Avondale disabled veteran out $37,800 after contractor fails to finish home addition
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A Pueblo County disabled veteran and his family are currently living in a construction zone and their life savings are gone.
Steve and Wendy Dunn said they paid a contractor for work on their home, but it was never completed. Now, their case has the attention of the Pueblo County District Attorney.
The couple moved to Avondale from Georgia for a better life and easier access to medicine for Wendy's epilepsy and lupus.
The Dunn's said they hired Legion Construction in August 2020. They wrote a $37,800 check on August 4 and gave it to the owner of the company Lucas Smith to start building an addition that would provide a handicap room and bathroom for Steve, a disabled veteran.
"He has a lot of mobility issues, he has breathing issues, of course he has PTSD, you know. He has to have place that's quie, that he can get to," Wendy said.
The addition also was supposed to include a room for their granddaughter, who was born in November.
"This was our life savings," Steve explained. "It was a blanket of deceit that I am having a hard time crawling out from under."
According to the sales contract Smith gave them, the Dunn's were required to pay 50% of the project price upfront. The couple ended up writing their initial check for 68% of the total project and were told the project would take five weeks. The contract required the Dunn's to pay 75% of the total project price when it was halfway completed.
"There's nails everywhere," Wendy explained. "We can't even park here our driveway is blocked."
The Dunn's told 13 Investigates after making several excuses about why the work wasn't getting done, Smith apparently asked for more money well before the halfway benchmark.
13 Investigates found Smith does not currently have a contractor license with the Pueblo Regional Building Department. State records show he filed for a business license nearly two weeks after the Dunn's paid him.
13 Investigates called Smith to figure out what was going on. Smith told us the Dunn's told him to stop working but the Dunn's say they only ever asked him to give the money back if he wasn't going to finish the job in a timely manner.
Here's a portion of the phone call 13 Investigator Chelsea Brentzel had with Smith:
Chelsea: "I saw you responded to them in a text saying it would be done by November 1st, it's December 4th or something now. When did they tell you to stop working?"
Smith: "I think I'm going to let the Sheriff's Department handle this. I'm compliant with everything I've been asked of"
Chelsea: "Did you spend ... did you spend"
Smith: "Are you their attorney?"
Chelsea: "No, I am an investigative reporter and I'm trying to understand why you were paid almost $38,000 and barely any work has been done and you haven't given any of that money back? Have you spent $38,000?
Smith: "I gave all of the information to the District Attorney, all of the receipts everything."
Chelsea: "That doesn't answer the question where the money is are you going to give it back to them?"
Smith hung up without answering whether or not he spent the money. 13 Investigates contacted him several times after but didn't get a response.
The Dunn's filed a report with the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office in November.
For now, the couple says they don't have more money to hire someone else to finish the addition they desperately need.
"This was our retirement, this was it, and now this is it. He destroyed it and he's hurt us so bad," Wendy said.
The Pueblo County District Attorney has asked the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office to look into the Dunn's case.
After 13 Investigates got involved, the Dunn's say a detective came out to interview them this week.
If you have a situation you want our team to look into, email us at 13Investigates@krdo.com.
