So the homeowner who calls for estimates finds that the unlicensed contractor is 10 percent lower.

(The agency can provide no assistance if the complainant had an unlicensed contractor.)

The number of unlicensed contractors, he said, is impossible to estimate.

Field office staff investigates consumer complaints against licensed and unlicensed contractors.

What a consumer doesn't understand is that if he works with an unlicensed contractor, it can invalidate any contract they have.

A state law allows the agency to seize unlicensed contractors' cars and trucks, which inspectors call tools of the contractors' trade.

In the investigation, many unlicensed contractors ended up being victims of their own quick responsiveness to calls from the undercover inspectors.

A crackdown by county officials has caught 61 unlicensed contractors working in Westchester.

The Consumer Affairs Department sprang a trap on 25 unlicensed contractors.

Gray, an unlicensed contractor, was accused of having done minimal work.