'Don't let it happen to you,' cries homeowner who lost $8,000 having patio renovated – she missed a major warning sign | 0163856 | 2024-03-05 19:08:01
Barbara Ojito admitted she missed one major warning signal when hiring a fellow churchgoer in Las Vegas.
A HOMEOWNER has urged others to do correct background checks of contractors after dropping $8,000 throughout a patio revamp.
Barbara Ojito admitted she missed one major warning signal when hiring a fellow churchgoer in Las Vegas.
She was eager to have a shaded patio built off her residence 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 problems – together with a leaking roof.
Ojito, 66, hired a man, Alfred Martin Lagunas, whom she had met at church, to start out work in December 2022.
But, she claimed, despite giving him $8,000 in cash, he had disappeared by September 2023.
"I was a victim of hiring someone that doesn't have a license.
"Don't rent anybody off the road like I did, although I knew this man for years, but he took off with the money after I paid him off," Ojito alleged.
"I am stuck right now, no money, no nothing.
"I had this porch built for my brother who's handicapped for the 2 of us to take pleasure in," she advised KVVU Las Vegas.
"He took off with the cash, he by no means came back, he by no means returned my calls. I went by way of hell, forwards and backwards to the point the place I obtained sick.
"Don't let this happen to you. Rent any person 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 effective those discovered to have flouted strict rules, with prosecution of unlicensed contracting instances pursued via courtroom.
"The accused unlicensed contractor is Alfred Martin Lagunas, " stated Randy Escamilla, the board's public info officer.
"He has been convicted once earlier than for contracting and not using a license.
"He is now charged with a gross misdemeanor and if convicted for contracting with no license, he will face a most penalty of as much as a $10,000 advantageous and as much as a yr within the Clark County Jail," Escamilla added.
"We consider there are numerous 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 victim," he added.
Lagunas is scheduled to seem at a March 11 hearing.
The U.S. Solar On-line was unable to contact him for remark.
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