I contracted Patt Daugherty August 16 and he started work August 26th. Rather than put this in nice flowing text, let me categorize everything that went wrong:
Mr Daugherty claimed the pool would be done in eight weeks plus or minus 2 due to sub contractor scheduling and weather.
He excavated a giant hole in my back yard and then three weeks later I discover he filed no permit to do so and did not set up a final inspection on that phase.
He didnt pay the excavator who then sent me a letter stating he will put a lien on my house.
Mr Daugherty finally pays the excavator with a rubber check for $3000 whereby the excavator takes the check to the Williamson Co. DAs office as theft. Any bounced check over $1500 in the State of Texas is considered theft. Patt responded very quickly by agreeing to pay $500 per month. Patt responded very quickly because he is on probation and was scared.
The excavator later tells me that Patt asked him to overcharge another customer in order to pay for my job.
The giant hole cost me $19,000 which was to include initial plumbing and steel rebar shaping.
Patt then asks for the 2nd phase (per contract) money of $19,000 for finalized plumbing, finished steel, and gunite.
I never saw Patt again after paying the 2nd phase. I had some emails and phone calls (many) to get him off his ass, get a schedule drawn up but all I got was a bunch of whining about his time being used up for probation classes, not being able to get a hold of subs to do the job (I wonder why they didnt want to work for this con artist).
Steel rebar guy puts a lien on my house after giving Patt more than sufficient time to pay for the work and materials. At that juncture, Patt was given a Letter of Termination for breach of contract by my attorney. Patt was given the opportunity to pay the rebar guy and then have the contract re-instated. I never heard from Patt again.
I had to hire another pool guy who did a great job of finishing the pool but it cost me more than the original contract with Patt because Patt used under-grade steel, set the slope of the shallow end to the deep end so high that it probably would have cracked in two, hired inept plumbers who didnt use flex tube but instead blow torched the PVC to bend it causing severe weakness at the bend which would have been bad under water pressure from the pumps. Luckily, I fired Patt in time to find all of this before the pouring of gunite.
Mr Daugherty never did reimburse me for work not accomplished. I suppose I will be in line with a lot of other people having civil suits and small claims. The money that I could get back would just go to the attorney any way.
I have had an interview with Detective Billy Petty of Austin Police Dept and also associated with Travis Co. DAs office of the White Collar Crime Unit. I have supplied a list of 40 other homeowners ripped off by Daugherty and sub contractors not paid. If you would like to be part of this list, Det. Petty can be contacted at:
Detective Billy Petty #2520
White Collar Crimes Unit
Austin Police Department
PO Box 689001
Austin, TX 78768-9001
512-854-4407 office
512-854-4951 fax
Patt Daugherty has been investigated by Detective Petty for a year now. At this juncture, Detective Petty is putting a task group together (including a member of the DA's office) to set up charges against Mr Daugherty.
ConArtistPoolBuilder
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.
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