Contractor demolishes the shower he renovated after a dispute over non-payment, sparks debate

A contractor took a sledgehammer and destroyed a bathroom he had remodeled after he wasn't reportedly paid by the homeowner. The video of the contractor, Terry James Gregory, damaging his own work has gone viral and sparked a debate on the issue. The video shows an angry man taking a sledgehammer and breaking out tiles that he had relaid. The contractor said he had every right to destroy the property as it wasn't paid for by the homeowner, reported God.Dailydot. 

Amber Trucke was the homeowner who hired Terry James Gregory and Jordan Cazares of Dream Home Remodels of Colorado to help fix the shower in her bathroom. They were also contracted to do other additional work in Trucke's home. As the duo came close to wrapping up the work, Trucke said she wasn't happy with it. She wanted to wait until the bathroom was fully cleaned up to make the payment. She was contracted to pay them $7555 in total and a balance of $4300 was pending. She didn't want to give the money then and wanted to wait. “I wanted to be wowed and I wasn’t wowed,” said Trucke, reported KRDO. “But I knew she was coming back Friday to clean things up and I figured maybe I’d be more impressed then. So I was not going to pay them until I saw the actual finished product,” she added.

Gregory and Cazares felt Trucke wasn't going to make the payment for remodeling her shower. They decided that she didn't deserve to enjoy the shower without making the payment and decided to demolish the shower. When Trucke was at work, the duo arrived at her home allegedly under the guise of picking up their materials. Only Trucke's roommate was home. They ignored the protests of the roommate and proceeded to destroy the bathroom. “We put weeks into this. Thousands of dollars into this,” he can be heard saying. When the roommate asks him to stop, he asks, “Is somebody going to pay me?” The roommate stays silent and Gregory continues, “We put weeks into this. Thousands of dollars into this.”

The roommate, who's filming the whole incident, then tells him, “It’s not your house to destroy.” He stops, turns to her, and tells her that none of his work has been paid for, including the material that went into remodeling the shower, and therefore, it was his property. "I got receipts for everything." After breaking out huge chunks of the tiles, he walks out. “Let me tell you something. No contractor in the state of Colorado will fix that when they find out that I took it back because she refused to pay me,” he tells Trucke's roommate before heading out of their home.

The contractors said Trucke had refused to pay for multiple projects and not just the remodeling of the bathroom. Some of the work completed included "a vanity, mirror, light fixture, 2 ceiling fans, plumbing work, fixing rotten framing in her walls, and an exterior door replacement.” Cazares added that Trucke had no issue with their work while it was in progress and raised issue only when they demanded payment. “We regret that this contract went sour. It has never happened before and is not something that is made regular practice,” said Cazares. 

An overwhelming majority blamed the homeowner, Amber Trucke, for refusing pay the contractor for his work. Many on Twitter agreed that the workers had every right to destroy what they weren't paid for. The video was also posted on Reddit where a few people posted screenshots and agreed with Trucke that the work was indeed sub-par. Trucke says she plans to take the contractors to small claims court for destroying the place.