'Don't let it happen to you,' cries homeowner who lost $8,000 having patio renovated – she missed a major warning sign | J1J17K7 | 2024-03-06 19:08:01
Barbara Ojito admitted she missed one main warning sign when hiring a fellow churchgoer in Las Vegas.
A HOMEOWNER has urged others to do proper background checks of contractors after dropping $eight,000 during a patio revamp.
Barbara Ojito admitted she missed one main warning sign when hiring a fellow churchgoer in Las Vegas.
She was eager to have a shaded patio constructed off her house where she and her brother, Julio, might sit and loosen up outside, stated the Las Vegas Sun.
But as an alternative, she's been left with a raft of issues – together with a leaking roof.
Ojito, 66, employed a person, Alfred Martin Lagunas, whom she had met at church, to start out work in December 2022.
However, she claimed, regardless of giving him $8,000 in cash, he had disappeared by September 2023.
"I was a victim of hiring anyone that doesn't have a license.
"Don't hire anybody off the road like I did, although I knew this man for years, however he took off with the money after I paid him off," Ojito alleged.
"I'm stuck proper now, no cash, no nothing.
"I had this porch constructed for my brother who is handicapped for the two of us to take pleasure in," she informed KVVU Las Vegas.
"He took off with the money, he by no means came back, he by no means returned my calls. I went via hell, forwards and backwards to the purpose where I received sick.
"Don't let this happen to you. Rent someone that's obtained a license," she urged.
Her grievance is at present being investigated by the Nevada State Contractors Board which oversees the integrity and professionalism of the development business in Nevada.
The board can nice those found to have flouted strict rules, with prosecution of unlicensed contracting instances pursued by means of courtroom.
"The accused unlicensed contractor is Alfred Martin Lagunas, " stated Randy Escamilla, the board's public info officer.
"He has been convicted as soon as before for contracting and not using a license.
"He's now charged with a gross misdemeanor and if convicted for contracting with no license, he will face a maximum penalty of up to a $10,000 wonderful and as much as a yr within the Clark County Jail," Escamilla added.
"We consider there are lots of victims of unlicensed contractors who do not know the right way to call us.
"You do not want to be embarrassed. You do not want to be afraid. You do not want to be a sufferer," he added.
Lagunas is scheduled to seem at a March 11 listening to.
The U.S. Sun Online was unable to contact him for comment.
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