Ray Leach Co. said to have kept Boutte family’s deposit money, but never built home
A St. John the Baptist Parish contractor is being sued for damaged condominiums he built for Hurricane Katrina victims in Orleans Parish, and is also fighting claims from some residents that he kept their deposit money without even building their homes.
One St. Charles Parish family was directly affected when they gave Leach a $15,000 deposit.
“My husband and I paid Ray Leach Construction a large deposit to secure a contract and start construction in the Bayou Gauche area.” Abby Chabert said.
The only thing she and her husband received were two copies of their house plans and a land survey.
After three months of failed attempts to contact Ray Leach Construction and Leach personally, Chabert says she was determined to get her money back. Chabert made a series of phone calls to Leach and kept good records of all the telephone conversations she had. She also kept copies of every document she and her husband signed with the construction company.
Chabert mailed certified letters and filed complaints with the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, the Better Business Bureau and the state’s contractor licensing board. She also left messages at the District Attorney’s Office in Hahnville.
“I’ve learned through this process that persistent follow up and documentation is the key,” she said. “Basically, I was told by the state board that without court documentation or complaints from at least four other homeowners, there wasn’t much they could do besides notify him of my complaint and request that he resolve the issue.”
The money that the Chabert’s used for their deposit was earned by Mr. Chabert through a one year military deployment to Iraq.
“On Jan. 3, my last attempt before proceeding with any legal action, I attempted to reach Mr. Leach and left a message to let him know I was aware of a civil lawsuit filed against his construction company in Orleans Parish and the rumors of bankruptcy,” Chabert says. “15 minutes later he returned my call and we agreed to meet the next morning at a Starbucks in Metairie to return part of my funds and officially terminate the original contract we signed in March.”
Before the check was in her hand, Chabert requested that Leach sign a release that she personally drafted stating that if the funds were sufficient, she would not pursue further legal action.
“At no point in time did we set out to destroy Mr. Leach personally, but I had to protect our financial well being,” Chabert said. “I’m sure most people will understand why I went so far with this issue; we had a lot of money on the line.”
The Chabert’s stated they did not want to involve the court system unless they absolutely had to.
“I did return deposits to the Chabert family and three other families will also receive their deposits back,” he said. “This business is like a roller coaster and unfortunately, like everyone else in the housing market, we hit a wall and now we are just trying to make things right.”
Leach says he wants to put these bad days behind him and wants to refund the money to other families that he has taken deposits from, but says his funds are depleted.
“I don’t have anything left, I’ve liquidated everything I own,” he said. “To the families that I owe money to that I haven’t contacted, I apologize for the effect that it’s had on them.”
Leach, who developed the mega-subdivision in LaPlace called “The Grove,” says his construction company hasn’t gone out of business, nor has he filed for bankruptcy to protect his assets.
“I don’t have any assets because basically I’ve liquidated everything to try to take care of these debts and to move my family out of the area because we’ve been through a difficult time,” he said. “I was in business for 14 years prior to this.”
Leach has resolved some of his problems, but he is currently being sued for condominiums his construction company built in New Orleans after Katrina.
“The problem with the condos in New Orleans is that it’s all warranty work,” he said. “The condos went up immediately after the storm (Hurricane Katrina), and it’s been difficult trying to find people to do the work and to make the repairs they were under warranty to do.”
Leach says most of the contractors have moved out of the area and are no longer there, but he plans to see to it that the condos are repaired.
Louis Gertler, an Orleans parish attorney and president of the Joseph Street Condominium Homeowners’ Association, and his neighbors were victims of Ray Leach Construction problems.
“On March, 7 2007, I filed a lawsuit against Ray Leach for faulty workmanship on behalf of myself and the other condo owners,” Gertler said. “The condominiums built by Leach’s company had serious defects and damage.”
Gertler says once he filed suit Leach repaired the damage to his home, but suspects that the other residents still have major damages to their homes.
“We all had water intruding around the windows and as it continued it caused actual physical damage to the building components, the studs, the sheet rock and the insulation, which was in all of the homes,” he said.
According to the lawsuit, other damages included cracked ceilings, defective air conditioning units, infestations of mold and mildew in some homes, and countless other defects throughout the housing units.
“He pulled out the sheetrock and insulation and everything that was damaged in my condo,” Gertler said. “But I know some of the other tenants still have damage in their homes.”
Gertler says the Joseph Street Condominium Association will meet at the end of January to determine whether or not they will continue to pursue the legal action against Leach.
“I know that he repaired two of the units,” he said. “We just need to get with the other tenants to determine whether or not they will continue to pursue the actions against him.”
Gertler was able to file suit on behalf of his clients under the New Home Warranty Act in Louisiana. According to the law, contractors and builders are responsible to fix and repair any damages and defects that are the result of poor workmanship on newly constructed or newly purchased homes.
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