Long story but I'll keep it short. Signed a contract with a construction company in November for a kitchen renovation at our home in Cypress. The guy that owned the company sold the company to a lady with zero construction experience in December. We had already signed the contact so we proceeded with our renovation. They started work about 4 weeks ago and our kitchen is now completely ripped out. We get a note yesterday that less than 2 months after purchasing this company, they are closing their doors without notice leaving us out about $10-15k in fronted money and more importantly with a demolished kitchen.

My wife and I are obviously stressed out, pissed off and just want to know what our legal options might be. There are about 50-75 other jobs that this company left hanging as well for any interested lawyer. Any lawyer recommendations in the Houston area for a legal consultation.

Chapter 7, or just running off with the money?

Don't know for sure. Doesn't look good though. Got this note out of the blue yesterday.

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Dear Valued Customer,

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I am forced to inform you that Renovation Station, LLC, and Crestwood Homes and Construction, LLC are permanently closing its doors.

As you know, I purchased this business recently, with the previous owner transitioning the jobs for six weeks after the purchase. Using my personal resources available, I bought a business I thought was healthy, thriving and poised for growth. I purchased it for the reputation, current customer base and name recognition, all pointing to exciting potential.

Unfortunately, as the first several weeks learning about the day to day turned into the first few months, my excitement and commitment to quality and best practices were redirected to management of jobs that, unbeknownst to me, were significantly behind in schedule, short in reliable labor, littered with bad quality issues, and dealing with challenges such as timely collections from many customers. There was no disclosure from previous ownership about the true condition of every job in the field, including verbal commitments made and actual progress of each project not as promised.

I have spent this short time trying to resolve issues one by one, getting involved personally in almost every job, with a commitment to ensuring happy customers and quality work - no matter what was required. Despite these best efforts, the current situation is inadequate financial resources to make every customer happy and satisfied enough to complete projects and close out the remaining contractual collections as expected.

This is the only alternative left after having explored every solution and I have exhausted all options. Unfortunately, nothing can happen fast enough to create the momentum required to keep materials and labor moving forward to address these issues.

In the next coming days, I will be communicating with you as quickly as possible, in many cases on an individual basis. It is my intent to assist however possible with anything I can. By the time you receive this communication, the employees and representatives of Crestwood and Renovation Station will have also been notified, and in the majority of cases, no longer be representing the Companies.

The showroom will be closed to the public effective immediately. Please feel free to communicate issues, concerns, recommendations or requests to me via email. I will reply as quickly as possible during what promises to be a very tumultuous period to come.

Finally, I deeply apologize for any personal inconvenience or financial hardship this has caused. It was an outcome I never imagined a possibility for you, workers, employees and myself.

Sincerely,

Lis Robert
President & CEO
Crestwood Homes and Construction, LLC
Renovation Station, LLC

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Agree. This smells.

The cheapest thing to do is bring them up in small claims court. You can sue up to 10k without having to go through the attorney fees, court cost and mediation. I bet the contract states an arbitration clause. If that's the case, you won't be able to do small claims but you can do still file a suit under the AAA and hire a arbitrator for 3k. The arbitrator will then request that you undergo mediation.

LOL at her being the cover story of one of those fancy mags that are nothing but paid advertising.

http://trendmag2.trendoffset.com/publication/?i=464988&p=&pn=#%7B%22issue_id%22:464988,%22page%22:20%7D

RPM said:

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LOL at her being the cover story of one of those fancy mags that are nothing but paid advertising.

http://trendmag2.trendoffset.com/publication/?i=464988&p=&pn=#%7B%22issue_id%22:464988,%22page%22:20%7D

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Exactly. She has zero experience in construction and thought it would be a cute business to occupy her time. I'm sure her heart was in the right place but to shut the doors in less than 2 months after buying the business tells me she was in way over her head and she wasn't in it for the right reasons. I love how her letter blames the previous owner but she did not do her due diligence if you ask me. Without knowing her, I guarantee she comes from a lot of money that she did not personally earn and this was a hobby business for her.

The mag story said she was in the showroom daily. I've been in that showroom no less than 3 times in the last 2 months and never saw her once.

If she panics and starts paying the loudest creditors first, you don't wanna be last in line.

I am not a lawyer but I have two friends who were in a similar situation to you. In both cases, they were unable to get their money back or resolve the situation to their satisfaction. The laws in Texas apparently make it difficult on the homeowner. My only suggestion is to be very careful about spending a lot of money on a lawyer....you may end up wasting even more money without any result.

To answer OP's original question call Terry & Thweatt in Houston. Joe Terry is a former law partner of mine and Lee Thweatt is a former Marine JAG. Both quality guys and Super Lawyers per Texas Monthly.

EZ

aggiedent said:

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I am not a lawyer but I have two friends who were in a similar situation to you. In both cases, they were unable to get their money back or resolve the situation to their satisfaction. The laws in Texas apparently make it difficult on the homeowner. My only suggestion is to be very careful about spending a lot of money on a lawyer....you may end up wasting even more money without any result.

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This. Accept the fact that you are going to lose some money. Approach her directly and politely, and offer to settle for a fraction of your lost money. Politely point out that it will save both of you Legal fees, as well as the Discovery process that will dig into all of her family finances, paper trails...everything.

My mom always said you can't get blood out of a turnip.

Joe and Lee are good guys and lawyers...but they aren't going to want to mess with this. Sue the company and owner in small claims court, get a judgment and try to collect. But yeah, good luck...

Erin Eckert is a construction law attorney with a lot of experience in things like this.

Would it be possible to get a group of her former clients together who are all in the same situation as you and file one big suit against her with all of you listed as plaintiffs?

That may hold more weight that just you going after her alone. May be worth it to a lawyer as well if he sees multiple plaintiffs and a bigger sum involved.

Not a lawyer but just a thought.

aggiedent said:

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I am not a lawyer but I have two friends who were in a similar situation to you. In both cases, they were unable to get their money back or resolve the situation to their satisfaction. The laws in Texas apparently make it difficult on the homeowner. My only suggestion is to be very careful about spending a lot of money on a lawyer....you may end up wasting even more money without any result.

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No way, Texas courts and law favor an unscrupulous business over citizens?!! Wow, what a shocker!!

I've had friends in similar positions and all got screwed to some degree. good luck.

I disagree that Texas law somehow is tilted against a homeowner in this situation.

Let this be a reminder to everyone that before you hire a contractor for any amount of money that you are not willing to walk away from, to (1) make sure they are insured/bonded for the time period of your project; and (2) get a written contract that includes a non-assignment clause (among other things).

The Wonderer said:

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Mr. AGSPRT04 said:

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I disagree that Texas law somehow is tilted against a homeowner in this situation.

Let this be a reminder to everyone that before you hire a contractor for any amount of money that you are not willing to walk away from, to (1) make sure they are insured/bonded for the time period of your project; and (2) get a written contract that includes a non-assignment clause (among other things).

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I never pay 100% upfront.

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We didn't pay 100% up front. I'm not that naive...saying that, most construction companies require a decent down payment to order materials, etc.

Mr. AGSPRT04 said:

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I disagree that Texas law somehow is tilted against a homeowner in this situation.

Let this be a reminder to everyone that before you hire a contractor for any amount of money that you are not willing to walk away from, to (1) make sure they are insured/bonded for the time period of your project; and (2) get a written contract that includes a non-assignment clause (among other things).

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I agree with your statement number 2 whole heartedly especially in construction where you are really buying the person and not the company. Life lesson that you learn the hard way sometimes but won't make that mistake again.

Ag_07 said:

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Would it be possible to get a group of her former clients together who are all in the same situation as you and file one big suit against her with all of you listed as plaintiffs?

That may hold more weight that just you going after her alone. May be worth it to a lawyer as well if he sees multiple plaintiffs and a bigger sum involved.

Not a lawyer but just a thought.

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I'd be in. Same thing happened to us by them. John Peart, the previous owner, sold a bunch of jobs to raise the price of his company and then sold. What was supposed to be a 3-4 week remodel, started Oct. 9. Still not done...

I've heard there were 45 jobs in various project stages. Is there a case to be made against the previous owner who profited by selling jobs he never intended to see through, mislead clients into signing knowing he was going to sell the company, and frankly was negligent in selling the business to someone who had zero construction experience?

RK said:

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if you can't get an $'s back...at least light her up on every website and social media platform she appears on. make sure everyone out there knows about her. maybe a little petulant, but f her.

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Lis Robert

She must have come from money in Mexico? Read that not long ago many wealthy Mexicans have moved to The Woodlands to get away from the violence.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/The-Woodlands-is-a-hot-spot-for-rich-Mexicans-1796496.php

Interesting
http://www.kvia.com/news/texas/wealthy-mexicans-living-in-the-woodlands-feel-unwelcome-return-home/525225476

Jesus Christ the Trump butthurt gets old after awhile... but this is awesome:

Quote:

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But Trump, Cadena said, "is not making it any easier for me to convince people to come spend their money here.

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Quote:

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I disagree that Texas law somehow is tilted against a homeowner in this situation.

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Sure it is and it's not really debatable. I'll give you 3 real life examples.

1. A friend of mine was building a 600k custom home in High Meadow Ranch. At a certain point he made his 3rd payment to the builder. At that point he had paid almost 2/3 (67%) of the cost of building the home. The builder is at the 50% completion stage. Builder then disappears. My friend gets a lawyer to look into it. Builder has filed for bankruptcy. No recourse. He has lost the 17%. To make matters worse, the septic system was built incorrectly, something he found out when a tank imploded and left a sinkhole in his backyard. Nothing he could do about that either. Simply no recourse for a homeowner.

2. This happened to my across the street neighbor at our previous house. In Lakewood Forest. He bought the house new and later found out the house had liens on it from subcontractors. Yep........it shouldn't happen.....but it did. The builder had filed bankruptcy and my neighbor technically bought the house from a bank. The builder had failed to pay 5 subcontractors. So..........my neighbor had a house that if he sold..........he would have to pay off nearly 20k dollars to subcontractors. Again...........no recourse for the homeowner.

3. Patients of mine started to remodel their home in sort of an industrial warehouse style. They chose a builder in Tomball. When an inside brick wall started to collapse, instead of repairing the problem and moving on, the builder decided to bail on the project midstream. They hired lawyers. Despite numerous threats, the builder did not fix the problem. They took him to court and the builder's lawyers used some technicality in Texas contract law to avoid fixing the problem or refunding the money. Disgusting really.

Texas law is not the friend of homeowners.

1997Aggie said:

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I've heard there were 45 jobs in various project stages. Is there a case to be made against the previous owner who profited by selling jobs he never intended to see through, mislead clients into signing knowing he was going to sell the company, and frankly was negligent in selling the business to someone who had zero construction experience?

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This. Crestwood did some work for my parents years ago and they money they spent worth what it ended up being did not line up. I bet this was something that they were problems with behind the scenes. Not to defend her actions, but I bet there is some truth to it.

Few people in our neighborhood here in Cypress seem to be screwed by this....apparently one person even gave them a deposit just last week

1997 Aggie: I am involved in this situation also. Email me at ksobolik1@gmail.com to discuss further.