential scam or crime.
Norris made an initial appearance in Hancock County Superior Court 2. He was released on a $200 cash bond on Tuesday, Feb. 9, and is set to have a pretrial conference in early April.
