Inquirer: Woman still waiting for contractor to repair poor work

Today we revisit the continuing saga of Pat Grantham, the woman who has been grappling with a contractor who did what city inspectors say is substandard work at her house.

For those who aren't up to speed on this, Pat contracted with a local company to put up an aluminum carport attached to the side of her house. She thought he'd done a good job, so she asked if he could enclose her patio on the back of the house. She is caring for a disabled brother and thought he would enjoy sitting in the space out back.

Well, the work so far is less than impressive, and after a while, the contractor more or less disappeared and wouldn't return Pat's phone calls. The framing is out of plumb and the bottom of the wall, which is sitting on a brick wall, is untreated lumber, which is a no-no.

Meanwhile, the next time it rained, she saw that water was pouring through the edge of the carport next to the house. And out back, it was flooding her patio to the point that it was almost overflowing into her house.

Then a city inspector came out and said the carport is unstable to the point of being dangerous, and it needs to come down. She said, "Tell that to the guy who put it up," and they did, telling him that he had 10 days to make the carport conform to city code.

That deadline passed without Pat hearing a word from the contractor, but the city apparently got a letter from his lawyer saying the guy really wants to come and make the work conform.

Pat basically said, "You could have fooled me," and told the city to tell him to go ahead.

That's where we stand now on the carport, waiting for the contractor, if not Godot. (Look it up.) (Or just laugh. Trust me, it's funny.)

But that does nothing about the partially built enclosed patio around back.

On that front, she took the guy to Municipal Court a couple of weeks ago, asking that he be charged with theft by conversion, because she gave him $4,000 toward the work out back.

In court, the contractor's lawyer asked for a continuance because his court reporter couldn't make it to court that day. The judge granted that, but now, two weeks later, Pat has yet to hear back from Municipal Court about a new hearing date.

Meanwhile, she has been in touch with the city's Inspections and Code department, which is currently without a director. That makes Deputy City Manager David Arrington the interim director, so he's been in touch with Pat.

As it turns out, the contractor might not have the proper state licensing to do the level of construction he was doing out back, and if that's the case, Arrington said the city would "take action" on that.

"We're going to stay on it until it gets resolved," he said.

While all of this was going on, Pat got in touch with her city councilman, Glenn Davis, who knows a thing or two about dealing with contractors. Wisely, he suggested that she lawyer up, which she is doing today, as we speak.

Stay tuned, because this just keeps getting better and better, unlike Pat's construction projects.

This story was originally published October 26, 2014 at 11:44 PM with the headline "Inquirer: Woman still waiting for contractor to repair poor work."