All Mary Allen wanted was a place to spend her golden years. What she got was an unfinished house and years of headache.
By TIM GRANT
Published April 25, 2004
ODESSA - The house where Mary Allen hoped to live out her golden years is an unfinished empty shell, a dream entangled by red tape and broken promises.
Three years after she paid a contractor to build the house, Mrs. Allen is out of money, with no home and feeling cheated.
"At my age, I wanted to be near my daughter," said Mrs. Allen, an 85-year-old retired kindergarten teacher.
Instead of living in a home next door to her daughter, Mrs. Allen is living with her daughter.
Court records show she paid $45,657 to Louis Jackson to build the house at 16604 Bridgeford Allen Lane. She said Jackson began the construction in April 2001 and told her it would be finished in two to three months.
"There was no rain or nothing like that," Mrs. Allen said. "But somewhere between July 4 and July 15, he stopped building."
And he stopped talking.
Mrs. Allen said she called Jackson all of July and August. He wouldn't answer his telephone. She hired a lawyer and soon discovered the home had numerous building code violations that had to be corrected. But worst of all, she learned that Jackson of 4402 Tuna Drive in Temple Terrace had no contractor's license.
Jackson used the license of another contractor, Warren Williams, to pull the building permits for Mrs. Allen's house.
Jackson, 61, declined to comment for this report, saying his legal advisers cautioned him against it. Williams of 14683 Pine Glenn Circle in Lutz declined to be interviewed.
State prosecutors charged Jackson in October 2002 with acting in the capacity of a contractor without a license. Jackson was sentenced July 7 to 12 months' probation. He was ordered to pay Mrs. Allen $42,449.50 in restitution within 10 months.
So far, Mrs. Allen said Jackson has paid her only $418.
"I borrowed the $40,000 to give him," she said. "I'm making payments on it. That's what makes me so mad."
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Jackson has a history of legal problems.
Tampa police arrested Jackson in July 1999 for dumping household garbage on someone else's private property. They found mail belonging to Jackson in the trash pile. Jackson admitted it was his trash and paid a $50 fine.
He has been convicted on charges of writing worthless checks in two separate incidents. He wrote a bad check for $4,000 to Cote's Septic Tank Service in February 2002. Jackson was placed on 12 months' probation and ordered to pay restitution.
Court records show Jackson wrote a bad check for $2,500 to Alan J. Kerben of Lutz in January 2003. A judge sentenced Jackson in March to pretrial intervention in that case.
While his latest bad check case was in progress, Jackson was arrested in September for violating his probation. A judge released Jackson after he spent 30 days in jail.
Frances Perrone, Hillsborough County court director, said Jackson could face more jail time for not repaying Mrs. Allen. But the court is limited in what it can do to punish Jackson.
"It's a misdemeanor, so the judge can't send him to prison," Perrone said, adding that if Jackson has no money, jail time will not solve the problem. "You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip.
"We try to make our victims whole again. The best we can do sometimes is ask the court to convert the restitution to a lien."
Although Jackson will be off probation by the end of July, a lien would attach a civil judgment against Jackson's assets. It would be up to Mrs. Allen to pursue that lien.
Mrs. Allen is not encouraged by that scenario.
"I've already looked into his assets, and he doesn't have anything we can see," she said. "That's a waste of time."
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Mrs. Allen's former husband was part of the Allen family that pioneered Odessa.
She met Jackson through one of Jackson's relatives. The relative was doing yard work for Mrs. Allen and learned that she wanted to build a house. The person recommended she contact Jackson.
Before moving in with her daughter while her house was being built off Gunn Highway, the former Clair Mel Elementary School teacher lived in a house she has owned for 40 years in Progress Village. She's renting that home to her grandson.
"I have my stuff in storage over yonder and all over the place," she said.
She's not losing hope that she'll get to live in her unfinished home.
There's a slim chance Mrs. Allen might get some of her money back through a state-administered Construction Industries Recovery Fund.
People who have suffered damages while dealing with a state certified contractor can recoup as much as $25,000 from the recovery fund as a last resort when all other means of collection have been exhausted.
The problem is that Jackson had no license; he used Williams' license to pull the building permits.
Williams, for his part, told a county building investigator he had no knowledge that Jackson had used his license.
Mrs. Allen blames Williams for the mess.
"They built this house on Warren Williams' license," she said. "All the violations are on his license. He's really the guilty one."
Mrs. Allen said she will pursue her complaint against Williams with the state Department of Business and Professional Regulations.
County investigators, however, said they looked into Mrs. Allen's complaint against Williams and decided not to pursue a civil case against him.
Gary Pailthorpe, the county's construction manager, said he is convinced someone forged Williams' signature.
Ron Collodi, an investigator with the county's Building Department, said in a March 19 letter to Mrs. Allen that he had studied a copy of her permit application and had compared it to five others from different years that Williams had signed.
"Based on the review of these documents," the letter said, "a notarized complaint filed by Mr. Williams against Lewis Jackson, and his sworn testimony, we believe that there is insufficient evidence to present to our building board to prove that Mr. Williams was involved in the construction of your home."
Mrs. Allen said Williams called her and offered to finish the house. But she refuses to pay any more money.
"I'm not going to pay him one dime," she said.
"I know I'm not going to die and take it with me, but neither am I going to give it to someone who has misused me."
