To the editor:
Beware, homeowners. Crooks lurk in your future. Suppose you need a new driveway. You call Clever Contractors, a licensed concrete firm. The agent comes, gives you a bid, the work is done and you pay the bill.Shock. A few days later by certified mail you learn a lien is placed on your home by Crumble Cement. Clever has not paid Crumble for the concrete on your job. You call Crumble. You explain you had never made a deal with Crumble, had not received a bill for any concrete and did not know that Crumble had even been on your premises. "Makes no difference," says Crumble.
Emotionally jolted, you call the State Licensing Division. Clever was licensed all right, but the state can do nothing for you. You call Utah Homebuilders, city building inspectors, the Chamber of Commerce and Better Business Bureau. "Did you get a lien release?" someone asked. "What is that?" you say. Must a humble homeowner have a law degree to order a simple concrete job?
Conclusion: You are stuck. Your alternatives? Hire an attorney. Sue Clever. But its license expired days after your job and the firm has vanished. Besides, an attorney will cost as much as Crumble's concrete. You call your psychiatrist.
How can a contract exist where there is no acceptance of terms, no agreement and no recognition by both parties? He says you are not insane but have been cheated. Your barber suggests you run for the Legislature and get such unfair laws changed to protect the naive from the crooks. Or, you can let the lien stay and when you die, your kids can pay it off. By then, maybe the law will be changed.
Paul L. Harmon
Salt Lake City