WELD COUNTY, Colo. — Dave Jackson wanted a new pole barn on his property, but he ended up with a lien being placed on his home and a massive headache.
Jackson hired Randy Ries with Buckhorn Builders for the project.
"He wasn’t present a lot of the time," Jackson said.
When it came time to pour the concrete, Jackson said there was an issue with the payment. He says he paid Ries for the concrete, but it didn't appear that Ries paid the company that delivered the materials.
"What happened was the last truck was here, they were almost done, Randy got in his truck and left," Jackson said. "So, they were looking for somebody to pay them and there was nobody here to do that. I had already paid Randy for the concrete."
Jackson would soon find out the concrete company went unpaid when he received a notice that a lien was being filed on his home. He was in the process of refinancing and discovered the lien. He ended up working with the concrete company to clear it up.
"Randy finally paid them $7,500 of the $15,000 that he owed," Jackson said. "After that, he disappeared, they couldn’t reach him, couldn’t find him, he wasn’t returning calls."
Contact Denver7 has received complaints about Buckhorn Builders before. In August, three workers reached out to Denver7 to say Ries was withholding their pay.
After their story aired, several homeowners who hired Ries reached out to complain about his business practices, too. Contact Denver7 confronted Ries at his home and asked him if he paid the concrete company for Jackson's project.
"He didn’t finish paying me. I paid everything that he paid me as far as... he didn’t finish paying me the rest of the concrete bill," Ries said. "He did not pay me. He cheated me out of some additional money, but I’m done talking to you people, so off my property."
Gail and Dennis Buerger hired Buckhorn Builders because they dreamed of having a large workshop to enjoy during their retirement. Gail Buerger said they waited months for Ries to break ground.
"I think it was six months in, he hadn’t even broken ground, hadn’t even put a shovel in the ground, nothing. I kept calling him," Gail Buerger said.
Gail Buerger said she fired Ries but ended up giving him another chance, in part, because she said she had already paid him more than $42,000. Gail Buerger believes Ries botched the concrete and ended up hiring another company to fix it.
She said one day Ries left her home and he never came back. She said when he walked off the job there was still work left.
"We put in about $60,000 more to get it where it is," Buerger said. "It has taken all of our savings to do this and to complete where we are now."
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