Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has accused a Marysville couple of violating the state’s Consumer Sales Practices Act by accepting payments for door and window installations without performing the agreed-upon work, or in some cases providing subpar results. Ransom and Maggie Kulasa and their business, MBR LLC, are named in the suit, filed last week in Union County Court of Common Pleas.
Yost took action after complaints from more than 20 consumers in six central Ohio counties alleged subpar workmanship or failure to provide services. Due to the disparities of locations in which the alleged violations occurred, the court case was filed in the defendants’ county of residence, Union County.
In the suit, the Kulasas are described as “suppliers” providing “home improvement goods and services, specifically window and door repair and installation services.” Additionally, according to the initial complaint, the Kulasas are no longer operating MBR LLC, which they registered with the Ohio Secretary of State in May 2021. The complaint says the two “are now operating as New View Windows of Worthington, LLC, a company registered with the Ohio Secretary of State on April 19, 2011.”
The couple, through MBR, are alleged to have accepted down payments and other monetary deposits for work they “failed to deliver.”
“In some instances,” the initial complaint reads, “after receiving payment, defendants began work under the contract, but then failed to complete the work or provide a timely refund.”
The document continues, alleging that sometimes “Defendants provided shoddy, substandard, or incomplete home repair services … and then failed to correct such services.” At other times they didn’t provide refunds when they did not perform the work, in some cases even after customer requests for refunds, the complaint alleges.
It’s these examples that the Ohio Attorney General’s office points to, suggesting the Kulasas have committed “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in violation of the Failure to Deliver Rule … by accepting money from consumers for goods and services and then permitting eight weeks to elapse without making shipment or delivery of the goods and services ordered, making a full refund, advising the consumers of the duration of an extended delay and offering to send a refund within two weeks if so required, or furnishing similar goods or services of equal or greater value as a good faith substitute.”
The complaint also mentions that, “[i]n at least one instance, Defendants failed to pay a building materials distributor, which resulted in that company placing a lien on a consumer’s home.”
Yost’s office continues, saying that the defendants, in doing so, violated “the CSPA, R.C., 1345.02 (A) by performing shoddy and substandard work and then failing to correct such work.”
The Attorney General’s Office is suggesting a number of remedies, including:
- “a permanent injunction enjoining the Defendants … from engaging in the acts and practices of which Plaintiff complains and from further violations of the CSPA R.C., 1345.01 et seq., its Substantive Rule, Ohio Adm.Code 109:4-3-01 et seq;”
- an injunction “prohibiting the Defendants from engaging in business as a supplier in any consumer transactions” in Ohio until they “have satisfied all monetary obligations ordered by this Court, and any other Court in Ohio” as related to consumer transactions;
- a civil penalty fine up to $25,000 for each separate and appropriate violation of the CSPA pursuant to R.C. 1345.07(D); and
- for the Defendants to pay all the damages incurred by consumers “injured by the conduct of the Defendants” as outlined in the complaint, as well as court costs, and plaintiff’s costs.
“Taking money and giving nothing in return is wrong, plain and simple,” Yost said in a press release. “A business contract means something, and in this case, it means they have to pay up.”