Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SANDY – Dennis and Camille Deloach had big plans for their home's backyard: A path of flagstones, in-ground trampoline, a putting green and more. But the Deloaches say the landscapers they hired for the job only dug a giant hole for the trampoline, and then they vanished.
"We just lost track of him," Dennis Deloach said. "Called him, texted him, couldn't get a hold of him. Emailed. Everything."
Deloach says he hired the team after they knocked on his door.
"They said they've done landscaping and they've done some for some neighbors," he said.
They worked out a bid. Deloach cut a check for $17,000 – a 50% deposit. But as soon as the job started, he said things went downhill quickly.
"They came once or twice here for a few minutes," he said. "Then things started getting suspicious."
Now that things have stopped altogether, the Deloaches want their money back. Dennis Deloach said the landscapers agreed.
"Oh, absolutely. I've got texts. I've got everything that, where they've said we'll get it back," he said.
A history of abandonment
When the promised refund didn't happen, the couple called the KSL Investigators.
We reached out to All-Time Utah Tree Care and Landscaping. Company representatives refused to talk to us on camera. In emails, they wrote it is their "job to pay back the homeowners' money ... there is no running away." But that can't happen right now, they wrote, because "strangers are stalking us."
Digging deeper, we found Camille and Dennis Deloach are not alone. There is no shortage of online reviews from customers claiming they were jilted. And court records show that All-Time Utah Tree Care has been sued in small claims court twice and is currently facing criminal charges in Bountiful.
There is also an important lack of record.
"We didn't find any existence of any (contractor) license," said Mark Steinagel, director of Utah's Division of Professional Licensing, or DOPL. "They were telling everybody they had a license. You have to have a (contractor) license to go put a hole in somebody's backyard."
DOPL issued the Deloaches' landscapers three separate citations. One is under All-Time Utah Tree Care, the other two under a former business name, Faith Control Tree Specialist. Each citation was for not having a license. But despite the numerous complaints, writing tickets is all Utah's licensing folks have the power to do.
"We can only issue a citation and then try to get somebody to help us with the criminal action," Steinagel said.
The Deloaches say they know they're not the first to lose money to All-Time Utah Tree Care. They're worried they won't be the last.
"As hard as this is, we can absorb it," said Dennis Deloach. "But I just don't want this to happen to people that couldn't."
Contractors walking off jobs is a nasty pattern in Utah, one the KSL Investigators have reported on many times. With so many millions being lost to these schemes, it begs the question: is enough being done to shut down those responsible? KSL will examine that question in a follow-up story Tuesday night.
