CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — An Odem couple hired a contractor to do some work at their home. They had already paid him more than $20,000, but they have issues with some of his work.
"You have not done a walk-thru with me. I said usually, under normal circumstances, you do a walk-thru before the balance is paid. I said that's how a contract works."
Becky Veit is recalling a conversation she had with Manuel Alaniz of 5 Star Services, the contractor from Alice she hired in November 2024 to remodel 2 bathrooms in her Odem home, and the contract they both signed.
"And he said nope. Nope. I'm not going to come and do a walk-thru until you pay me everything. I said I'm not going to pay you everything," Veit told Troubleshooters Andy Liscano.
The Veits' said they hired Alaniz because he assured them he could get the job done by Thanksgiving when they were having company over for the holiday.
They pointed out to the Troubleshooters some of their concerns about the work done by Alaniz' crew in the master bathroom in particular,.
Meanwhile, Alaniz is claiming the Veit's owe him a little more than three thousand dollars for work done on the second bathroom.
The Veit's told the troubleshooters they have no problem with the work in the second bath
"Apparently there's a disagreement here between you saying they owe you $3000.00. They're saying they do not."
The Troubleshooters tried calling alaniz more than once to give him an opportunity to give us his side of this story.
"So we wanna give you every opportunity to give us your part of this story," we told him by phone from the veit's home.
He has not returned our calls.
This is the invoice both parties signed on Nov. 1, 2024. On page 2, the secondary bathroom remodel is clearly highlighted.
It also said, "Cost of secondary bathroom will be paid separately in the amount of $3,115.92."
"Why did you call us ?" the Troubleshooters asked Viet. "What do you want?"
"I can't get anybody to take...To take a case on it. It's so difficult to find somebody," Viet told the Troubleshooters.
On Nov. 26, 2024, Alaniz emailed the veit's saying..."Mam, this contract is only for this bathroom. How can I charge you for a bathroom we have not even done this contact was only for this master bath remodel I told you one project at a time it's on the contract the other bathroom is separate from this project I don't understand what you stating."
The Veit's are adamant they don't owe Alaniz any more money, and they're looking for an attorney to take their case.
As always, whenever you have a story you'd like the Troubleshooters to look into just send us am email at; troubleshooters @ kristv.Com...Or call our hotline at 361-885-0100 and leave a short message.
