Atascocita – An Atascocita family is sharing their story after they say a construction company took their money and their belongings and then stopped communicating with them.
According to court documents, Bella Me Construction LLC already has a civil lawsuit that was filed against them last year regarding subcontractors not being paid.
Now, this family in Atascocita said they noticed several red flags during their ordeal with the company.
Rosetta Palmer said it started with miscommunication and a lack of updates from the construction company. She said she kept copies of her receipts and their contracts. Now, she hopes her family can eventually get their personal belongings back.
“I just hope no one ever has to experience what our family has gone through,” Palmer said.
Palmer said the past three months have been a nightmare. The family discovered a leak in one of their bathrooms upstairs on Oct. 17.
“We called a mitigation company to come out and called the insurance to take a look,” she said.
Her insurance company approved her claim and she hired Bella Me Construction LLC to start the renovation. She signed a contract and paid the company over $18,000. Palmer says the company even moved her personal belongings into a storage unit at the end of October.
“My first thought was, ‘OK, I trust this contractor’, and I felt things were going well at that particular point in time,” Palmer said.
But she says Bella Me Construction never started on the project and the excuses started to pile up.
“Then that was a red flag for us. At the time, he came in early December he asked for more money,” she said.
Palmer hired an attorney to terminate the contract with Bella Me Construction and says the owner came to her home and said he wanted to terminate the contract because he was not receiving any payments.
“I was livid,” Palmer said.
At that point, Palmer just wanted her belongings back and noticed another red flag when she tried contacting the company
“He wanted $10,000 more to get our stuff back,” she said.
Palmer agreed to pay the money and meet with Bella Me Construction. But when they arrived at the storage unit, they discovered Bella Me was behind on rental payments by hundreds of dollars and the unit was empty.
“That was yet another red flag that we almost gave another $10,000 to someone, and our belongings were not there. At that particular time, we called the police,” she said.
Palmer filed a report with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
She has already hired a new contractor to fix the leak and says she plans to seek legal action against the construction company.
KPRC reached out to Bella Me Construction Company via phone and email, but we have not received a response.
The Better Business Bureau says it’s important to have a trusted and vetted contractor.
Here are some tips they recommend when hiring someone for a job:
- Research and gather information
- Ask for references
- Ask for multiple quotes
- Get it in writing
- Verify license and insurance
- Arrange a payment schedule
- Get a receipt
- Keep your contract
For more tips from the BBB, click here.