A suburban family displaced from their home after a damaging lightning strike earlier this year, said they still haven’t been able to return to their house months after the incident because they the company hired to fix didn't finish the renovations properly.
With the help of his insurance agent, Walter Pretzer said he hired a company to fix severe damage to his family's St. Charles home caused by not one, but two lightning strikes on the same night in May.
“It took a lot away from us,” he said.
Pretzer said the contractor the company hired, however, failed to replace his electrical, which they had been contracted to do, and completed substandard drywall work. Pretzer, a painter and contractor himself for 40 years, said he since been ripping out the drywall to replace it.
“I didn’t know that he was going to do whatever he was going to do to us,” Pretzer said. “It is just unheard of.”
The company Pretzer contracted through his insurance argued that they did good work in a timely manner, and blames Pretzer for allegedly bothering the workers.
“I’m always around my house and if I see something that’s out of the ordinary I am going to tell him,” Pretzer said.
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Still, the company in question said the Pretzers complimented their work several times and even wanted them back on the job.
But Pretzer claims he won’t have enough insurance money to fully fix the damage and might have to take out a loan.
“It’s not a company that should do a full restoration on a house,” he said.
