$ 33,000.00!
That’s how much a woman told the Troubleshooters she paid a contractor to remodel her house.
So she’s called us for help.
Marylu Garcia’s plan was to build her dream house.
To add on to this one because her family was growing.
Her son was going to be a dad, and his new family would be living here, with her.
2 new bedrooms and a bath were to be built up here.
She’s already paid Pablo Castillo of PDC Construction to do everything from putting a new roof on, to new walls, floors, paint, and more.
And do it all to city code so it passes inspection.
All for $46,000.00.
For starters, Garcia told us Castillo told her the city told him a permit was not required for the work.
But she hired a second contractor, who did pull the necessary permit.
Garcia pointed out the substantial water damage inside her home because Castillo didn’t come anywhere close to finishing the job.
And the new ceilings around the house were not done by Castillo, she insists.
They were done by another contractor.
So she wrote a letter to Castillo, which read in part, “my family can’t live like this. $33,000.00 is a lot of money for you not to care. Please be professional and take care of this.”
And because she says Castillo has not taken care of it, her son, her new grandchild, and daughter-in-law can’t live here, yet.
“Now the baby’s somewhere else with the mom, and that’s not cool, because that’s the plan to build a bigger house to be together.”
The Troubleshooters tried calling Castillo, but his mailbox was full and not accepting new messages.
And no one answered the door this morning at the address we have for Castillo on the city’s south side.
Garcia says she’s gone to CCPD with her story, but since this seems to be more of a civil case, she says they’ve passed.
There is still a lot of work to be done here. A lot.
And it’s going to cost a lot of money, which Garcia says she doesn’t have anymore.
We checked with the city Development Services department.
They said no one named Pablo Castillo ever applied for a permit for work at Garcia’s house.
In fact, the only permit requested was for the roof.
And that was pulled just last month.
