Lawsuit claims contractor only finished third of house

It was supposed to be her dream house. But now Blanca De La Garza says it’s literally making her sick.

“Paid a lot of money and I felt sick. It’s a lot of stress. A whole year. I work too hard every day,” De La Garza said.

In July 2016, De La Garza says she signed a contract with Alejandro Silva who owns DRR Construction.  She was to pay him $300,000 to build a home in Texas City.

“You would expect a residential home, three to four bedrooms, would be completed in less than a year,” said attorney Alberto Ruiz.

Ruiz says his client De La Garza paid $300,000, but DRR Construction only did about a third of the job.

“He was paid for 85 percent of the job and he only had completed 30 percent,” Ruiz said.

De La Garza and her daughter are now suing DRR Construction for breach of contract.

“Because of their lack of experience and their trust in him, they overpaid without him performing,” Ruiz said.

Consumers should only pay contractors in installments as the work is being performed -- something De La Garza failed to do.

“It became kind of a situation where my client felt like she was being held hostage like 'if I don’t pay this man extra he won’t continue to perform work,'” Ruiz said. “And he kept telling them 'pay me this much or I’m not going to do more work.'”

Ruiz says consumers should have contracts reviewed by an attorney. Check references and document the contractor's work with pictures.

He says what makes De La Garza’s situation even worse, DRR Construction failed to pay the subcontractors.

“At least three of them have gone to her business and ask her 'you owe me some money,'” her nephew Luis Millan said.

Of course, we wanted to get the contractors side of the story. We called and emailed Alejandro Silva with DRR Construction and also left word with his attorney Carlos Garza. So far we’ve heard nothing back.

In court documents DRR Construction denies all the allegations lodged against them.