RI contractor in hot water with court after shoddy repairs and price gouging revealed

PROVIDENCE – A Superior Court judge has barred a contractor from performing work, ruling that the state showed he engaged in a pattern of deceptive practices by inflating prices and performing shoddy repairs.

Judge Kevin McHugh granted the state’s request for an injunction to block Michael Bresette and his two companies, BTTR LLC and HAM Inc., from doing work after the state established that he had violated the terms of a consent decree and the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act by continuing to do work and collect money.

“[T]he state has demonstrated that a balancing of the equities weighs in favor of the public interest of preventing defendants from continuing to conduct their business and causing harm to Rhode Island consumers,” McHugh wrote this week.

Bresette’s lawyer, William P. Devereaux, said he respectfully disagreed with aspects of the decision. His client has closed up shop after fixing most of the problematic work and is not under the misconception that he will get his license back, he said.

“It’s difficult to defend against [the Deceptive Trade Practices Act]. What’s unfair? Life’s unfair,” Devereaux said Friday. “By and large, he has a good crew. He just ran afoul of regulatory issues too many times.”

Devereaux said the state can also use hearsay evidence in building a case, which prevents the defense from cross-examining some witnesses.

Under the act, which state lawmakers revised last year to empower the attorney general to enforce violations, people can be found in violation based on representations by the state that they used unfair “methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce.” The state Supreme Court has stated that in enacting the law, legislators “intended to declare unlawful a broad variety of activities that are unfair or deceptive[.]”

'Everybody's scrambling': RI law enforcement agencies are grappling with a staff crisis

Is RI's AG looking to move up? Neronha's lively Twitter feed fuels political speculation

Pattern of alleged deceptive actions

In the ruling, McHugh chronicled Bresette's rocky relationship with the state, which suspended his contractor's license after uncovering “numerous allegations of dishonest or fraudulent conduct, multiple cases of not obtaining building permits, multiple documented violations of the state building code” and bathrooms left in unusable condition.

The state moved to reinstate the registration a month later after entering a consent decree in which Bresette agreed to submit to monitoring, revise company policies and provide written contracts from then on that identify the scope of all work for its customers.

Principal State Building Code Official Matthew Lambert conducted site investigations shortly thereafter and found violations of the agreement, as well as issues that included subpar workmanship, incomplete projects and discrepancies between work billed for and services provided, according to the ruling. The state reinstated the suspension in March 2022.

Attorney general sues

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha’s office sued in Superior Court on July 19, 2022, alleging Bresette continued to solicit business in Rhode Island in violation of the suspension and the state Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The court granted a temporary restraining order in July.

McHugh held a series of hearings on the state’s claims in which Lambert testified that he conducted at least 12 property inspections while investigating BTTR and discovered that no permits were pulled for the plumbing, electrical and construction work. In addition, the state learned that the companies were employing door-to-door sales tactics, performing incomplete or improper work, billing customers and insurance companies for work that was never performed and inflating costs, according to the ruling.

The findings by the state included that an unlicensed worker had performed subpar plumbing work at an 80-year-old woman’s home in Woonsocket without supplying a written contract, in violation of the decree, and that he billed the insurance company for work that was not performed.

State establishes a pattern of alleged subpar work

In Providence, Lambert learned that BTTR brushed waste from a sewage backup into a sump pump that blew out into the backyard – of particular concern to the homeowner because his wife was pregnant and the couple had pets.

At a West Warwick home, the state discovered uneven and chipped tile work, almost no water pressure in a newly installed bathroom and a bathtub that was not as ordered. (Lambert acknowledged that BTTR fixed the issues after being contacted.)

The court determined that, based on that evidence, the state had shown that Bresette’s companies had “acted unfairly or unethically in its dealings with consumers and that their practice caused substantial injury by charging for work not completed.”

The court found the businesses in contempt in August, concluding that the state demonstrated that BTTR had violated the restraining order, barring the company from seeking payments from customers or their insurers.

“The state has shown that continued harm to Rhode Island consumers is `presently threatened' if defendants are able to continue engaging in contracting work. Defendants have shown an unwillingness to abide by orders from both DBR and this court … At this point, further court action is necessary to prevent future harm to Rhode Island consumers,” McHugh wrote in finding Bresette and his companies in violation.

Medicaid fraud: Substance treatment provider accused of faking records and stealing millions from Medicaid

Owner faces other allegations

Bresette, 52, also faces a charge of failing to secure workers compensation insurance for his employees. He has pleaded not guilty.

In 2014, the state police charged him with the unlawful appropriation of an insurance settlement and obtaining more than $1,500 under false pretenses. He admitted to the charges and reached a deferred sentencing agreement with the state, court records show.

Bresette previously owned AAA Public Insurance Adjusters and Imperial Restoration of West Warwick, but his insurance-adjuster license was revoked by the state Department of Business Regulation in 2012 based on criminal charges that included insurance fraud and obtaining money under false pretenses.

Secretary of state records indicated that Bresette incorporated BTTR LLC in 2016 as a renovation and remediation company. HAM Inc. was started the same year under the fictitious name of 911 Restoration of Rhode Island.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI contractor Michael Bresette barred from work after shoddy repairs