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Contact Reporter Cindy Cesare

The Nevada State Contractors Board receives about 4,000 complaints a year in the valley. They say that homebuilders are getting better at reacting to the complaints in order to avoid lawsuits. Learn what you should do if you have a construction complaint.

Steve Wilson, a Seven Hills resident, said, "Well look, that's how it looked brand new. Steve Wilson can walk around his Seven Hills home and find construction defects everywhere. "The trim, the molding, the cracks -- I mean everything it just wasn't done right. You can see the joints in the wood are supposed to come together. There's a quarter to half inch gap in them."

The Nevada State Contractors Board says the newest trend is that homebuilders, like Wilson's in Seven Hills, is working with the homeowners years after they purchased the home. If the resident has construction defects they say it's a way to avoid lawsuits.

Steve Wilson says, "Yeah, they responded. But if you saw the quality of work they do to fix something, it's terrible. It's absolutely terrible."

George Lyford at the Nevada State Contractors Board says that residents like Wilson should file a complaint with his agency where a contractor can be fined and ultimately loose their license.

Lyford said, "If the license is revoked, the problem is not fixed, the homeowner can come back to us and make a claim under the residential recovery fund where the fund will pay the homeowner their actual damages to get the problem fixed."

The fund can pay up to $35,000 per homeowner. But the resident could still choose to sue.

That's something that Steve Wilson has chosen not to do and he may try to mend the cracks himself. "I wouldn't trade this view for anything. But if I could've had the house built differently or a better quality, I would do that in a heartbeat."

The state contractors board has this advice if you're building a home:

• Check with the contractors board to make sure they are properly licensed.
• Get several estimates before you start construction.
• Make sure all agreements are in writing.
• And if you have problems, call the Nevada State Contractors Board at 486-1100.

Contractor charged: A fraudulent unlicensed contractor has pleaded guilty to 44 felony charges. Frank Boyd Hall of the Las Vegas based Curtis Construction Company is charged with obtaining money under false pretenses, diversion of funds and theft.

Hall filed a plea agreement, which states that he'll pay back all his victims, sign a civil confession of judgment and will not work in the contracting business again.

Hall was previously with Capitol Builders until his license was revoked by the Nevada State Contractors Board in 2003.

He'll be sentenced this June.