DENVER — A Denver senior hired a contractor to remodel her bathroom. What happened next may sound all too familiar: permits weren't secured, work wasn't finished and costs soared.
All Carole Stevens wanted was a better bathroom in her southeast Denver home. Instead, she can now point out a long, expensive punch list that's been left undone.
"The shower floor is not the right slope, so I can't even use it," she said. "The countertop is cracked. The tile is broken. The sconces are uneven. There's no outlet where there was supposed to be."
Her contract shows that she hired Christopher Terry in May 2023 for a bathroom remodeling project that was supposed to be finished that same month. Terry's business names in Colorado include PCnC, Terry Construction and Premier Consulting & Construction.
Stevens wrote three deposit checks totaling $13,000 to PCnC before Terry disappeared and his subcontractor took over the project. She said the remodel dragged on due to delays and problems until July when the subcontractor also disappeared.
Stevens told Denver7 she's paid almost double the listed price on the contract.
"She's out over $35,000 in total," said Mark Stevens, Carol Stevens' son.
Mark started looking into the contractor after he found out how much money his mother had spent.
"It's a generation that believes a smile and a handshake mean something. I think somebody found somebody who just wanted their bathroom done and thought, 'Well, let's see how far we can take this,'" he said.
Mark hired an independent contractor to assess the bathroom remodel. The report found that "no permits were secured" and that there were "structural and aesthetic concerns" that would require $25,000 to $30,000 to address.
Records show Terry had his license revoked in Hawaii in 2014 following a list of findings including "engaging in dishonest, fraudulent or deceitful acts."
While he declined to be interviewed, Terry wrote emails to Denver7 that Stevens hired someone else after demolition.
"That is who took all her money for this project and who did all the work. It was not done by my company. If there’s a question regarding some of any funds for the demo that we did then I would discuss it with Ms Stevens. Of course we would balance out any funds if indeed there was a problem but again I did not do any work past this point. She hired another contractor to do the work," Terry wrote.
But Carol and Mark Stevens said that Mark Stevens did most of the demolition, and texts show Terry was involved all along.
Texts show Terry texted Carol in July, “I will make this right.”
Carol Stevens and her son said the other contractor Terry references was his subcontractor, and they never hired anyone else or terminated the original contract.
Mark Stevens said the subcontractor did refund some of his mother's money after the Denver Police Department became involved. However, Stevens is still out of the $13,000 she paid to Terry's company as well as the material costs.
Now, Stevens is warning others who are looking to hire contractors to check their backgrounds, verify permits have been secured and not feel pressured to pay costs they don't owe.
"I feel like I paid because I thought that's what I needed to do to get the work done," said Stevens. "And I feel like they took advantage of my patience, my time, and just overall desire to have it done."
