Ask for an estimate only and get your house demolished.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/lo...0d-05233a900b9f.html

Gutted: House renovation plan ends with demolition, criminal charges

PULASKI — Irene Papadopoulos had a fixer-upper in Pulaski County, a three-bedroom, one-bath home with a view of Claytor Lake.

She still has the view.

But the house that she planned to make into a rural getaway is gone, razed last month after a renovation plan went horribly awry.

In a case unusual among the region’s construction companies, Daniel Lee Morris, owner of Hiwassee-based Morris Home Builders, faces criminal charges. He has a Sept. 18 preliminary hearing scheduled in Pulaski County General District Court.

Morris’ attorney, Jimmy Turk of Radford, speaking on behalf of his client on Thursday, characterized the builder’s actions as “a big mistake” but said his client doesn’t belong in criminal court.

Civil litigation seems likely as well. Papadopoulos said she’s hired a Maryland law firm.

Papadopoulos, who lives in Centreville, said that since April, when her home was wrecked, she has taken months away from her job to try to deal with paperwork and engineers and attorneys and inspectors. She doesn’t know when she’ll return to work as a contractor for the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Professional Responsibility, she said Thursday.

“This is only the beginning – that’s what bugs me,” Papadopoulos said. “What do I have but a hole in the ground?”

Papadopoulos bought her house in the 7000 block of Waterview Lane, in the DeHaven Park neighborhood, in 2013. It was a rough but solid 1,600 square-foot home, she said.

With a friend who is an architectural designer, she began making plans for improving it.

This spring, Papadopoulos said, she decided it was time to begin renovations such as adding a bathroom and installing a proper kitchen. She said that she talked to Morris and another locally-based contractor, describing the project and saying that she was asking her friend to prepare final drawings.

Papadopoulos said she asked for estimates from each contractor and emphasized that she planned to have the work done in stages to keep expenses manageable.

Soon after the April 4 talks with the contractors, Papadopoulos said, she left for a vacation in Florida, then a work assignment in Georgia. She said that she gave the contractors access to a key box so that they could come in and make measurements.

On April 28, while she was in Georgia, she got a call from Morris, Papadopoulos said.

Morris said he’d need $20,000 for structural repairs, Papadopoulos remembered. She asked what he meant and when Morris didn’t explain, said that she’d talk to him when she came back.

“He said, ‘I moved some things,’ ” Papadopoulos said.

On May 1, a friend of Papdopoulos’ who lives in Dublin and who mowed the grass at the Pulaski County property went to check on it. He found Morris’ workers gutting the house, stripping out walls, floors, ceilings, even baseboard heaters and wiring.

Papadopoulos said that she was too upset to call Morris, instead texting him to say that he needed to remove his equipment from her property and stay away. She returned a few days later.

“That’s when I really realized what he’d done,” Papadopoulos said.

She said that the devastation was much worse than it had looked in pictures her friend had sent.

“He’d violated my home,” Papadopoulos said.

She called the sheriff’s office.

Morris was charged with property damage exceeding $1,000 value, and with entering Papadopoulos’ home to commit a crime.

Turk said Thursday that he did not think the criminal charges were deserved.

“I don’t think the facts are going to fit the allegation. I think it was a big mistake. … He started a job he thought she wanted done,” Turk said.

“I think it is a civil dispute,” Turk continued, adding that he’d known Morris all his life and had him work on his own home.

“Let the insurance companies deal with this,” Turk said. “That’s what they do.”

Papadopoulos said that there was no written contract, no verbal agreement, no indication of any sort that she wanted more than an estimate from Morris.

If she wanted the work done, she asked, would she have left all her belongings in the home for Morris’ workers to heap under plastic sheets and cover with construction debris?

And why would she have had anyone remove a load-bearing interior wall, Papadopoulos asked – she wanted her house to be expanded and improved, not destroyed.

Morris’ crews had removed a load-bearing wall and cracked the house’s foundation, she said. As the summer went on, engineers advised that the house was structurally compromised. The county approved its demolition, Papadopoulos said.

Last month, it was torn down.

Papadopoulos said that the lowest of four estimates she has received for replacing the house is $250,000. But her insurance company so far is estimating replacement cost at $168,000, she said – another dispute to be sorted out.

Papadopoulos said that in the initial flurry of texts with Morris, he wrote, “Sorry if I jumped the gun. We were just trying to keep busy during the rainy days. … I will make everything right for you.”

But there was no follow-up from the builder, she said. Papadopoulos wonders if Morris gutted her house to pressure her to give him the renovation project.

“In my non-attorney view and just as the person who suffered the consequences of his actions,” she said, “this just seems to be a criminal act — he came into my home and destroyed it.”

If he was licensed/bonded, would he have insurance to cover a claim if ordered to pay?

It's just a flesh wound.

I hope she is made whole.

If he doesn't have insurance, she will probably be out of luck. Those type of contractors usually don't have much and live pay check to pay check. They are the first ones knocking on your door after a hail storm or some other type of damage. Always have a line that they can get your insurance to foot the bill.

Maybe he thought since she was a woman that he could get away with it.