CHARLOTTE — Margie Smith’s northeast Charlotte house caught fire in 2022, killing her son, a U.S. Marine veteran who used a wheelchair.
“I just pray a lot. Every day to me is a blessing,” she told Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke.
She focused on the future, not the past, and getting the house back in shape. After all, she was raising three grandchildren, Stoogenke said.
She hired a contractor, TEC Electric.
“He didn’t do good work. He did substandard work,” she said.
So, she fired the business.
The company says they had finished “a large amount of work,” but Smith only paid some of the money.
They insisted she pay $109,000 and got a lien on her house, which is legal.
“I feel terrified. I mean it’s a dark cloud hanging over my head for years,” she said. “This [has] been going on … from bad to worse with me. I haven’t had a peaceful day, a peaceful night in years.”
Smith says she tried to fight it on her own, then hired attorneys, and had a falling out with them.
Ultimately, the judge ruled in the contractor’s favor last month. Smith must now pay the money or sell her house to cover the tab. In fact, the court ordered a public auction on the house she has owned since 1978.
“It’s a lot to give up …. how I got in the situation. It just kind of happened. It happened to me,” she said. “I never thought I would lose my house.”
TEC did do Smith a favor.
They say she can sell the house the normal way by putting it on the market, so maybe she can walk away with more money.
Smith will be the first to tell you:
- Take construction liens seriously. You can lose your home over them.
- Don’t hesitate to get legal help. Stoogenke says, personally, he’d get help right away. He wouldn’t even wait for a lien.
- Some people try to go it alone, even use AI, which is something that Stoogenke warns against that.
VIDEO: Homeowner facing lien and more than $12,000 in fines sues HOA and has been winning
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