Navigating Contractor Chaos: Homeowner Horror Stories

Hosts Mikki Paradis and Jessica Abreu of Chicks in Construction share a North Carolina homeowner horror story: a bathroom gut remodel budgeted at $75,000 went off the rails after hiring “Marcus,” who quoted $15,000 labor and $30,000 materials, claimed a license wasn’t required under $40,000 labor, and urged the homeowner to pull permits. After multiple failed plumbing and waterproofing inspections, Marcus charged extra for “fixes,” then disappeared once confronted about licensing and insurance, leaving a gutted bathroom and defective work. A lawyer advised recovery was unlikely; a licensed contractor found additional code issues and quoted $31,500 to finish, bringing the final cost to $95,000 and the timeline to nine months. The hosts stress never paying for rework, verifying licenses and insurance, and treating homeowner-pulled permits and repeated inspection failures as red flags.

00:00 Never Pay for Rework
00:18 Welcome to Chicks in Construction
00:50 Calling for Contractor Stories
02:42 Michael B Jordan Moment
03:22 Tourettes Documentary Discussion
06:10 Fidelity Investment Scam Alert
10:18 Fence Repair Update
11:48 North Carolina Horror Story
13:14 Meeting Marcus the Contractor
14:18 License Requirements Lie
14:53 Permit Red Flags
16:09 Demo Begins
16:36 First Failed Inspection
17:52 Waterproofing Membrane Failure
19:21 Stuck at the In-Laws
20:50 Discovering NC Licensing Laws
21:47 License Check Shock
22:30 Confronting the Fake GC
24:20 Worksite Vanishes Overnight
24:35 Tool Leverage Strategy
28:14 Ghosted and Legal Reality
29:04 Damage Assessment Cost Spiral
30:22 Reporting Dead Ends
31:52 Hard Lessons Checklist
33:48 Normalize Verifying Insurance
37:26 Judgments Aren't Proof
42:19 Portfolio and Review Sleuthing
45:28 Secretary of State Checks
46:34 Protect Yourself Next Time
47:47 Share Your Story Outro




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Creators and Guests

Host

Jessica Abreu

As a social media expert, Jessica has a knack for identifying what makes each business unique and translating that into powerful, engaging content that resonates with clients and customers. From crafting tailored strategies and managing accounts to recording on-site content and boosting engagement, Jessica and her team handle it all so their clients can focus on what they do best.

Host

Mikki Paradis

President & CEO at PDI Drywall Inc. Mikki founded her first construction company, PDI Drywall Inc, in 2005 while she was still a student at NC State. After growing PDI into a multimillion dollar company, she has become an accomplished entrepreneur, speaker, and advocate for innovation in business and leadership. With a passion for empowering others, she has built a reputation as a forward-thinking professional dedicated to driving growth and fostering meaningful connections. Known for her dynamic energy and ability to inspire, Mikki is deeply committed to creating positive change in her industry and beyond. Whether through her entrepreneurial ventures or speaking engagements, she consistently challenges the status quo and encourages others to reach their full potential.

What is Chicks in Construction?

You plan your renovation with excitement, trust your contractor, and hope for the best...until things start going sideways. That’s when most homeowners realize they didn’t know what they didn’t know.

From permits that were never pulled to “contractors” who ghost after demo day, the construction world can feel like a maze of hidden costs and shady shortcuts. Too many homeowners end up confused, overwhelmed, and out of a lot of money.

The Chicks in Construction Podcast is here to change that. Hosted by Mikki Paradis, a licensed general contractor with 20+ years of experience, and Jess Abreu, a homeowner turned construction content creator, this show breaks down real renovation horror stories and teaches you how to protect your time, money, and home.

After building a multimillion-dollar drywall business and helping countless homeowners recover from construction nightmares, Mikki is on a mission to make sure you go into your next project informed, not blindsided. And Jess brings the perspective of someone who’s been in your shoes and now knows exactly what questions to ask.

Submit Your Construction Horror Story: https://chicksinconstruction.com/

40 - Chicks in Construction
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Mikki: [00:00:00] Look at me. Look at me directly in my eye. Look at me. You do not pay for rework. If somebody fails an inspection because they did faulty work, it is never your financial responsibility ever. Full stop. hello, and welcome back to another episode of Chicks in Construction. I am your host, Mickey Paradise, and this is my illustrious co-host.

Jess: Hi, I'm Jessica apr,

Mikki: and today we have a homeowner, our horror story for you. I we, we really appreciate you guys writing in.

Mm-hmm. Um, we are trying to kind of, um, really build our library of homeowner horror stories. So if you or anybody you know has had an unfortunate experience with the general contractor or. Flip role play here. Little flipping of the script. If you are a general contractor and you have some tea. That you think would be helpful to homeowners?

[00:01:00] Right. Because we had this, I dunno who I had this discussion with, I think it was yesterday we went to a, that networking event. Mm-hmm. Which we'll talk about. 'cause that was a lot of fun. Um, and we were talking and she was like, well, you know, it, it shouldn't just be about. Contractors that are terrible, like, what about homeowners?

And I was like, you know, we are aware that that's a thing.

Jess: We aware that sometimes we are the problem,

Mikki: that we are the whole problem. But so far we have not had a single general contractor or contractor of any sort to either write in or come on the show to talk about. Like re the real stories mm-hmm. Of things that happened so that you as the homeowner can learn like, oh, okay.

I don't want to be like that. Um, so if you're a general contractor or a trades person and you're watching and you have a story, you don't have to spell, like you don't have to name names. You just,

Default_2026-03-27_5: just,

Jess: and we won't name names.

Mikki: No, just won't. Even if you do name names, just ain't gonna name them. So you can just go to chicks and construction.com and you can scroll down and there's a little, there's a little form.

You don't even have to [00:02:00] send us an email. It will send it for you. And you can fully remain anonymous. Anonymous. I was gonna get it out anonymous. Anonymous. Um, but we would, we would love to have like, really collect your stories. Mm-hmm. I feel like homeowner horror stories are the real, the real juice of the pod.

They're the meat, if you will. So we have one of those for you today before we started recording. Mm-hmm. I was just explaining to Jess, who doesn't watch tv. I don't, and to be fair, I did not watch this event, but we were, we were talking about. I don't even how, I know how we got on this topic.

Jess: We never know how, we just saw, we never

Mikki: night

Jess: quested up every day.

It's like

Mikki: up it's squirrel, squirrel, squirrel. Um, so somehow we got on the topic of the British version of the Oscars and how I didn't finish telling you. So Michael B. Jordan, who is a snack. No, he's a whole meal. He's a whole meal. Let's just be honest. Um, and I can't remember the actor that was standing on stage with him.

[00:03:00] They were presenting an award.

Jess: You weren't even watching the other person. Let's be. I

Mikki: wasn't. I was not. I was not. I'm just like, listen, Hector, respect, but I'm not ordering off the menu. I'm just looking. Am I good to be? Jordan is a tasty treat. So, so other than that, sorry, I made it weird. Um.

Jess: Now she's lost in her thoughts.

Mikki: Yeah. Now I'm like, mm, no. So they were giving an award and there was a dude in the audience that, um, was, he has Tourettes and they did a documentary about his life. And it was really wild because apparently there's like different kinds of Tourettes. Mm-hmm. And there's like, so there's, there's a specific kinds of Tourettes that the disease has some way of knowing.

What words you know, you're not supposed to say in a situation and it makes you say them.

Jess: Oh my Lord.

Mikki: And so like, and he, so it's a really interesting documentary because it makes you really realize like, this isn't [00:04:00] at all by choice and it's, it's not like, oh. Y you use that word because you've said that word.

It's like that's what it, the disease forced to come out of your mouth because it knew this was the most inappropriate time. It's like

Jess: that little spot in your brain where you're like, yes, I keep all these thoughts here. Oh my God. And they don't come out.

Mikki: Can I just tell you like, I'm a whole problem in an if, if that filter that did not stop me from I would've been killed like.

I'm just telling you right now, like the, I stop my, everybody thinks like, oh, Mickey, you say whatever you think. No, I don't. I do not. I do not. If I said whatever, I think I'd a hundred percent be in jail. A hundred percent.

Jess: Somebody

Mikki: there is an active filter, but I couldn't imagine not having that filter.

And so he, he was in the audience and he was pretty close to the stage and they're like reading, you know, from the whatever screen about the. Whoever's receiving this award. Mm-hmm. And he yells [00:05:00] out a racial slur like three times. Oh. And the worst part about it, because I watched this poor guy, like I know like.

I watched this whole documentary about it on YouTube, like the whole situation that happened and what's really crappy is like they let all of the people that were in the audience know that, Hey, we just wanna let you guys know that there's a gentleman in the audience who has Tourettes and he may yell things out and we just wanted you to know.

But they didn't let the viewers on the television know, nor did they edit it out. So this guy is on national television. Yelling, racial slurs. And if you don't know

Jess: why,

Mikki: what the story is, then you're out here and like talk about ruining somebody's life. Yeah. Like as if that dude doesn't have enough problems.

Jess: Like can't, why didn't they just bleep it out? Or just like

Mikki: mute? So they bleeped it.

Jess: Oh.

Mikki: But it was like they didn't, you know how they don't do the full bleep? So like you still know what the word was? 'cause they [00:06:00] like got the tail end for like FC, C, whatever. Yeah. But like it was so you could know. What it was, what you're

Jess: saying.

Mikki: Yeah. And I was just like,

Jess: that's shady,

Mikki: shady. Speaking of shady, I've even told you this one. So remember how we're talking about scams?

Jess: Yes. Who's scamming people now?

Mikki: Gosh, I got I, I, I, and I wanted to share this for all of our watchers because this is a really important one. Like you, there's the ones where they call you and you're just like you.

If you have brain cells, enough street experience, you know this isn't real, right? Mm-hmm. But they have gotten so sophisticated in their scams. So I have a Fidelity investment account and yesterday I get a text message that it was like, here's the code to withdraw your funds. If you didn't request these funds to be withdrawn.

Call this number. I called the number

Jess: Oh no,

Mikki: on the text. And so what's, it's funny 'cause this has [00:07:00] happened twice. And the first one was from my bank. They claimed to be from my bank, and I knew almost right away that that one was not legit. Mm-hmm. Because the guy's smoke detector was beeping. And I know in commercial spaces.

They're, they don't have smoke detectors like that. They have like full on fire alarm. Right. That when it, like, when anything's happening, it's just like blaring the eardrums. So like I knew pretty much right away in that case that like, it was a scam. But this one, so I called the number, he answers the phone.

He is like RR like rocks in his mouth. And I was like, I'm sorry, I can't understand you. And he is like, oh, hi. No. And he had a British accent. And he is like, oh yeah, I'm, I'm from Fidelity. This is, how can I help you? And so he's like asking me all these really weird questions. Not like my social security or anything like that.

I wish your brothers

Jess: maid a name.

Mikki: No. Like which was

Jess: your first pet?

Mikki: I wish I, well, no, I don't wish. I do not wish. Do not wish. Um, but it was weird. It was like the last transaction you made and about how much money did you have in your account? 'cause he was making it seem like this is how we're verifying [00:08:00] your account.

Jess: Yes.

Mikki: So I don't know what triggered the spidey sense. But he says. Um, that my account had been hacked, that my credentials, my login credentials were compromised and that they opened up a crypto account through Fidelity and they were trying to withdraw the funds from the crypto account that they opened.

Mm-hmm. Um, and he is like, I'm gonna send you this link, click on it and log in. And I immediately went, Uhuh. Nope. So. My recommendation for you, the lovely viewers, because apparently on our podcast, we're not just trying to keep you safe from bad contractors, we're also trying to keep you safe from scammers.

The podcast is evolving. Um, one of the things I, I, it was fine. I called Fidelity. It was a whole thing. It took like 24 hours to get it cleared up to make sure that like my account wasn't mm-hmm. Compromised or anything, but they were like, never call the number. On the text. On a text, and they were like, [00:09:00] actually, if you ever see a number to call, assume that is fraudulent, because we will never give you the number to call.

We will either call you

Jess: or tell you to call us

Mikki: or send you an email or send you a text and say, Hey, give us a call. We think there's something, there's a problem with your, mm-hmm. Or you'll get a message through the app. Like if you have an app on their phone, you'll get a message through the app. And I was like.

Yeah. It's like I knew that, but, and this is where the scammers really thrive.

Jess: Like you get nervous. Yes. 'cause you're like, I don't want somebody

Mikki: taking my

Jess: money.

Mikki: Yes. And your brand, and they are hoping that your brain is so overwhelmed, right. That you would just make bad decisions that can trigger you.

Jess: But you know why they also asked you that last?

Um, purchase and like how much it is, is because sometimes when you go to withdraw funds or something, that is something that they ask you.

Mikki: Yeah. Yeah.

Jess: They'll be like, okay, what was the last,

Mikki: what was your last transaction? And I was like, I don't know. Like, listen,

Jess: I'm like, you're looking at my account, you tell me

Mikki: I don't.

I don't know if anybody's watching [00:10:00] the stock market right now, but I took a real hit, so I'm like, I'm not paying attention to it right now. 'cause things aren't going well. It's just a

Jess: luck.

Mikki: So that's our, that, that's the update on, on Scam Life, hashtag scam life. Um. And it's really, it. It just annoyed me. Oh, and just an update.

I've got all the updates for you guys today. All the

Jess: updates,

Mikki: my fence is, is fixed. So if anybody watched, I think it was two episodes ago, my My Fence, somebody drove their car through my fence, into my neighbor or into my backyard, hit a tree. We got the fence fixed. So at least my backyard is not exposed to everybody, to literally everybody, and they can't see my special trash anymore.

Jess: Oh, that's good. 'cause somebody might try to come steal it.

Mikki: I mean, that would be Hector's nightmare. And my dream, it's funny 'cause our neighbor is trying to sell his house and I was like, you should have waited until the leaves were fully in bloom because they're gonna look at your nice house and then they're gonna look at our house and be like, oh, I don't wanna live next [00:11:00] to them.

Jess: So I'm just gonna drop the price down a little bit.

Mikki: Honestly, I hate him so much. I hope that I personally cost him a hundred thousand dollars. Like this is the guy that did like all the damage to my property while I was outta town, so Karma. You're welcome. Yeah. So we have a homeowner horror story. We do.

I'm, I did not read the whole thing because I feel like when I read it, I talk over you. So I'm gonna try, I'm trying it out today to see if me not knowing will make me an active listener.

Jess: Active listener. All

Mikki: right. That's the plan.

Jess: So you're not like, I know what to say here.

Mikki: Right, right. That's what I was thinking.

'cause I was like, I gotta work on not talking over Jess. I'm the whole problem,

Jess: or it's just fun.

Mikki: I mean, we do love a chat.

Jess: We do.

Mikki: We're here for the chat.

Jess: All right, so this one comes from North Carolina?

Mikki: Yes.

Jess: Which is where we are.

Mikki: North cac.

Jess: All right. So she says we've been in the house for three years. The master [00:12:00] bathroom was the last thing we needed to fix to get rid of the total builder grade crap.

Mikki: Mm.

Jess: So they must, I wonder if they got a new home or if they

Mikki: sounds like a new home builder grade. Yeah. Yeah.

Jess: I mean, they're building so many homes here.

Mikki: Well, it's because we, we are buying a short term rental and. It was just, it was their, one of their specs. Mm-hmm. And the builder grade is for real, like, it's, it's, I get it.

Mm-hmm. Like the kitchen's actually pretty nice. Like I wouldn't change anything, but like, if I were gonna live there, that bathroom would need Jesus six. Like, I'm like,

Jess: absolutely

Mikki: not.

Jess: Yes. So, um, they saved up $75,000. Wow. To do it right. Complete gut job. No tub, walk-in, shower, double vanity. Upgraded tile and fixtures like that.

Sounds like what I wanna do in my bathroom.

Mikki: You're like, but for not $75,000.

Jess: Can I get it?

Mikki: Brad is like, absolutely not. He's

Jess: like, no, we're poor. You can't do that [00:13:00]

Mikki: because we're poor.

Please like and subscribe so Jess can afford to renovate her bathroom.

Jess: Hashtag first world problems for real. Um, we found a guy named Marcus through my neighbor's cousin.

Mikki: Oh God. You guys,

Jess: can we stop?

Mikki: Can we

Jess: stop? I mean, I understand that you want a recommendation from somebody. Yeah. But. Ooh. Okay. So,

Mikki: well, I mean, let's be fair.

He could have been, he could have turned out great, but it just so happens that that all the ones that don't turn out great were some recommendation from like either Facebook or like your cousin's sister's brother.

Jess: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: Yeah,

Jess: it's, I mean, so they met him. He showed, um, sorry, let me, met with him. He showed me photos of previous work.

Gave me a quote for $15,000.

Mikki: 15.

Jess: Wait, wait.

Mikki: Oh, sorry. For

Jess: labor.

Mikki: It's not working.

We're [00:14:00] already, I'm already, I'm already failing at trying to not talk over Jess. Focus.

Jess: Sorry.

Mikki: It's your words. That's my words.

Jess: Um, he gave me a quote for $15,000 for labor.

Hmm.

And $30,000 for materials.

Okay,

so we're at 45.

Alright. Alright.

When I asked about his license, he told me North Carolina doesn't require a contractor's license for jobs where labor is under $40,000.

Mikki: Liar. That is not true. I specifically asked the North Carolina licensing board and they were like, honey, the only thing we don't count is the land. So. That is the only piece that does not get factored into the total is the, the price of the land. Literally everything else counts, is counted. Mm-hmm. My

Jess: God,

Mikki: today,

Jess: I know I didn't verify it.

That was my first mistake. Aw. He said I should pull the permits myself as the, he did homeowner to save on fees. Said it was [00:15:00] normal, would speed things up. So I got my husband to go down to the permit office, fill out the paperwork, and he paid the fees himself. And like, I get it. Yeah. It makes like if someone's telling you, go do this, it'll make it faster.

Mikki: And it does make sense, right? Because they're like, oh, if I could see the sales pitch, like, oh, if my office doesn't have to deal with the permitting department, then that's money we don't have to charge you for. Like I could see the pitch, right? But it's like

Jess: it is not true.

Mikki: No, honey. And also, listen, I've, I've been to the permitting department.

If that's not what you do, that is not a place you wanna go. Like they're nice and all, but it's very overwhelming

Jess: and there's,

Mikki: especially in Wade County, it's really overwhelming.

Jess: Yeah. So. Your contractor should do it.

Mikki: Mm-hmm.

Jess: He's just trying to get out of it and be sneaky.

Mikki: Yeah. That, I would say that's a major red flag.

If they suggest you pull your own permits immediately, check their license.

Jess: Yeah. Be like, why?

Mikki: Right. That's

Jess: weird. Why do I do weird? I don't want, and if you say, I don't want to do that, I'll pay you the [00:16:00] extra to do it. And they still say no. Yeah. Then, you know. Mm-hmm. Shade. No. No shade. Run. Do not give them your money.

Mikki: Don't walk, run.

Jess: And demo started the first week of March. They ripped everything out from the tub. Vanity and tile down to the studs. First week looked fine. I would be panicked. I'm like, everything's gone.

Mikki: Yeah,

Jess: but the, I mean,

Mikki: I feel like demo is all and less likely demo, and they realize that like something's rotten.

Demo's always fine. It's when they go to build back, build back things go sideways.

Jess: It's not gonna be good, but just seeing everything demo will give me such a panic attack.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jess: Then the plumbing inspection failed. Marcus called, said the inspector was being picky about the shower pan Slope in some connections, said he'd fix it for $1,200.

Mikki: Oh,

Jess: I, I feel like this is constantly a thing. This is a

Mikki: theme. You guys. Look at me. Look at me directly in my eye. Look at me. You do not pay for rework. If somebody fails an inspection because they [00:17:00] did faulty work, it is never your financial responsibility ever. Full stop. You hear me? You hear me? Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for this, your attention to this important matter.

Jess: Thank you for coming to our TED

Mikki: Talk. And that's why I don't get invited to Ted Talks.

Jess: Look at me in my eyes.

Mikki: Like, look at me in my face.

Jess: Jesus, Mickey. They're like, it's not supposed to be that aggressive.

Mikki: I do everything aggressively,

Jess: and that's why we're here on a podcast.

Mikki: Mm-hmm.

Jess: With no audience,

Mikki: with absolutely no one in on it. It's ever Joe. And we love Joe.

Jess: Yeah. He finds us funny

Mikki: sometimes.

Jess: Other times he just rolls his eyes. He rolls

Mikki: his eyes. There's a lot of eye rolling.

Jess: Even though we really can't see him that well because of light,

Mikki: it doesn't bother me.

Jess: All right? So he said he fixed it for $1,200.

I paid him. They supposedly fixed it. Two weeks later, the waterproofing inspection failed. Inspectors said the shower membrane wasn't installed to code, and there [00:18:00] were gaps in improper overlaps that would leak and cause mold. I'm not sure what this stuff is, but it sounds important. We've talked about it before.

Mikki: So like back in the day they, you would just either put tile on drywall or you would get something that's like, almost like a concrete type board and they would just slap the tile up on that. Mm-hmm. So now it's kind of evolved to where like they're realizing that anything that has any kind of porous anything is, and water gets to it.

It's gonna start rotting the wood. So now they require this like fully water tight membrane. Okay. That's like sometimes it's tape and like a liquid that gets coated on it and it has to be like a hundred percent no holes. Because the whole point is we're doing this so that there's not a failure. Mm-hmm.

And then it rots through your house.

Jess: Yeah. And water will find any hole that it can go into.

Mikki: It'll absolutely.

Jess: It's the worst. It

Mikki: is. I mean, we love it 'cause it keeps us alive. Right. But my God, today. [00:19:00]

Jess: All right, so you don't even wanna know. Mm.

She doesn't pay him again.

Mikki: She does.

Jess: Oh mama.

Another $2,500 to rip it out and redo.

At this point I'm getting suspicious.

Mikki: Okay. Alright. So it took, it took four grand to be su su suspect. Almost four grand.

Jess: Almost four grand.

Mikki: Okay.

Jess: Um, but what am I going to do? The bathroom's already destroyed.

Mikki: Ooh. This is how they do it.

Jess: Yep. And we are staying at my husband's parents. So in-laws.

Mikki: E Absolutely not.

I mean, listen, my mother-in-law is a freaking delight, but if Hector ever had to stay with my mom, we would both kill each other.

Jess: Yeah. I am not, I'm very thankful that my in-laws don't live in North Carolina. We have a 12 hour drive to be able to go see them,

Mikki: and that's probably not far enough.

Jess: I mean, she doesn't come down here, so it's fine.

And we don't ever have to stay there because their house doesn't have, like, we would only go there in the summer because [00:20:00] I'm over winter. That's why I'm here. Ah.

Mikki: Ah.

Jess: And they don't have air conditioning on their second floor because. In Massachusetts, we don't have central air and everything. Yeah, you have to be the

Mikki: window units and,

Jess: and whatnot.

Yeah. You have to be like wealthy to have central air. Like I was always so jealous of my friends that

Mikki: had ac You're like, wow, you've got real cash.

Jess: Yeah. Every, your dad probably

Mikki: has a 401k

Jess: and everyth everything. Hold the window open, like extra high. So my dad could put in this big unit into the window and then you have to seal it all up.

But there's always holes, so then there always ends up. Fly or a spider coming in.

Mikki: Yeah, it's a whole problem.

Jess: Anyway, sorry, side quest.

Mikki: We're wrapping it up. We're getting there. We're we're getting there. We're trying to land the plane.

Jess: All right. So yeah, staying at, staying at the in-laws. After the second fail inspection, I couldn't sleep.

Something felt wrong, so I looked up NC contractor licensing law. So she didn't check his license first. She went for the law to

Mikki: see what. [00:21:00] I support that. Yeah. I mean, as long as we're looking,

Jess: we're looking, we're finding out information, right? Here's what I found. Okay. In North Carolina, any contractor doing work over $40,000 needs a license.

This includes all capital A LL,

Mikki: underlined

Jess: labor and materials.

Mikki: Yeah, a little bit. I've been saying y'all, I'm not making this up. For funs on the pod. These are facts.

Jess: Yes. And every state has their

Mikki: own rules. Their own rules.

Jess: Rules. So you have to look up where you are.

Mikki: Some states are wild in these streets and some states no rules.

Don't even have licenses. Texas is crazy.

Jess: So good luck. If you're in Texas, send us your horror story because I'm

Mikki: sure

Jess: you have one.

Mikki: Please do. And may the Lord be with you.

Jess: Yes. So then she went to the l NC licensing board website and searched for Marcus. Searched his business name, nothing. He had no license.

Then I found out that [00:22:00] licensed contractors are supposed to pull their own permits. Yep.

Mikki: Yep.

Jess: Having the homeowner pull permits is a red flag, and inspections shouldn't fail multiple times. If the work's done right the first time. Correct. I'd already paid him 20,000 ish by this point.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jess: Which was the initial deposit, progress payments and those two fix, it changes.

Charges, sorry, two, fix it charges, which she should not have been charged.

Mikki: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

Jess: So I called Marcus on Monday, told him I knew he needed a license and asked to see his license and insurance. Long silence.

Marcus,

we see you.

Mikki: Mm-hmm.

Jess: Then he said he was working under a licensed contractor

Mikki: every time

Jess: that he was a project manager.

Mikki: Literally, this could come out of the, the, [00:23:00] every, every single one. Every single one,

Jess: single one.

Mikki: My God. Today at least come up with a new lie. Right. Like if you're gonna scam, scam it. Do exciting scams, do new scams, do fun scams.

Jess: Be original.

Mikki: Yeah, I'm just saying like copying everybody else's scams is old news.

Jess: Ah. And like you don't present yourself as a project manager when you got the job. So like now you can't backpedal and be like, oh, I'm a project manager.

Mikki: I'm just

Jess: kidding. I'm not actually a general contractor. I'm a project manager. Yeah.

Mikki: Okay.

Jess: Who

Mikki: was your license holder then?

Jess: Mm-hmm. So I asked for the name and license number of that contractor.

Good for you. Getting it. Good

Mikki: girl. You rebounding.

Jess: He said he send it?

Mikki: Mm-hmm. I bet he never called you back.

Jess: Nope, he never did. That's the next sentence.

Mikki: Oh, it's as if I know how this works. I don't do this though, just so you guys know.

Jess: No,

Mikki: I don't know the steps because I do the steps. I know the steps.

'cause we have a podcast about

Jess: the steps. Yes. We have heard so many horror stories. I told him no more work until I could verify his credentials. He started yelling about the [00:24:00] contract. Go ahead. About his crew schedule. About how I couldn't, how I couldn't just stop paying him. Oh. Oh, yes you can.

Mikki: Mm-hmm.

That's adorable. Marcus.

Jess: Hmm. I told him the project was paused and hung up. Get it, girl. I'm like, I like that. I support this. Give it to him. Um, next day I went to the house. Everything was cleared out. His tools, his guys. Everything gone. Just my gutted bathroom and a half done shower that had failed two inspections.

Mikki: I'm gonna, I'm gonna press pause right here 'cause I wanna, I wanna give you guys an idea, some food for thought. Mm-hmm. Now, obviously I'm not a doctor or a lawyer or a judge or a jury. I'm none of those things, but I've done this in the past, so. But when you, if you listen, let's just be honest, you are probably not gonna find yourself in the situation 'cause you're gonna check all these [00:25:00] things.

Mm-hmm. You're gonna do all the work, you're gonna make sure that they're licensed listening to, you're gonna know the rules, you're ahead of the game. But let's just say you do all the things right and you still find yourself in this situation. Here's the move. B four, you call. Shady contractor and let them know that that,

Jess: you know,

Mikki: they're on the out skis.

You go to your house, possession is nine tenths of the law. And you, you lock up those tools. 'cause here's the thing, when you have all of their tools, they're highly motivated to refund you in order to get said tools. Because the way that I see it now, again, I'm not a doctor or a lawyer I think,

Jess: but I play what on tv.

Mikki: I paid for those tools. For work that hasn't been completed. So until I get my money back, these tools are what I paid $20,000 for. 'cause I certainly don't have $20,000 worth of a bathroom. Mm-hmm. So I have a, [00:26:00] a gutted bathroom, a shower that's failed two times that has to be done again and. All your tools.

So if you want your tools back, then you can give me my money back. Mm-hmm. So the move there is don't fire them when they still have access to the project and all of their tools are there. Go there. Secure set tools. And then tell the G GC that they're fired or that you want your money back because they're gonna be a lot more motivated.

Now, again, I don't know if this is bad advice, but this is just what I would do. This is what I would do, legal or not. I'm telling you right now, this is what I would do, and I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't think a judge or jury in the state of North Carolina would be mad at me for holding onto those tools for somebody who had scammed me out of 20 grand.

Jess: Right? Again, and he was lying.

Mikki: Full disclosure, not giving you legal advice. I'm just saying this is what I would do. Legal or not.

Jess: Yeah. And I mean, I am big on, I don't like people in my house when I'm not there.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jess: So there is no [00:27:00] way that I'm giving anybody access to it.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jess: Like I understand why you'd want to, but I would always want to at least be there to like let them in.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jess: Or

Mikki: I see, I can see like them talking you into it. 'cause it's just ease of use.

Jess: Mm-hmm.

Mikki: But like. Listen, if you're in that situation, for me, it would be hard to me, for me to just give somebody full access to my house unless it was a new construction situation.

Jess: It's also so

Mikki: many of my things. My stuff is in there.

Right.

Jess: That I don't want you or your people going through

rum. My

rum.

You through the underwear. Underwear. Why is that? Always the underwear. That's the

Mikki: lady. The story

Jess: we have is a lady with the HVAC

Mikki: guy that she caught going through her underwear drawer and ran for her life. 'cause she was afraid she was about to get serial killed.

Jess: Yeah. So I don't know. Yeah. I feel like there's other, I mean, I know that you don't wanna go to your house every day and have to let them in. Yeah. And things like that. But it's gotta

Mikki: be, maybe do an electronic lock where you can give them access to the lock Totally. During certain periods of time. But ime, you [00:28:00] could immediately revoke it.

Jess: Yeah.

Mikki: So something like that. How

Jess: do you know if they're not like sleeping over?

True

story.

Mikki: It's kind of weird.

Jess: It's a little weird.

Mikki: Anyway. I mean, I know it has to happen,

Jess: right?

Mikki: But I think there are things that you could do to mitigate that in, in some way.

Jess: All right, so I called him about 20 times over the next week.

No answer. Then his number was disconnected

Mikki: every time.

Jess: That's, I mean, that's such a shady, it looks such like a wimpy mood. It

Mikki: is so

Jess: wimpy. Like you're being such a little. I'm not gonna say it, but you know what I'm thinking? I'm like, you know what I'm thinking? Um, this is when I knew I was never going to see or hear for him again.

Mikki: Oh,

Jess: I hired a lawyer to figure out my options. He said suing an unlicensed contractor is possible, but fruitless, recovering money is unlikely.

Mikki: Mm-hmm.

Jess: Especially if they've disappeared. Yeah. [00:29:00] Legal fees would probably exceed what I would recover. I brought in a licensed contractor to assess the damage.

Mikki: Mm.

Jess: The waterproofing that supposedly got fixed after the second inspection, still wrong.

Mikki: Oh my God.

Jess: He had to completely redo it. The plumbing had additional in issues. The inspectors hadn't caught some framing wasn't to code either. The licensed contractor I hired to fix and finish everything, quoted $31,500.

Damn, that brought my total to about $80,000, not counting materials that have been damaged or installed incorrectly and needed to be replacing. The final cost of our project was $95,000 for a bathroom that was budgeted for $75,000.

Mikki: Oh my God.

Jess: The project ended up taking nine months

Mikki: for a

Jess: bathroom instead of three that Marcus promised.

Well, I'm assuming that like [00:30:00] once she figured out like he. I mean, who knows how long he took in the beginning? Yeah. And then to find somebody that had time on their schedule that was a reputable contractor. Yeah. You probably had to wait sometime. But I'm just like nine months at my in-laws. I,

Mikki: oh my God.

Sooner. She was death. Well, of my mother, not my, again, Hector's mother is a delay. A

Jess: delightful. Um, I filed a complaint with the state licensing board. They said they can't do anything because he's not licensed. He wasn't licensed. In the first place.

Mikki: I'll be honest with you, I don't think they'd do a lot, even if you are licensed.

Mm-hmm. I've tried to report people claiming, you know, to be general contractors and they're not, and they're just like, okay, yeah, well let me file this in the round filing cabinet that I keep under my desk trash

Jess: check.

Mikki: Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent.

Jess: There's a shredder there.

Mikki: Yeah. I think the only like, we like the story we had of the Jake Mul, the guy who.

His house started literally collapsing. Mm-hmm. Because it was like the inspections department and the [00:31:00] general contractor did him dirty. That's where we found out that the Homeowner recovery fund, the only way that they'll give you any money out of it is if you agree to not go after the general contractor.

Yeah. I'm just like. The level of what in the world,

Jess: and it's such a small amount, it's only like, what was it, like 10% of what? In?

Default_2026-03-27_5: It

Mikki: was 10% of what was in the fund. In the fund. So for Jake, it, they only had 600,000 in the fund. So you get So he could only get what, 60? 60,000? 60,000. Which was not even gonna put in the foundation structure that he needed to make his house like safe to live in.

Jess: Absolutely not. Um, so. They can't revoke a license that he doesn't have.

Mikki: Right? Yeah.

Jess: You know, so I filed a police report,

Mikki: get a Girl for Fraud. Okay.

Jess: It's under investigation, but the detective told me not to expect too much. Hmm. So here's what I learned. In North Carolina contractors doing work over $40,000 must [00:32:00] be licensed.

Verify it yourself on the NC licensing board website. Don't trust what they tell you.

Mikki: Yeah,

Jess: because they lie.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jess: Licensed contractors pull their own permits if they tell you to do it. That's a red flag.

Mikki: Yes.

Jess: Get proof of insurance. Actually. Look at the policy. Get multiple references and call them. Ask to see completed projects if inspections keep failing.

Something's wrong with the contractor. Yes, not the inspector.

Yes,

I didn't do any of that. Cost me $20,000 over budget, six months of my life and staying with my in-laws for nine months. The bathroom looks great now, but every time I use it, I think about what an idiot I was for spending five minutes. For not spending five minutes to verify his license.

Mm. I mean, seriously. It does not take long. It's like woo.

Mikki: Yeah.

Jess: It's type it in there, click the clock and you're good.

Mikki: Yeah. [00:33:00]

Jess: Um, and now she, she has a little commentary for us.

Mikki: Okay.

Jess: Your show is great. Thank you, Mickey. Yes.

Mikki: Oh God.

Jess: I love that you let your husband have special trash. Mine has a collection of things that make zero sense to me, but keeps him happy, so I guess they have that in common.

Mikki: Hashtag special trash.

Jess: Hope this gets shared and helps someone else because it really sucks not knowing what crap these low lives can put you through.

Mikki: Oh, and I just hate the idea that like she spent. $95,000 on a bathroom renovation, and every time she walks into it, she just remembers everything bad that happened.

Feel like

Jess: that will eventually go away.

Mikki: I hope so. Mm. So I was thinking if you really, like, one of the things that we hear every single time that somebody's not licensed is. [00:34:00] I, you know, they said they were, and they, they were so confident and you know, like I had no reason to think they weren't licensed.

Jess: They showed me pictures of their work.

Mikki: And here's the thing, I think we should just normalize no matter who you are considering, no matter how, like I don't care if you're considering using somebody that you saw on the news for being like builder of the year. Make it a practice and like, just like this is how we do things, where you go and you check their license.

Mm-hmm. And the other thing too is, and I don't know that this is as big of an issue, but it, it will, will help you determine whether somebody's very seriously in business or not validating their insurance. So it's not just enough fully to say, Hey, can you provide me with a certificate of your insurance?

You also need to call the insurance company and check to see that it's active, because a lot of times people will get a policy to have to, you [00:35:00] have the certificate and then the next day they'll cancel the policy. And, but they, but they have the certificate, so then they'll, they'll alter it. Like they'll go into like Adobe or whatever and they.

Add the, you know, the homeowner's name and make it seem like, oh yeah, I just had my insurance company print this out for you. And it's not active. Mm-hmm. We've had that happen to us with subs that work for us, saying that they were licensed and finding out later that they weren't. And so that's one thing that we do is when we, we start working with somebody new, we say, okay, I'm gonna call, I'm gonna call your insurance company.

Right. And verify that this is real. Um, so just, just a heads up, if it's fake, you should probably just tell me now. Yeah. So that's one of those things I would say when you are. Not necessarily for every person you're considering, do you need to do that for, but I would say it would be a good idea if you've decided on a GC or a trade or whatever it is.

You've, you've already verified their licensing and now you're like, okay, let me take it one step further and verify [00:36:00] their insurance to make sure that it's active. Mm-hmm. Because now, listen, things happen and, you know, most contractors are small business owners and things fall through the crack. And I won't even, I won't even pretend like, well, we've never lost insurance.

But one time when we bought a new truck mm-hmm. The insurance company just. Never actually put the truck on my policy. So we were driving around wild in these streets without insurance and they were like, when I lost my ever living mind on them, they were like, ma'am, it's fine. We, you know, we would've covered it.

But it's still like, I didn't like the fact that my guys were out there driving around without, without insurance on the truck. Right? Because like, you know how insurance companies are, if there's an opportunity for them to get out of paying, they're

Jess: gonna be

Mikki: like, sorry, you weren't

Jess: covered.

Mikki: What do you want me to do?

So.

Jess: Mm.

Mikki: But like, if you are seriously in business, then you understand the importance of having insurance. You understand the importance of keeping that paid and keeping that up to date. Mm-hmm. So if you call an insurance company and they're like, oh no, that co, that policy [00:37:00] was. Terminated X amount of days ago, or seven years ago or whatever it was.

Jess: I can't find that number

Mikki: right, or that's not real. We don't have that person in our system. Then that helps you to understand like, okay, maybe this isn't the company for me. Mm-hmm. But if you call and they're like, yeah, they're up to date and all the things, that's just another green flag. So that helps you kind of like move through the process where you have checked on everything that you can check on.

Now, one, we've, we've talked a lot about. Judgements and checking to see if people have judgments on them. But one thing I want to disclaim here is we ask you to check judgments. We add that to like our checklist, the the chicks in construction checklist of like how to not get screwed over by trades.

Mm-hmm. Because so many stories where somebody did get screwed out of enough money that they could sue over it, then found out that those person, those people also had judgments against them. But I think it's [00:38:00] important to know many of our stories, the, when the people contacted lawyers, they found out that it wasn't financially.

Reasonable for them to go after the contractor 'cause they weren't licensed. And, and you, again, we've said it a million times, you can't get blood out of a rock.

Jess: You cannot.

Mikki: So nine times outta 10 people will choose to not pursue legal action or, or mm-hmm. A civil suit because it's not, they know they're not gonna get their money back and it's just gonna cost them money that they already don't have.

So. If you check somebody out and they don't have judgments against them, I don't want you to think that like, okay, this is the only, this is the only thing I need to check on. This is a green flag. Because they don't have judgments against them. They could have absolutely screwed people over, but it wasn't financially reasonable for them to try to pursue a civil case against them,

Jess: right?

Mikki: I am somebody who does not care. I will spend 10 grand to get five grand out of you for the, for the sake of it. [00:39:00] I'm just, it's a, for

Jess: the principle.

Mikki: For the principle of it. Mm-hmm. Like we are, we're currently dealing with a situation now where I stupidly tried to help somebody who wanted to study for their general contractor's exam.

And so I, we worked out a whole deal and did the whole thing. Like I thought I had really like stepped my game up as far as like helping people. 'cause I got a signed notarized document that she was gonna pay me back. So she goes to the class and part of like half of the fee that I paid was for the books.

Mm-hmm. So she goes to the class and they never give her the books. And so

Jess: are we Sure. Should they never give her the books?

Mikki: Huh?

Jess: Are we sure?

Mikki: We're sure.

Jess: Okay.

Mikki: Yeah, because the, the, the, the people did confirm that they never gave her the books. Okay. And what was weird is like. I, I took this class for the same company when I was prepping for my exam, and I got the books that day.

And so I, I, I called her like a month after she was supposed to take her, her test and or her, her class. And I'm like, Hey, how did it go? And she was like, well, they never gave me my books. [00:40:00] And I was like, what? Like, that was a big chunk. Chunk of the expense was the books. Like the class was like $600 and like the books were like three.

Jess: Wouldn't you ask somebody? Where are my books?

Mikki: Right. Ah, don't get me started. So basically what happened was she realized. After taking the class that she's probably never gonna pass that test. Ooh. And so she wanted out. So she used the fact that they never, never gave her her books as in a way to be like, well, you, you need to get your money back from that company because I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna use them.

I'm not gonna take my test from using their, their class.

Jess: No, she pays you. She goes after them.

Mikki: Right. Because of course.

Jess: How would

Mikki: you know that's not how it happened?

Jess: How would you know that she didn't get her books to like go after them to begin with?

Mikki: I will tell you. Mm-hmm. The, the, the Bank of Mickey is, is is closed.

It, it was, it was seized financially. Um, I'm just not doing it anymore because it did become my problem and I had to go out and I had to [00:41:00] contact the company and they admitted that they didn't give her the books and they tried to make it right with her, but because she had already made up her mind that she wasn't gonna be able to pass this test, she didn't wanna take the class again 'cause they were offering to literally give her.

Um, free one-on-one training as like a way to say they were sorry. And I tried to work it out with her to be like, listen, this is a great opportunity. You should take it.

Jess: Right.

Mikki: But she just was done with the entire idea.

Jess: But at that point, if she's done, then it's on her to pay.

Mikki: Right. You would think one would think so.

I'm currently in. It was like almost four grand that I spent just trying to help somebody out and I'm literally spending, I don't even know how much money on all the lawyers trying, trying to get it figured out. So as. I can assure you that there are a lot of people out there that just let, let a loss be a loss instead of adding to that loss.

Very few people are as spiteful as I am, like, no, to spend money they don't have on lawyer [00:42:00] fees outta spite. So a somebody not having a judgment against them does not necessarily mean that. Mm-hmm. They. There, it, everything's all good. You still have to verify their, their license and make sure that that's active.

You still have to try your best to get like proof of their work. Like I think that was like the one where we did, where the people in Texas scammed. Mm-hmm. Five, like 24 families out of $5 million. They had all these videos on Instagram and TikTok and all the things of all these projects looking like their completed work.

That was other people's properties. It wasn't properties that they did renovations on and it seemed like it was really good, but they. It wasn't their work and the work they did do was so bad. Like, these, these people are gonna go to jail for it. So like that, if we've shared all these stories where nobody even got in trouble, imagine how bad it has to be that they were, they're literally gonna go to [00:43:00] jail for what they did.

Like, wow. Yeah. So it's, the point that I'm trying to make is when you ask a builder for. Recommendations or not recommendations for, um, what is the word that I'm looking for?

Jess: I have no idea.

Mikki: You're asking for to see their projects when you're asking to like, oh, portfolio your portfolio. When you're asking for like, Hey, I wanna see your portfolio.

Portfolio. I wanna see completed projects, I wanna talk to clients you've worked with. I can guarantee you they're not gonna connect you with the person that is currently suing them, or the person that they screwed outta $20,000. So that's where it's like. Me saying, oh, let me take you to some of my completed projects.

Like that's great 'cause it helps you to see that I've completed projects. But like you don't know that that's not my sister's house that I didn't build, but I'm making her say, Hey, pretend to be a client of mine and pretend to be thrilled about it. So it really does require on your end, like doing that [00:44:00] hardcore research to see if you can find anything good or bad.

Mm-hmm. About that person. Because I will say. The, the age of of, of technology. We do believe in reviews in places.

Jess: Yes.

Mikki: It, it wouldn't be that hard to find a bad review. You might not be able to find a good review because when people are really happy with something, they come a lot of times do like word of mouth.

Mm-hmm. And they'll, they'll tell people how great the work is. But will they necessarily go online and be like, Hey guys, let me tell you about this. Great. Probably not. But they'll be, if, if somebody screwed you, them over, there will be

Jess: that

Mikki: somewhere on the internet.

Jess: Unless. Unless you have a husband like mine that's like, no, you can't say that.

Oh God, they know where we live.

Mikki: Hector wouldn't, wouldn't even try. Like he's just like, just say it 'cause we know you're gonna go ahead. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like, but even still, like, I mean, remember that one home in a horror story where the lady. That got screwed over, bought the, [00:45:00] the real estate agent's domain, like her name and the domain name for her name.

And so like whenever you Googled her up, website would pop up and it was just like literally receipts of everything this woman did like just wild. So. That's something I'll do. We have the capacity to, to put up if somebody screwed us over. So I do feel like if, but, but you know, there's things like they could have changed their business name, they could actually not have a business.

So that's another step is going to the Secretary of State for whatever state you live in, and checking to see if they have a registered and licensed business. You know, like are they paying taxes? Are they on the epi up? You know, has their, did they have a LLC? And then it got revoked 'cause they didn't file reports.

These are good things to know.

Jess: And then they file a new, under a new

Mikki: name. How many companies have they had under their name? Mm-hmm. Because that's another thing, like when somebody says that they own this company and then you go to Secretary of State, it shows you who's listed as the president and the vice president of the company.

I think it even like [00:46:00] lists the secretary and all if you have all of that in there

Jess: and you have all that in there. Yeah.

Mikki: So if, if somebody says, oh yeah, this is my company. And you go to their, go to the Secretary of State and you pull up their company, you see they're a real company, but that person's name isn't anywhere.

Jess: Oh, there,

Mikki: that's, that's shady. So there's things that you can do to suss people out. Mm-hmm. Obviously, like the story of Jake Mulva, that guy did everything right. It was a combination of the general contractor being absolutely shady and the in the inspections department totally screwing him over that led him to that situation.

But. If you do all the steps, right, like it is definitely going to improve the statistical probability that

Jess: you're gonna have a good renovation,

Mikki: right? You're gonna have a good renovation, and that is all that we want for you guys, is for you to have great experiences and for you to know what the red flags are.

Mm-hmm. Because. So many people find themselves in this situation where they hired somebody, they believed that they were licensed. They believed when they said, oh, you pull the [00:47:00] permit, it'll be easier, it'll be better. Like to whoever this person is who wrote in this story, please know that you are not even the fifth person to send in an eerily similar story.

Mm-hmm. This happens all the time. This you, we as human beings just wanna trust people. We do. So it's not like there's any, you didn't do anything wrong. Right. It's just you didn't know what to do to prevent this from happening to you. And so that is what this podcast is about. We want you guys to know all of the steps to take to protect yourself from having a bad experience.

We don't want you to spend $95,000 on a bathroom No, literally for any reason, but if you do. We don't want you to then not enjoy your bathroom, right? Because you have all these bad memories tied to it. Like that is just not the point of how hard we all work for our money so that we can have nice things.

So if you have had an experience that is less than ideal and you would like to share it with us, we would love for you to go to chicks and construction.com and share that with us. Yes. Another thing I'm supposed to start [00:48:00] talking about, because this is technically a podcast, is that not just liking and subscribing on all of our socials and on social media, but if you are a listener, you can find us on whatever podcast platform you prefer.

We are on all of them. So Jess, where can they find us on the socials?

Jess: All right. Facebook links in and Instagram. We're at Chicks Construction Podcast. And on TikTok, we're at Chicks Construction.

Mikki: Wonderful. Thank you guys so much, and we will see you next time. Bye

Jess: bye.