The theme of many of our Troubleshooters reports is about contractors who get paid, but don’t finish the job.
And tonight’s story has the same theme, but also, a surprising twist to what the homeowner did to get the work done.
Some day soon, a house on Riverview in Calallen, will be for sale.
3 bedroom 2 bath. About 1500 square feet on a 3/4 acre lot.
Jennifer Kindred figures it’ll take another 2-3 months before she can successfully flip it.
In October 2018, she hired Raymond Cavazos, of Apex Construction Group, to level it, cut down trees, repair the plumbing and electrical, and put a new roof on.
She says she hired him because he told her he’d get it done quickly.
“In and out. a month. And that was really the main thing was that, a month. So that’s how he got me.”
Total cost ? $32, 000.00 in 4 payments, including a $12,000.00 deposit.
Kindred claims she’s paid Cavazos checks totaling $19,000.00
“$8000, and then $4000, $4000, and then $3000.”
Kindred further told us Cavazos asked for more money, and threatened to put a lien on the house, even tho the job wasn’t done on time.
“At any point did you tell Raymond Cavazos, get out ? You’re fired ? I’m not paying you any more money. You haven’t done what you said you were going to do. And you certainly haven’t done it in a month, get out ? After 2 months, and lies, lies, nothing really being done, I told him I need my money back.”
Kindred eventually found out that Raymond Cavazos was on Nueces County’s Top 10 Most Wanted List for January 2019 for assault.
So Kindred decided, enough ! And took matters into her own hands. Literally.
“I’m learning everything guys. I’m a plumber. Foundation.”
“So you wanna loosen that. And always put a plate on top as well, because if you don’t, it’ll dig into the board, and crack your board,” she demonstrated in a self-made video while she worked on her house’s foundation
She estimates it’ll cost another $20,000.00 to do what needs to be done. What Cavazos didn’t get done.
By the way,you know how she learned all these ‘do-it-yourself’ skills ? By watching videos on you tube.
Now she’s turned it into a business called ‘Dirty Girl Renovations.’
“Oh yeah ! I feel powerful.”
On Thursday, we tried contacting Raymond Cavazos by phone and text, to give him an opportunity to give us his side of this story.
As of 6;30 Thursday, he has not contacted us.
