Berkeley, MO (KTVI-FOX2Now.com)—

Good Friday tornado victims, taken for tens of thousands of dollars.

The Better Business Bureau issued a waring Wednesday and slaps a home repair company with an “F” grade.

A spokesman said there had been 5 complaints from victims in Berkeley against Pettis Construction of Florissant, but no action taken.

Almost 4 months after the tornado, Helen Davis still wasn’t able to live in her house, her home for nearly 30 years; her mortgage paid in full.

“No, I can’t live hear,” she said.

You could still hear the “rat-a-tat-tat” of home repair throughout her neighborhood, but all was quiet at her place, which looked worse than it did when the tornado hit, after she’d paid $10,000 dollars for repairs.

“Take down and replace gutters, downspouts, replace storm doors,” she said, reading the checklist of repairs in her contract.

She said almost none of the work was finished.

Berkeley building inspectors said what was “done” was poorly “done”.

“It does hurt,” Davis said, looking at an unfinished exterior wall of the house from inside a front bedroom. “Every time I come here to pick my mail up, i come here and look at this. I can’t even live here. The house is paid for. I can’t live here.”

“I’m hurt. I’m hurt,” said Davis’ next-door neighbor, Joyce Stewart.

Stewart said she paid Pettis $17,000 for tornado repairs; she’d paid almost $10,000 more to have another contractor redo roofing, window, and siding work.

“He did not even take that piece away and put a brand new piece in,” she said, pointing to a piece of siding with a hole in it. “He left that like that.”

“It’s a horrible situation to be the victim of a tornado and then turn around and be a victim of a contractor and still at this point, this many months later, not be able to have a house you can live in,” said BBB spokesman, Chris Thetford.

The company’s owner, Bruce Pettis, said sub-contractors were behind the shoddy work, including Davis’ front wall.

He said he was waiting on a check from FEMA to correct the problems.

He also told Fox 2 tornado victims were taking advantage of him; expecting a great deal more work than what they had to cover.

“What he told us was, that the people who are complaining, are complaining because they’re trying to squeeze more work out of him than what they contracted for,” Thetford said. “It is his responsibility to make sure the subcontractors do the work, they way it needs to be done to satisfy the people that have paid him.”

Berkeley authorities charged him with ordinance violations for failure to obtain proper permits and inspects, along with substandard workmanship.

He’s due in court, September 6th.

The BBB urges home owners to check contractors’ references, every time; get detailed contracts covering exactly what work will be done; and pay for work in thirds over the course of the project.