An Elliot Lake woman is out $20,000 after paying a local contractor to work on her home – only to have him skip out on doing the job.
For years, Alexandra Hooper saved to remodel her kitchen, and she hired Elliot Lake-based contractor Richard Goulet to carry out the work late last year after he was recommended to her.
“I assumed he was vetted," Hooper told SooToday. "I was intending for him to do my kitchen, and to do that he had to move my stairs.”
When he was hired, Goulet began work on moving the stairs, as well as drawing up plans for the kitchen, Hooper said, when he told her he was leaving Elliot Lake over the Christmas holidays.
“Over the Christmas period, he said that he had to go home to Timmins,” she said.
“I gave it a couple weeks where we weren't really in contact. I ended up contacting him on Jan. 1 because he was saying that the kitchen would probably go ahead . . . about mid-January.”
However, Goulet did not return the message – or any of Hooper’s additional attempts to contact him in the coming weeks.
“I attempted to contact him multiple times over the month of January, just in case something happened or he was busy,” she said.
“He never got back to me.”
Unfortunately, Hooper had already paid Goulet $20,000 to carry out the kitchen renovation.
In February, she opted to take Goulet to small claims court, where she won by default earlier this month after he failed to show at the proceedings.
“I had to serve him the papers as well, so he was aware that I was filing this,” she said.
“He then had 20 days to make a response, and he didn't, so in that case I won by default.”
Per the court judgment, Goulet must repay the full $20,000 to Hooper, which includes a 5-per-cent annual interest rate on the amount owed.
Although she won the case, Hooper has yet to see any compensation from Goulet.
“Yes, I ‘won,’ but I haven't seen any money – I'm not likely to, to be honest,” she said.
“I guess my biggest goal is I honestly don't want this man to be able to do this to anybody else.”
When she bought her house seven years ago, Hooper said it was a “huge goal” of hers to renovate her kitchen.
“It's something that I actively worked towards, and I was really excited,” she said.
“It's really sad to know that there's people out there who would do something like this. Honestly, my worst nightmare, is how I would describe it.”
Renovating her kitchen is a goal she still plans to achieve moving forward.
“It's been hard, but I'm also a hard worker. I know I'll be able to save up that money again and eventually get my kitchen done.”
Goulet declined to comment for this story.