Contractor charged with fraud in crumbling foundation insurance claim

Apr. 6—A Tolland man charged with filing a false insurance claim to repair the crumbling foundation on his home submitted fake documents, according to a police affidavit supporting his arrest.

The man, William Sima, 42, also was charged last month with attempted first-degree larceny, in connection with an application he filed in January 2020.

He was investigated by the Tolland chief state's attorney's office.

The affidavit provides the following details:

In January of 2019, the owner of a home on Babcock Road in Tolland submitted a claim for foundation repair with the captive insurance company created by the state to help homeowners with crumbling foundations.

Sima purchased the property sometime over the next few months and in May notified the claims services company used by insurer. Sima was told that he should get quotes for a foundation replacement from at least two contractors on an approved list.

Sima responded that he had already started replacing the foundation with an approved contractor, using money obtained from a renovation loan. That made him ineligible for the claim the previous owner made, in which the captive insurer would pay to replace the foundation.

According to the claims company employee, Sima asked her if she could pretend the work hadn't started yet, and he would put it on hold until the claim was processed.

The employee said she couldn't and told Sima he would have to cancel the existing contract and apply to be reimbursed after the foundation was completed.

There was limited communication from Sima over the following months, leading an employee from the claims services company to visit Sima's home.

The employee saw construction equipment bearing Sima's name in use for the foundation repairs and advised Sima that he couldn't participate in the work.

Sima said another contractor was doing the work, and he had nothing to do with the project.

Sima submitted a claim for the foundation work in January 2020. Applicants are required to confirm that if they are the homeowner and a contractor, that they did not perform any of the work. Sima answered that he hadn't.

The claim wasn't reviewed until March 2022, when an employee discovered that a construction contract and a worksheet itemizing expenses were missing from the documents and were requested from Sima.

Sima submitted invoices for materials totaling about $31,000 and an invoice detailing the total cost of the foundation replacement, but the document wasn't signed by Sima or the contractor and didn't look like the typical contract prepared by that contractor.

Sima later responded that he did not have a contract, as the contractor was friend he had a verbal agreement with. The contractor sold him materials and assisted with the work using Sima's machinery, he said.

When investigators contacted the contractor this year, he explained that Sima had asked him to submit an invoice stating that he had done the work on Sima's home. The contractor said he refused, because that wasn't true.

The contractor was shown the invoice Sima submitted using the contractor's name and confirmed that it wasn't his.

Sima told investigators in March that the contractor initially agreed to work for him as a subcontractor, but ended up being too busy with other foundation work to complete the job at that time. Instead, Sima said, the contractor agreed to teach him how to complete the work and sent employees to the house a few times and showed up himself several times.

Sima said he didn't know how the crumbling foundation claims process worked before he began the replacement and he was confused when the contractor wouldn't complete an invoice.

For breaking news and happenings in North Central Connecticut, follow Matthew Knox on Twitter: @MatthewPKnoxJI, and Facebook: Matthew P. Knox JI.

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