A man who bought a home in Florida is suing a contractor he hired to update and repair that home. He says that the contractor, perhaps trying to avoid any fees, pretended to be dead.
The man and his wife bought the home and paid the contractor around $7,600. However, they say he took way too long to do the job and didn’t even do high-quality work. He didn’t have the proper licenses and had not pulled permits.
They said that the house was so bad that they couldn’t live in it. They hired other contractors and invested another $15,000 to make repairs.
While doing this, the man’s family apparently told the couple that the contractor had been in a car accident. He’d been killed. They couldn’t get their money back.
The couple felt terrible, at first, but then rumors started flying, saying the man never actually died. The homeowner decided to start watching the house. He parked outside, in the dark, and waited for hours. This happened day after day, all with no sign of the allegedly-deceased contractor.
Then, at around 4:00 a.m., the contractor — very much alive — tried to sneak out of the house and get in his truck.
The homeowner said he was so angry when he saw it that he almost confronted him, but he held off. Instead, he’s just decided to sue for the money he says he’s owed.
Most construction disputes will never go to these extremes, but this case does show just how contentious construction cases can get and why it’s important to know your legal options.
Source: Tampa Bay Times, “Lawsuit: Florida contractor fakes death to dodge angry homeowners,” Mark Puente, accessed July 05, 2017
