By

TONY HOLT

| Hernando Today

Published: October 6, 2011

Updated: 10/07/2011 10:13 am

BROOKSVILLE – Rachel Clark said the company she paid to clean and repair her home didn’t complete the job.

The company’s attorney said Clark squandered the insurance money and is making false claims about shoddy work.

Restoration Specialists filed a lawsuit against Clark.

Thus far, the plaintiff has won most of the court battles.

Clark, a 58-year-old widow, is declaring bankruptcy. Her dire financial situation is the only thing keeping a roof over her head, she said.

Her two grandsons — ages 12 and 14 — and two cats live with her.

A grease fire in the winter of 2006 caused $12,000 of damage to Clark’s house, located off Paxford Lane north of Brooksville.

She hired Restoration Specialists, an Ocala-based general contractor that serves 19 counties across North and Central Florida, to repair her charred home.

Clark said the company’s laborers promised to load her belongings into a pod, clean and repaint the house and return the items the way they found it.

The process was supposed to take a week. It lasted about three months, said Clark.

The vents had to be closed, so there was no heat. She said she and her grandsons had to bundle under blankets to stay warm.

The worst part, she said, was the result.

“They said it would look better than before,” said Clark. “They messed it up more than before.”

The initial price tag for the job, she said, was $10,000.

Clark’s most recent bill, which she showed to Hernando Today and was included in the court file, totals more than $42,000. It includes the added interest, attorney fees and other costs.

Circuit Judge Daniel Merritt Jr. ruled in favor of the plaintiff and ordered Clark to pay. The company put a lien on her house and the plans were in motion for the house to be auctioned.

Clark was granted a stay after she filed for bankruptcy.

Kevin Dixon, a civil attorney out of Inverness who represents Restoration Specialists, said there is “nothing sympathetic” about Clark.

“She got paid in full by the insurance company and she absconded with that money,” he said. “We took it to trial and the judge believed us.”

The check she received after the fire was in excess of $12,500, according to court records.

Clark said she’s used the money to pay her attorney.

During a deposition in November 2007, Clark was evasive with her answers, but conveyed to Dixon she wasn’t going to pay a company that reneged on its word.

“Is it your testimony that Restoration Specialists didn’t do any work on your house?” Dixon asked her.

“What work they did messed my house up,” she said.

Dixon pressed on and Clark admitted the company did perform some of the services they promised.

She complained they painted her cabinets with flat paint instead of the requested semi-gloss variety, which looks better and cleans easier.

She also said the workers were sloppy with the spray paint, so much so they stained her carpets.

Additionally, she still sees traces of soot in her kitchen and utility room, she said.

She keeps a plastic bag over the vent that hangs over her stove because the workers broke it, she said. She has to use the bag to make sure bugs don’t drop onto the stovetop while she’s cooking.

During the same deposition, Dixon asked Clark point blank why she didn’t pay his client with the $12,500 the insurance company gave her.

“Because they didn’t finish their job,” she told him.

“Is that the only reason you didn’t pay?” Dixon asked.

“They didn’t finish and they damaged my house,” she said.

Six civil actions have been filed against Restoration Specialists in Hernando County during the past seven years, according to court records.

Dixon, who has represented the company for more than a decade, said civil cases occur frequently when a customer fritters away insurance money instead of using it for what it was intended — paying the contractor.

“Restoration Specialists doesn’t even normally do this kind of work,” said Dixon. “They have bent over backwards for this woman. She’s just a horrible person. Now she gets to reap what she sows.”

Clark said the company is spiteful.

She said the house is worth less than the mortgage. The company would lose money if it obtained ownership.

“I don’t understand the thought pattern on that one,” she said.

wholt@hernandotoday.com (352) 544-5283