My Sunday story described the Glaab family’s angst-inducing home renovation project in St. Louis Park, in which their original contractor performed framing and siding work that fell short of the state building code. Before you hire a contractor, you can check the state’s database that will show whether a company or individual is licensed, and whether there has been any enforcement action. The state hasn’t taken any enforcement action against the Glaabs’ contractor, North End Construction of Burnsville. But each month, it issues orders, fines and takes away the licenses of wayward builders. The monthly lists of shame are posted here.

Cathy Thunberg doesn’t want anyone to think she’s the victim of a terrible misfortune, despite her two dishwasher floods - both from defective parts installed by a Best Buy technician. Still, she’s puzzled why she would be reimbursed for the repairs for the first flood, but not the second. Get the full story in my Sunday Whistleblower column.

As our able intern Emily Banks reported, an Andover house gave its owners more than they bargained for when the septic system rose up against them. Did you have an unwelcome surprise when you bought your house? What did you do about it?

A Minneapolis homeowner pays $13,500 for work that’s never done. A Forest Lake man hires a contractor to make his home handicapped-accessible, but the work is shoddy and the contractor didn’t have the right permits. A Center City company pays a roofing subcontractor with a $5,500 check that bounces. A Ramsey company builds homes for alleged straw buyers in a suspected mortgage fraud scheme.

These are four of the cases that resulted in recent enforcement actions by the state agency that oversees licensed residential building contractors. Every month, the Construction Codes and Licensing Division of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry gets tough with a number of residential building contractors, remodelers and roofers. Charlie Durenberger, manager of the division’s enforcement services unit, issues cease-and-desist orders and fines and sometimes revokes the licenses of the worst violators. April’s enforcement roundup included 26 companies and individual contractors who had run afoul of the state. In March, there were 23 enforcement actions.

In the Minneapolis case, the homeowner complained in October. On April 15, the contractor, Hayward Glenn Carr of Andover, signed a consent order with the state. He wouldn’t be a contractor any more, and he would have to meet the terms of a “pay back” agreement with the homeowner or else face a $20,000 fine.

On March 31, ACR Construction and Maintenance, LLC of Roseville got a $15,000 fine for its unpermitted work on the Forest Lake man’s home. The company won’t have to pay $10,000 if “they comply with a list of restrictions and guidelines for dealing with customers,” Durenberger told me in an email. “We also fined their unlicensed plumbing subcontractor $3,920 on the plumbing side.”

Also on March 31, D.R. Martineau Construction, Inc. of Center City signed a consent order that gave it a “censure,” a requirement to pay the subcontractor and a $4,000 fine, $3,000 of which would be stayed “on the condition that they not engage in any future violations.” The company also has to pay its subs within 10 days of receiving full payment from its customers.

Just Wednesday, the state yanked the licenses of two contractors linked to mortgage fraud schemes. Chris Williams, senior investigator with the agency, wrote that one of them, Mark V Construction, “built homes for alleged straw buyers” and “on at least one of the properties, Mark V (the seller) failed to disclose on the settlement statement, both the facilitator and property management ‘fees.’ On another property, Mark V signed a $50,000+ check from their closing proceeds (total) to GC Properties, however, neither Mark V or Chorjay Yang from GC Properties have any knowledge of the services that were provided.”

“Mark V is no longer in business and agreed to the revocation of its license,” Williams wrote. Company president Markum Olson signed the consent order.

The other contractor whose license was revoked Wednesday, Northwood Properties and Construction LLC, was based in Brainerd.

If you’ve got a complaint about a building contractor, roofer, remodeler or manufactured home installer, the agency tells you what to do here. And let Whistleblower know about it too.