Warning painted on Garner man's car calls out contractor who took $8K without finishing job

GARNER, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Garner family is out $8,000 and they want to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else.

This all started after Alan and his wife hired Dylan Leonard of RD Construction to build an addition on their home.

"He said it's a three-month job and he will have it finished," Alan said.

Alan signed the contract with RD Construction in August of 2018 and gave Leonard an $8,000 deposit to get started on the job. RD Construction sent a crew at Alan's house to tear down the existing sun room, put up the frame for the new addition and add shingles on the roof. At that point in the contract, it states Leonard gets another $8,000, which Alan did pay.

Around the same time, Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina, and Alan said Leonard told him he needed to go to the coast to help homeowners with damage to their homes. Leonard's Facebook page shows him going to the coast several times to do work around this time.

But Alan says Leonard never came back to finish the work on his home. Plus, he still has Alan's $8,000.

"I scrolled through his Facebook page and found jobs he was doing locally, and he's claiming he's down at the beach. I tried contacting him constantly on the phone and emailing him, and there was no response."

Troubleshooter Diane Wilson got in touch with Leonard via email in February. This was his response:

"Yes we have full intentions of finishing project. I have communicated that to our client and plan to follow threw. They have been very patient and we have been trying very hard to get things wrapped up on there project. Not to make any excuse but we have battled with storm repairs and trying to work with our trades and our long time clients at the coast who needed our time in such a major storm down there. I have and will reach out to our client again and reassure them we plan to get finished up asap! Thanks for looking into things."

But Alan says Leonard didn't show up to complete any work, so he took Leonard to court. Leonard then emailed Wilson again, "The cleint has desided to sue a week or 2 ago, so I was forced to turn it over to my attorney. We will get the matter settled In court next month."

Alan showed up in court for the judge to hear his case but Leonard didn't. Alan won a judgment of $9,070, but Leonard still hasn't paid.

Besides being out the $8,000, Alan said he since learned more bad news about the work RD Construction did complete.

"Come to find out, he never pulled the permits, so he never should have even started the job without a permit," Alan said.

Wilson tried to contact Leonard a third time, but had no luck. So she went to the address on Alan's contract and found construction materials and even a trailer with "RD Construction" on it, but when it came to Leonard, his mom claimed he didn't live there, and she had no way to get in touch with him.

Alan said he filed a writ of execution to try and get his judgment against Leonard paid, but he still has not received any money. The sheriff's deputy who served the writ said Leonard told him he has no assets to seize. In the meantime, Alan put this message on his car trying to get the word out about his experience with RD Construction:

Alan drives to work every day from his Garner home to Cary and says at least a dozen people a day see it. He wants to make sure no one else goes through what he is going through, since he is out $8,000 and still doesn't have the job done.

"I don't care what happened to him. I want my money back," Alan said.

The Troubleshooter Takeaway here is we can't say it enough: you have to do your research before you hire anyone. Also, when the contract states they will get the permits, survey and handle the inspections, get proof every step of the way that it's happening.