By Xiomara Moore

DOVER — Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced Tuesday, Oct. 27, that the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Unit filed an administrative complaint against a contracting business, alleging misleading sales methods.

The unit claims that the owners of the Dover-based MasterCraft Contracting told homeowners that they were required to sign forms to receive free inspections. But, the complaint continues, the forms ended up being binding contracts with punitive cancellation penalties, which often locked consumers into services they did not want.

“Delaware families deserve honesty when they’re seeking home repairs — not deceptive tactics that turn a moment of need into an opportunity for exploitation,” Jennings noted in the Tuesday statement. “Contractors shouldn’t turn that vulnerability into a sales trap, weaponize fine print, or bully Delawareans with frivolous lawsuits.

“Our office will continue to take action against companies that prey on homeowners.”

The complaint claims that MasterCraft co-owners Majid Sefiane and David Caprario participated in door-to-door sales without door-to-door salesperson IDs, documentation required by law. While doing so, it adds, the men asked property owners to sign either initial agreements for service or forms for free inspections/estimates.

According to the Justice Department, the initial agreements were actually binding contracts and had “lengthy and complicated” terms on their last pages, which included cancellation clauses that read, “if insurance covered some part of the estimate (oftentimes stated by the contract as greater than 50%), the consumer would have no right to cancel the contract.”

For those who chose to cancel, MasterCraft would subject them to liquidated damages of one-third of the estimate amount, regardless of whether the work was completed, the report continues.

The complaint also alleges that the business would use the threat of lawsuits to force payment. Out of the 16 suits it has filed since 2020 seeking liquidated damages, none has been successful, the DOJ stated.

This is not the first time the Consumer Protection Unit has examined issues with MasterCraft. In 2022, an investigation found that Sefiane “intentionally concealed his identity and represented himself to consumers using the fictitious name ‘Michael Strong.’”

On the contractor’s Facebook page, some reviews are positive, but others share unsatisfied customers’ stories of paying the company in full, while their projects never got completed. One reviewer wrote in October 2025 that he would be filing a lawsuit against the company for an unfinished deck.

The DOJ report went on to note that MasterCraft placed Better Business Bureau logos on its documents, though it’s not accredited by any known organization.

With the complaint now filed by the Consumer Protection Unit, it will be assigned to an administrative hearing officer by Jennings. The unit’s director, Owen Lefkon, stated that he hopes MasterCraft will be given a cease-and-desist order, so it discontinues engaging in deceptive practices, and be ordered to pay fines for its alleged violations.

A call by the Daily State News to the business was not immediately returned Friday afternoon.

Homeowners who believe they have been misled by contractors can file complaints at attorneygeneral.delaware.gov/fraud/cmu/complaint.