HARRISBURG, DAUPHIN CO. (WOLF) — Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday is asking a Lackawanna County court to permanently prohibit N. Stanley Paving, Inc. and its owner, Nicholas E. Stanley, from working as home-improvement contractors in the state, claiming a pattern of deceptive business practices that left some customers with unfinished work and thousands of dollars in additional expenses.
The civil suit alleges Dalton-based company and Stanley violated Pennsylvania’s Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act and Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law. Claims are unproven in court.
Five consumer cases detailed in the lawsuit involved $66,000 in originally contracted work, with homeowners allegedly paying at least $88,925 after added charges and repair costs.
The lawsuit says N. Stanley Paving registered as a Pennsylvania home improvement contractor in April 2011. That registration expired Sept. 21, 2025, and had not been renewed at the time of the complaint’s filing. The Attorney General’s Office states the defendants kept doing home improvement work without a valid registration.
The state also claims the defendants employed high-pressure sales tactics, changed prices without proper written change orders, abandoned contracted work, performed substandard work and failed to honor warranties.
The Attorney General’s office stated it had received at least 14 consumer complaints about the company’s business practices.
The lawsuit references a number of instances of homeowners in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
One case involved a senior citizen in Lackawanna County who hired the company in 2021 to pave and seal a driveway. The state says the company never returned to do the sealcoating despite multiple calls and promises. Ultimately, the homeowner paid a different contractor $1,025 to finish the job.
In December 2023, the defendants allegedly solicited the homeowner at their residence, and the Luzerne County senior citizen agreed to a $23,000 driveway project. The complaint says the company was supposed to put the soil back that was removed during the project and also seal the driveway but did not do either. The homeowner later paid another contractor $900 to do work to address water pooling on the property.
Another Lackawanna County customer reportedly saw problems the day after paying for a $5,000 driveway job with a five-year warranty. The complaint states that parts of the driveway were not rolled or straightened properly, and that the defendants did not return to fix the issues, despite the homeowner’s repeated attempts to reach out to them.
In one case, a senior citizen from Luzerne County paid $17,000 for paving and sealcoating, according to the complaint. The state says the sealcoating was never completed and the homeowner ended up paying another paving company more than $5,000 to fix the work the state says was done poorly.
The complaint also details an incident involving an elderly person in Dauphin County in April 2026.
The state says the defendants approached the homeowner and told him they had some leftover materials from another job. The homeowner approved a $16,000 driveway project and gave a $8,000 down payment.
The defendants reportedly sought $36,152 upon completion of the project. The suit claims that additional terms and charges were tacked onto the contract after the homeowner signed the original agreement.
The homeowner paid another $24,000 out of fear that a lien could be placed on the property, bringing the total paid to $32,000 for what the state says was supposed to be a $16,000 project to start with.
The Commonwealth says similar conduct took place in several cases, including instances where consumers were told the company had “extra materials” from previous jobs before prices were allegedly hiked after work was completed. The suit describes the alleged practice as a “bait-and-switch” tactic.
“Consumers relied on this contractor to complete the work they paid for and were left with unfinished or shoddy projects and unexpected costs,” Sunday said. “This action is aimed at holding the defendants accountable and helping make consumers whole after they had to pay additional costs out of pocket to fix Stanley’s bad workmanship,” said Attorney General Moody.
The Attorney General is seeking an order from the court that would require restitution for affected consumers and civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation and up to $3,000 per violation involving consumers age 60 or older.
The state also wants to prohibit the defendants from working as home-improvement contractors in Pennsylvania, to bar them from applying for contractor registration and to require them to pay back profits the state alleges were obtained thru unfair or deceptive practices and to pay investigation and litigation costs.
If you believe you may have been impacted by the defendants’ business practices, you may file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office at www.attorneygeneral.gov or by calling 1-800-441-2555 or emailing scams@attorneygeneral.gov.