It’s not unusual for conflict to arise between homeowners and contractors when one party feels shorted by the other. Whether the issue is poor communication, shoddy workmanship or late payment, there are a number of reasons for one to be unhappy with the other.
But it’s unusual that such disagreements result in the contractor literally taking a sledgehammer to their work to “repossess” it when they feel cheated.
Homeowner Amber Trucke has shared a video that is getting all sorts of reactions following a job gone wrong on her Colorado Springs, Colorado home, after working with Jordan and Terry from Dream Home Remodels of Colorado.
According to Trucke, the job took two weeks to complete when four days had been quoted. The job was finished while she was at work on Sept. 10. She’d already paid $3,000 out of the $7,500 but wanted to make sure she was happy with the work they’d done before paying the rest.
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Based on the photos and list Trucke has shared on Facebook, there were quite a few points she still wanted to address with them. She felt that the overall workmanship was poor, saying the contractors left holes in the door frame, used the wrong tile around the edges, got paint on things and didn’t order glass in time.
The problems really started when the company requested payment following the completion of the work that Friday. Trucke messaged them back to say she was at work and would like to see the final work in person, test out the water and wait for the door and faucets (which had not yet been installed) before paying the rest.
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Jordan responded to say that $500 could be held back until the glass was installed, but the rest was due that day.
What followed is what the company told KKTV-TV was a communication breakdown: “Communication broke down and resulted in our company repossessing a tile shower. It has never happened before and is not something that is made regular practice.”
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Less than 24 hours after a request for payment, Jordan and Terry showed up at the home and were let in by Trucke’s roommate.
Security camera footage shows the two walking to the house, and as they pass, Terry flips off the camera. The video from social media shows what happened next.
Terry, visibly upset, destroyed the newly tiled shower. According to Trucke, not only did he undo all the work that had just been done, but he caused cracks in the drywall of the adjoining room.
“We put weeks into this, thousands of dollars into this,” Terry can be heard saying in the clip. “Is somebody going to pay me?”
“Let me tell you something,” he continued. “No contractor in the state of Colorado will fix that when they found out I took it back because you refused to pay me. No one.”
According to KKTV, in a statement they released, the company also said that “the pictures being circulated were taken before final fixes and cleanups. And the video being circulated has been cut to only show our repossession.”
Upon hearing the story, many people have sided with the contractors, as they felt it was unfair of the homeowner to withhold payment.
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Trucke has posted more of her screenshots of their messages and photos of the work both before and after the incident, and more people seem to be siding with her.
Dream Home Remodels has taken down their Facebook page, and a post that Jordan initially shared explaining why they repossessed the bathroom has also been removed. They also refused to provide copies of the paperwork they claimed to have that proved Trucke was in the wrong, citing privacy reasons.
“I haven’t actually cried about this yet,” Trucke said. “I think it just hit me.
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“I don’t have the words for what happened in this room … For the $3,300 I’ve already paid, I have now nothing.”
Trucke has promised she will be taking legal action, and the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department and local police are looking into the issue.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
