Homeowners getting stuck with homebuilder bills
The housing bust is leading to a disturbing trend across North Texas. Homeowners who've paid for their new house once are finding they may have to pay for it again.  Beverly Devaughn thought she found her perfect home - a $1.3 million mansion, the Frisco doctor built from the ground up. "I wanted to build a dream home," she said but added it had turned into a "nightmare." That's because near the end of construction, letters started arriving - liens, totaling $200,000, filed by angry subcontractors. Even though Devaughn fully paid her builder, he didn't pay the subcontractors he hired.

Homeowners getting stuck with homebuilder bills

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The housing bust is leading to a disturbing trend across North Texas.

Homeowners who've paid for their new house once are finding they may have to pay for it again.

Beverly Devaughn thought she found her perfect home - a $1.3 million mansion, the Frisco doctor built from the ground up.

"I wanted to build a dream home," she said but added it had turned into a "nightmare."

That's because near the end of construction, letters started arriving - liens, totaling $200,000, filed by angry subcontractors.

Even though Devaughn fully paid her builder, he didn't pay the subcontractors he hired.

"I'm being asked to pay for something somebody else did, somebody's taken the money and I'm being asked to pay that money," said Devaughn.

 

WFAA-TV.

Mike Marsalek, of Classical Custom Homes, is unlikely to lose his $400,000 Frisco home.

It's happening all over North Texas, as more and more builders collapse.

Subcontractors, who actually did the work, aren't getting paid.

But often they don't go after the builder for the money. They go after the person who bought the house.

Construction attorney Brenda Cubbage's caseload has quadrupled this year.

She represents unpaid subcontractors, including one suing Devaughn.

"To me the person who ought to be paying the freight is the builder who has misappropriated the money or not spent the money where he should have spent it," she said.

The law figures the person benefiting from the work should pay for it.

Builders can face lawsuits and rarely criminal charges but attorneys say often homeowners or insurance companies pay the debt.

"They are going after the person that they think most likely has the ability to pay," said Marlon Frazier, a legal adviser.

Other states have rules protecting homeowners.

Utah, for instance, set up an insurance program of sorts, for subcontractors. That's paid nearly $9 million in the past 15 years.

In Texas, critics say more builders should face tougher penalties.

"The whole agency is being reviewed, and we're looking at every part of the agency to try to make it more consumer friendly. We want even more stringent rules to hold those people at bay," said state representative Ruth Jones McClendon (D) of San Antonio.

We tracked down Devaughn's contractor, Mike Marsalek, of Classical Custom Homes, to his $400,000 Frisco home.

He refused to talk to us but in court records, he said he ran out of cash and admits spending Devaughn's money elsewhere.

"He's lived quite well on money from others, like Dr. Devaughn," said Frazier.

He faces lawsuits, but attorneys doubt he'll lose his home.

Devaughn, however, could. She's hired an attorney.

The bank is threatening to foreclose unless she pays the liens.

"I feel a lot of people feel you're doctor, you can pay it, you've got it somewhere, but that's not the case with me. I feel like I'm a victim of so many things. The builder's the bad guy, he's the one that's taken the money," she said.

As more builders go under, she worries more like her will be left paying the bills.

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