Help Make Our Home Safe & Have Clean Water Supply

Hi, my name is Niki.

I am married to a 100% disabled Veteran named Mike and we have 4 beautiful children, 2 of which are adopted with special needs.

Never thought I would ever find myself or our family in a position to request aid in this way, but here we are. It is humbling. Disheartening even...but we need help.

Our family was recently the victim of fraud and deceptive practices from a local new construction builder, who falsely claimed to complete our home in order for the VA to fund our home loan & failed to safely and effectively provide us with a home which we paid in earnest for.

Our insurance company cannot help us due to construction defect exclusions in our home insurance policy, and our attorney has been stonewalled by the builder's attorney who continues to deny our requests for financial assistance.

As difficult and painful as this whole process has been, we are struggling to make ends meet. We have been forced to maintain 2 residences during this time (from March through August) paying both Mortgage and Rent, as well as utilities at both residences(electricity, gas, etc).

This nightmare has completely drained us of our savings and maxed out our credit cards and we can no longer rely on ourselves to keep our heads above water.

We humbly need help. Mike has literally been working 6-7 days/week to provide for our family, attorney fees and bills mounting, some of which cannot/have not been paid. If you see me alone with the 4 kids, this is why. It is hard on all of us. Mike barely sleeps.

If you are unfamiliar with how we even got here...here is how this nightmare began:

We excitedly purchased our new construction, custom "dream farmhouse" (Contract Feb 2022, closing in March 2023) which took 13+ months to complete with a local builder who claimed to be Christian. During this time, we lived in residence/rental home while the home was being built/completed.

The home was beautiful, but corners were cut by the builder and on March 23, 2023, a little over a week after we closed on the new home and fully paid the builder for a completed home, we discovered that the builder's contractors had shoved trash and grout into our septic/plumbing pipes causing it to burst and flood a portion of our brand new home through no fault of our own. We could not move in. Repairs had to be made and we had barely even touched the home.

The builder said that they fixed the issue (repeatedly augering the pipes, etc) after ripping up and replacing much of our brand new flooring, baseboards, etc only for it to back up again less than a month later.

In April 2023, we consulted &paid for an attorney to issue a demand letter to our builder, who advised us to seek new 3rd party inspectors to complete independent inspections and scopes (because the initial inspectors who provided documentation that everything was okay to initially fund our home through the VA, had LIED and falsified documents in order to be paid for our incomplete home).

What we discovered was shocking and disturbing. Pages upon pages of safety and code violations that were intentionally hidden: hot wires in the attic, hot wires drilled through walls and double tapped into breakers, an entire electrical panel without surge protectors or arc fault protection, RAFTER GAPS, an unsealed fireplace and leaking gas lines, HVAC system still not cooling properly, and ultimately a low producing well which we were told, in writing, before we ever closed with the builder did not require a well water storage tank.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when we discovered after FINALLY moving in, that we do not have enough water to support our family of 6 from taking showers to washing a load of laundry and have not been able to bring our therapy horses to our property due to lack of water supply.

We now have to come up with $ which we do not have in order to have an adequate water supply at our home. We were quoted $14,595.00 for the well storage tank and install alone, and this does not include a 12X15 concrete slab which is required on top of it to safely storage the water we need, which I was just quoted $4800 to complete...so roughly $20,000 for a well storage tank system that the builder LIED and said we did not need, but we do...

Our demands to the builder are still being drawn out. Our attorney cannot get their attorney to respond, even though they have had more than adequate time to respond and provide aid. They wanted us to commit fraud and make claims against 3rd party home warranty programs for items that they did not complete initially.

While most of the code violations and safety repairs have been completed over the summer, and we are still left with the effects of having to pay out of pocket for both properties with little to pick up the pieces of what was supposed to be a fresh start for our family. Further aid requires more attorney fees and help, which financially we simply do not have.

Every request has been met with condescending attitudes from the builder representatives(to include the CEO and Director of Construction) who claimed to be a Christian company, but have walked in anything but integrity to take shortcuts, lied directly to our faces, and REFUSE to help us FINANCIALLY, despite our being forced to maintain both residences, even after our lease term had expired at the old residence. Our complaints to the Texas Department of RE Commission against the Licensed Inspectors can take MONTHS to complete and we cannot wait any longer to make sure we have what we need: a safe home that is habitable without concern, a clean and adequate water supply, operational systems like HVAC and electrical and resources to meet our monthly obligations. Our 2 electric bills for both homes for this month alone totaled roughly over $900...Our attorney has been asking for an additional $15K financial retainer to continue to go after our builder in court. We have been paying both mortgage AND rent since April, which as you can guess has completely placed us in a financial deficit.

This is all so humbling. Embarrassing. And infuriating as we felt called and led to this precise location to help others. But we cannot even help ourselves. Gas, groceries, clothing- things we thought we would never have to worry about at our age, we are...It has worn down my strength and led me to a dark place, which I struggle to get out of every day, and only by the grace of God do I keep pushing forward. Mike pushes through his tiredness and continues to work day in and day out and we do what we can do, because that is all we can do.

What this builder has done to us (and other families) is both shameful and disheartening and we pray that God will bring justice against those who have stolen from us.

If you feel led to help us, in any way, know that this kindness will not go unnoticed or unappreciated. We are thankful for the ongoing prayers and support from loved ones. We are placing our faith, hope and trust in God to help us make it through this rough patch until we can rightfully gain justice from this deceptive builder.

The monies we receive from this help will go towards acquiring the necessary well storage tank and concrete slab, along with paying our past and present due utilities as well as the final rent payment at the old house. We have copies of everything and we would gladly provide receipts for any items requested and paid for with these monies.

We pray that you are blessed for blessing us in any way, and we give thanks for all that we have.

We know that we are called to do great things here, and by the grace of God this will be resolved and we can focus solely on what we need to help others.

Please share this with others as we cannot do this alone.

Thank you.

Respectfully, Niki, Mike & The Hatz Family