Titan Solar absent at Las Vegas disciplinary hearing; fined thousands of dollars

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The state contractors board fined a solar installer hundreds of thousands of dollars at a disciplinary hearing Tuesday, even after the beleaguered company closed its doors in Nevada and filed bankruptcy in each of the 40 states in which it is – or was – licensed to do business.

The board conducted the hearing without anyone from Titan Solar of Nevada present to defend itself while it postponed a separate hearing against Titan’s president.

Titan faced 29 open complaints from homeowners ranging from leaving unfinished worksites to creating fraudulent contracts to destroying people’s homes, claims to which homeowners testified at Tuesday’s meeting.

“This is some of the shoddy work they did, just ruining our roof,” Renee Viray, another homeowner said as she showed the administrative judge photos of her home after a failed installation.

“They’re awful and I’m glad they’re out of business,” Charlyne Cutler, a homeowner who attends every Contractors Board meeting against Titan Solar.

“My signature was obtained fraudulently,” Suan Hastings, a homeowner in Northern Nevada appearing in the board’s Reno office said. “It was signed illegally.”

Prior to Titan’s disciplinary hearing, the board heard separately from the president of its Nevada operation. Kenneth Williams faces two disciplinary charges from the board.

“The board seeks to forever ban this gentleman and the officers from ever being a license-holder for another company,” Jack Juan, the board’s prosecutor said Tuesday.

But the board agreed to postpone that hearing until October because Williams testified that he could not access the documents he needed from Titan’s offices.

“I was told if I didn’t leave the building — the offices of the company — that I would be arrested and removed from the facility,” Williams told the board.

Pressed by the judge’s questioning of how a company president would not have access to crucial documents, Williams said he was advised to leave the offices and has not been able to regain access.

“We’ve asked every day if we can get into the building and there’s been no response from the individual who is supposed to let us into the building,” Williams testified. Ultimately Williams and his lawyer left the table at which he had been testifying and when the hearing against TItan began, that table was empty for the remainder of the day’s proceedings.

The Contractors Board recommends getting three bids for any work you plan to have a contractor do and checking each license on their website. If the contractor you are considering using is not licensed, the board advises against using that person or paying that contractor any money.

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