LA PORTE – Hurricane Harvey survivors who felt ripped off by a contractor filed lawsuits.
Monica Daly’s Pearland house is still a mess. It is missing drywall and there are gaps in her concrete slab. It flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Nearly everything done inside since made life worse, Daly said.
“By far the biggest nightmare, the biggest ordeal I have been through in my entire life has been trying to figure out how to put my house back together,” she said.
Based on recommendations, Daly hired contractor Pedro Vasquez. Daly did not know Vasquez’s past includes prison time for drug possession, assault charges and a small claims lawsuit against his old company.
Daly said Vasquez promised good, quick repairs. Instead, he collected $122,000 in seven months for work he did not finish or did so poorly that another contractor has to fix it, Daly said.
“We just keep saying we never thought we would be here,” Christi Thompson, a La Porte homeowner who is also suing Vasquez. “(My family) never though we would be here.”
Thompson, a school teacher and mom whose family escaped Harvey flooding in a relative’s boat, paid Vasquez more than $33,000. Often, Vasquez sent workers without tools and begged others for supplies, Thompson said.
Both women are suing Vasquez for something their lawyer calls hard to prove: fraud. So both are going after judgements for negligence.
“Even if it’s a worthless on day one, if Pete Pedro Vasquez ever comes into a dime, hits the lottery, or gets a big job that’s actually paid that first money is going to be owed to his victims.”
Vasquez did know answer his door when KHOU 11 News knocked Monday evening. He said he has a heart condition and feared embarrassment.
On the phone, he told KHOU 11 News he plans to sue his former customers whom he claims reneged on signed deals.
“It’s a big mix up,” he added. “We already had arrangements to take care of this with the attorney and I guess they cancelled the arrangement to go this way.”
When asked if he planned to repay Daly or Thompson, Vasquez replied, “I’m not giving her all the money back. I said we were going to talk.”
For now, two of his former customers sound ready to talk only in court. A third family suing claims Vasquez owes them $200,000.