DENVER — Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman announced Wednesday that a business that improperly installed HVAC systems will be ordered to may about $1.7 million in penalties and restitution.
Westminster-based Mile High Heating and Cooling violated the Colorado Consumer Protection Act, according to Coffman.
The company will have to pay $1.5 million in civil penalties and $205,146 in consumer restitution and state attorney fees.
One year ago, a Denver judge ordered the company to temporarily stop operations.
The decision followed a FOX31 Problem Solvers investigation that showed the company discriminated against people of color and Coffman prompting an investigation into the company’s deceptive business practices.
The attorney general’s office said Mile High Heating and Cooling installed about 1,000 furnaces, hot water heaters and AC units in Colorado homes and deliberately failed to obtain building permits.
In addition to being ordered to pay the penalties, Owner Kevin Dykman and Manager Kasey Dykman will also be prohibited from selling or installing furnaces, boilers, hot water heaters, AC units and any other kind of HVAC equipment.
“The Court found that the Dykmans’ ‘antiregulatory belief(s)’ had caused injury to the public, leaving hundreds of consumers with a potentially hazardous HVAC installation in their homes,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement Wednesday.
“I am relieved that the court has put these defendants out of the HVAC business for good,” said Coffman. “There is absolutely no place in Colorado for businesses that jeopardize the health and safety of consumers, and my office will vigorously prosecute anyone who engages in this type of egregious behavior.”
Testimony in the case included that of an elderly Sheridan woman, who said Mile High Heating and Cooling installed a furnace in her house and appeared to not know what they were doing. Later that night, her home filled with carbon monoxide and she was forced to leave.
The judge in the case said the company “repeatedly deceived consumers” by failing to get building permits and falsely representing that its technicians had the skills to safely service and install HVAC systems.
For information about what do do about HVAC equipment that may not have been inspected, click here or call 800-222-4444.
