During 2020, the Big Horn Basin experienced a rapid influx of people moving into the area from other states. The pandemic had many of them yearning for a better, freer quality of life. Subsequently, the real estate market has boomed, with many houses selling sight unseen. 

With a slim housing inventory, many of these transplants have elected to have their houses custom built. Contractors are booked out sometimes a couple years. 

While Cody and Powell enforce building codes and require contractors to be licensed, Park County has no code enforcement. There are a number of permit requirements, as well as fines for violations, but the county doesn’t employ anyone to inspect construction. 

“Some people think Park County covers everything,” said Park County Planning Director Joy Hill. 

Most of the Basin’s contractors serve their customers well, but an incompetent or dishonest contractor can operate in rural areas with little oversight. And after incurring huge losses, there’s little customers can do. 

Significant losses

Dan and Jenny Catone hired Mike Beyer to build their home in 2019. After the home developed serious problems, the Catones hired an engineer who concluded the construction didn’t meet even the most basic housing construction codes. The Catones ended up paying over a half-million dollars on a home they’ll now have to tear down. The Catones sued Beyer and can only say the suit was “resolved.” 

Casey Fisher hired Beyer to build a shop. The work didn’t have any significant problems, but Fisher nearly had a lien put on his property because Beyer didn’t pay for lumber he purchased for the project. 

The Catones’ and Fisher’s experiences are similar to what three residents who hired Wiggins Construction went through between the spring of 2020 and last summer. 

Mike Foster paid Wiggins to build a house on a piece of property south of Powell. That project remains incomplete, after Foster paid Wiggins Construction thousands of dollars.

Debbie and Stan LaBlue paid the company over $90,000 to set up their double-wide mobile home northeast of Powell and build a garage and backyard patio. There were long delays and substandard work and the contractor never finished the projects, the LaBlues say.

They ended up spending a large chunk of their savings to hire other contractors to complete the work they’d hired Wiggins to do. By the time they paid all those unexpected expenses, they say they couldn’t afford to hire lawyers to recoup their losses.

The LaBlues did file a complaint with the Wyoming Attorney General Office’s Consumer Protection and Antitrust Unit, and have been told the office is conducting an investigation.

“At this point, I’m not holding my breath,” Stan LaBlue said.

Meanwhile, Tony Harrison hired Wiggins last year to build a home on his property in Basin. He took legal action against the company and its owners, Josh and Todd Wiggins, and won a default judgment of $45,145, which includes attorney’s fees. 

In his lawsuit, Harrison says he paid the company $66,100 from a construction loan. However, he says Wiggins Construction only performed about $28,000 in excavation and foundation work before abandoning the project.

Since Harrison won a judgment, a lien was placed on a house Josh Wiggins owned in Lovell. Amid other claims on the property, Harrison said he received only $4,000 from its sale, but he continues to pursue other assets and expects he’ll eventually recoup his losses.

Harrison also filed a complaint with the attorney general, but hasn’t seen anything come of it. 

Wiggins Construction Owner Josh Wiggins didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article or an earlier story. Wiggins told Cowboy State Daily in September that he was told by his lawyer not to respond to requests for an interview. He also told Cowboy State Daily that none of his contracts had been canceled; Wiggins said he was just having labor and supply issues and would eventually complete his projects.

Criminal options

After exhausting their civil options, the Catones pursued criminal complaints against their contractor, contacting the Park County Sheriff’s Office. However, Dan Catone was told it was a civil matter and the sheriff’s office couldn’t get involved.

Park County Sheriff Scott Steward said his office has pursued charges in cases where materials were purchased, billed to the homeowner and then returned and credited to the contractor, without a refund to the homeowner.

“Most cases are however civil,” Steward said.

Park County Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Skoric agreed most complaints against contractors are civil, but he said there is a point where the matter could become criminal. 

Speaking generally, Skoric said a prosecutor might take a look at a case involving a contractor where multiple people speak of complaints that go beyond customer dissatisfaction. 

“We would welcome people reporting on a contractor who takes money and just doesn’t perform the job,” he said.

Skoric added he’d discuss the topic with the sheriff’s office, so dispatchers could be aware of the types of cases the county attorney’s office would be interested in reviewing. 

A place of trust

Like many Wyomingites, Harrison said he likes the government staying out of people’s business and letting consumers take responsibility for protecting themselves. However, with so little recourse in these situations, he thinks it’s probably time for the state to take a larger role. 

“Wyoming needs to do something to protect the consumer,” Harrison said.

Dan Catone not only has a background in finance, he has training in forensic accounting that can help spot fraudulent practices. All his knowledge wasn’t enough to protect him and his family. Catone said the problem is, you have to be able to operate with some amount of trust with the people you deal with. That was the foundation for his relationship with Mike Beyer, the contractor.

“I think when people are taken advantage of, it comes from a place of trust,” Catone said.

If a customer mistakenly trusts the wrong contractors, there’s not much more to protect them. 

Park County does require contractors to get a building permit for many types of construction, which currently cost $50. They also are required to get a permit for the septic system, which is regulated by the state, and houses along a county road may need right of way permits for utilities. Even a driveway needs a permit, though “people are popping in driveways all the time without a permit,” said Hill, the county’s planning director. 

When people perform these actions without a permit, it triggers a penalty process, including a $150 investigation fee and up to $750 per day fine for each violation.

Hill advised that when people hire a contractor, it’s a good idea to check with the county to be sure the contractor got all the required permits. Just because a contractor built a septic system, for example, doesn’t mean it was permitted. 

With no routine inspections, violations generally come to the county’s attention only if there’s a complaint or a person is dealing with the county on another issue.

Hill explained the cost to inspect every construction project in the county would be quite high. Travel times in the sparsely populated county can make each inspection take hours, depending on where the property is located. She estimates if the county performed building inspections, it would add $1,000 or more to the cost of a building permit. 

“That’s in line with some of the municipalities,” Hill said. 

Some time ago, Park County Commissioner Lloyd Thiel proposed the county enact some kind of enforcement to protect people from bad and unscrupulous contractors.

“It went nowhere,” Thiel said.

One of the biggest concerns is enforcement doesn’t come cheap. Between assessing new fees  to cover the cost of inspections and adding regulatory hoops for contractors to jump through, more regulations will add some costs in an already expensive housing market. 

However, as more stories of people having bad experiences with contractors come to light, Thiel thinks it might be time to try to bring the problem back to the commission and see if there are ways it can be addressed. 

For now, the best thing people can do is protect themselves. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to check a contractor’s references, which means actually calling them up and talking to them. Get estimates in writing and never let work begin without a signed contract. Verify the contractor’s license and insurance. People should also get a lien waiver, which protects them should the contractor fail to pay subcontractors or suppliers. 

It’s also good to check the contractor’s rating on the BBB’s website. Wiggins Construction’s accreditation in the BBB was revoked in October after it failed to respond to two complaints.

No resolution

Jen and Dan Catones did pursue one last avenue to try getting some peace of mind from their ordeal. The couple’s lawyer told them not to have any contact with their contractor while the matter was in litigation, but after the lawsuit was “resolved,” Jen Catone personally confronted Mike Beyer. 

In her view, Beyer had built a home that nearly collapsed upon the couple and their four children, and she just wanted to hear him apologize.

Jen said that Beyer — who didn’t respond to multiple calls and voicemails from the Tribune — walked away. Dan Catone also sought an apology through email and received a denial of responsibility.

“It would give us some kind of resolution,” Dan said. “We have a government that’s not interested. We have a local county that isn’t interested. We have an attorney general and prosecutors — they’re not interested. Even the sheriff considers it a civil matter. We were hoping for one small act of contrition. That’s all.”