SPOKANE, Wash – A couple is looking for answers after they say they hired a local construction company to build their garage. They shelled out close to $15,000 in what they called good faith money. One year later, no work was done, and they said the company wouldn’t reimburse them.
“They still have our money, and they never built us anything,” said Wanda Hogan.
Hogan said she just wanted to build a garage for her husband. However, what started off as a thoughtful gift turned into over a year’s worth of financial nightmares. Hogan added that she thought she had done her due diligence and found Gibraltar Steel Buildings.
Hogan said they hired Gibraltar Steel Buildings in January of 2023 and paid them close to $15,000 as a down payment on a project. She explained two months later Gibraltar Steel Buildings told her if she did some leg work the job would go much faster.
“The quicker the garage comes down then we can get in there and do the excavation.”
According to Hogan, she went to the city to get permits, contacted Avista to move power lines, and put in a temporary power source so the work could start right away. ” All those things they said we had to do, we did expeditiously.”
However, she said things changed. The company called and said there was a change in leadership, and the Hogans, considering their options, thought it may be best to part ways.
“Can’t we just get our money back and go with a different company.”
But representatives from Gibraltar Steel Buildings convinced them to stay: “Now your prayers start because you’re like, okay, I’ve given them out money, now what can we do”?
Hogan said she was assured that different leadership didn’t mean different company policies, but she was frustrated: ” We have gone through a whole year, and have had nothing done except for what we did.”
After months of inactivity, in the fall of 2023, Hogan said Gibraltar Steel Buildings’ new contractor assured them they would still get a garage by the end of the year.
“So I said, ‘We’re going to get a garage this year,’ and he said, ‘You’re going to get a garage this year.'”
But November rolled around, and Hogan said they still didn’t have a garage.
“They still have our money and they never built us anything.”
That’s when Hogan hired an attorney and Sent Gibraltar Steel Buildings a demand letter stating that the company had “materially breached their contract and asking for a full refund of the deposit.”
“All we want is our money back, that’s what we want.”
Their lawyer said there were other cases against the company. “It was disappointing to know that this is an ongoing occurrence.”
Hogan said the company initially offered them $4500. She wasn’t happy, “what have you done to earn $10,000.”
NonStop Local confirmed that Gibraltar Steel Buildings ultimately offered $9500, still a few thousand dollars short of what the Hogans paid and, in Hogan’s words, not enough.
A representative from Gibraltar Steel Buildings told NonStop Local they closed about six months ago but are still paying their debts, including in cases similar to the Hogans.
In a state they provided NonStop Local, the timeline was always planned for 2024. Adding that the Hogan’s “signed the agreement, fully acknowledging that Gibraltar Steel Buildings’ calendar was full.”
Close to 18 months after the initial payments, the couple moved on. Hogan said she hired a new company to build her husband’s dream garage, and while she says a lot of resentment has built up toward the company, she has one request: ” Turn this around, and don’t do this to anyone else.”
After speaking extensively with both the Hogan’s and Gibraltar Steel Buildings, they’ve decided the best way to handle this is in court. In terms of how to prevent a situation like this from happening to you, the best defense is a good offense. Do your research on the company, check their Better Business Bureau score and see if there’s any complaints filed against them.
