JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – A News Channel 11 investigation revealed a Johnson City company is being accused by customers of taking thousands of dollars for home renovations that were never completed.
News Channel 11 found out more than a dozen complaints have been filed against Wood Construction and Remodeling, LLC with both the Tennessee and North Carolina Attorneys General offices.
Contracts show customers of Wood Construction and Remodeling were often asked to pay 40% down at the beginning of their projects. It also states in the contract that all money paid is non-refundable. Customers who spoke with News Channel 11 are now asking ‘what happens next’ as their projects have sat in limbo for months.
At least 22 customers say their experience with the company has been unfinished work, thousands of dollars down the drain and empty promises.
“It’s a trainwreck for us,” said customer Roseanna Hallman.
“None of the excuses really made that much sense,” said Jeff Hallman.
“They have either started projects and left them unfinished or they never showed up. It’s repetitive, it’s the same story over and over and over,” Leah Bailiff, another customer, said.
The Johnson City-based company Wood Construction and Remodeling, LLC has an active contractor’s license in Tennessee, filed in 2019 by the company’s owner, Leighton “Joe” Wood.
The company now has an “F” rating on the Better Business Bureau website.
At last check, 15 consumer complaints have been filed in 2021 with the Tennessee Attorney General’s office, along with four to the North Carolina Attorney General.
“We’ve paid $30,500,” Jeff Hallman said. “And they have done absolutely no work.”
The Hallmans live in Gray, Tennessee and moved to the area from Virginia knowing they would have to remodel their new home.
“We needed doorways widened for a wheelchair. Well, we can’t do that now,” Roseanna Hallman said. “We can’t afford a lot of the things that we needed to age in place. And Wood took that from us.
“I don’t know any working person who could take a $30,000 hit and not take ten years to recover from it.”
The Hallmans say after signing their contract with Wood Construction in February, no demolition was ever started on the front-to-back renovation of their home.
“Eventually, it became clear that they had no intention of doing any work at all,” Jeff Hallman said.
Now out even more money, the Hallmans have hired another company to come in and start the job.
“I theorized immediately that probably we weren’t the only couple that had lost money to Wood Construction,” Roseanna Hallman said.
News Channel 11 has identified customers who say they have had similar issues with Wood Construction from the Nashville area of middle Tennessee, to Knoxville, to all across the Tri-Cities region and even into North Carolina.
A Google search for the company’s website will tell you the “Business is Closed.”
But a new website, “Custom Homes by Wood,” now exists in its place.
Customer Leah Bailiff in Rogersville, Tennessee says to her, seeing the original website being taken down while she was under contract was one of the first red flags.
“We gave them $12,500 initially,” Bailiff said.
A Wood Construction crew demolished her deck in August, and she says they never returned to finish the job. They were contracted to replace her deck and build a roof to cover it.
“So our back patio door goes out to nothing,” Bailiff said.
Like the Hallmans, Bailiff says her project should have already been completed by now and that the issues started soon after signing her contract in May.
“No communication,” Bailiff said. “Unable to get ahold of anyone, and when we did, we were put off week-to-week about what was going to happen, but it never did essentially.”
Bailiff says she wants to know where her money went.
“My goal is to just stop him from doing this to anybody else,” Bailiff said.
The company’s Johnson City headquarters is now locked up with a “for sale” sign.
Dean Weaver, the most recent acting CEO of the company, resigned last week, but says he only worked there for a month. He told News Channel 11 over the phone the major problems can be attributed to the company selling more projects than they were equipped to handle.
He said he was put in the CEO role after serving in customer service for a short time when former CEO Jeff Sabins stepped down. As acting CEO, he says the height of all frustration was that he could never find out how much money the company had to spend.
Weaver said this made it impossible to budget and schedule projects – and fueled the customer’s problems.
He says the company should have stopped selling projects much sooner and focused on resolving issues.
“We’ve spent $43,000 with Wood, said Kristen Holzer. “There is maybe $6,000 worth of work out there.” The Holzers live in Johnson City and say they were also mortified with what was left on their property.
Their contract for a home addition and new roof was signed in March.
They say they told the company upfront they needed the project done by the end of August because they had a baby on the way. Now, the baby is born, and work still has yet to near completion.
“Five months later, they came out and they broke ground with the machines, untrained laborers,” Holzer said. “They immediately hit the septic line coming out of the house.”
Ever since, Holzer describes their situation as a ‘nightmare.’
She says the footers they laid are already cracking and have to be replaced, and now they are out another $7,000 hiring a different company to come and fix their septic system this week.
“As soon as we stepped into the basement, we stepped into water,” Holzer said. “We lost baby clothes, so much baby clothes in the basement. Just from where the sewage water had been sitting there for days.”
The families News Channel 11 spoke with said when they would reach out and ask the company for answers, if they got a response, company representatives cited a clause in the contract that says they could delay projects due to many circumstances, including an ‘act of God.’ Customers said in their correspondence with representatives from Wood Construction, employees often attributed this to the COVID-19 pandemic and a labor shortage when explaining why their projects were months behind.
“At the time they signed the contract, COVID had been going for a year already,” Jeff Hallman said. “It’s not like this was something unanticipated that they couldn’t have foreseen.”
The families all want their money back, but they also want to see Wood Construction leaders who are responsible held accountable.
“Hopefully, as a group, we can see something done. To stop what is happening,” Bailiff said.
On Thursday, News Channel 11 received a statement from the company’s owner, Joe Wood, in response to these allegations. The full statement reads:
“We have recently partnered with a large regional construction company in order to immediately address all of our current customers projects. This partnership has immediately and dramatically increased our production capacity.
We have been diligently working through manpower, material and logistics issues and this new partnership solves all three with immediate results.
All of our customers are being contacted individually in order to coordinate continued work on there projects.
Any existing customers with questions are asked to contact customerservice@woodcoremodel.com so that we may address them as soon as possible.”
Joe Wood, owner of Wood Construction and Remodeling
Customers affected have already reached out to News Channel 11 following the airing of this story Thursday – saying they are unhappy with this response. Many say they do not want the company to continue work, they want a refund.
The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office provided WJHL with a copy of a ‘cessation of unlawful conduct’ letter sent to Joe Wood on October 7. The letter details multiple unlawful actions identified by their office; it can be read here:
State attorney’s office complaints
News Channel 11 has compiled a list of some of the complaints sent to state offices. Below is a listed summary of those complaints, provided by the Tennessee Attorney General’s office:
Jeff Hallman in Gray, Tennessee.
Complaint submitted on July 12, 2021
Amount involved: $30,500
Hallman said as of July 12, no work had begun on their home remodeling project after a contract was signed on February 26, 2021. The contract stated work would begin within 30 days and be completed within 90 days. The Hallmans submitted a letter canceling the contract on July 1 and have had correspondence with the company. No refund has been given.
Richard Peebles in Piney Flats, Tennessee.
Complaint submitted on July 27, 2021
Amount involved: $48,000
Peebles said that on Nov. 6, 2020 a contract was signed with Wood Construction. At the end of February, Peebles said the foundation was incorrectly laid, and electrical and plumbing work was started in April then abandoned.
Qiong Shi in Nashville, Tennessee.
Complaint submitted on July 29, 2021
Amount involved: $14,645.40
Shi wrote in a complaint that…
