Little House of Horrors 

Page 4 of 4

Sun workers were supposed to power-wash the exterior of the house. If they did so, they did it without disturbing the dirt crusted around the edges -- which might explain why the paint is peeling there.

To be fair, Sun had lousy plans to work from, and lousy administrative help on the project. The job specifications drawn up by the HCDC for Lewis' home renovation are vague and often incomplete, judged by normal construction standards. In some cases, the written job specifications don't match the blueprints for the project. As a matter of fact, some of the "punch lists" -- construction updates that show which parts of the job remain unfinished -- are longer than the original specifications.

In January, Lewis' daughter, Teryl Whitaker, who has since moved in to take care of her mother, found the house filled with smoke. Firemen pinpointed the cause: a teapot left on a hot plate in the basement by one of Sun's workers.

The new smoke detectors installed by Sun Construction had not gone off.
Three days later, the Fire Department again came to the home after flames shot out of an electrical outlet in Lewis' bedroom while she was in bed reading; Lewis, who suffers from hypertension, wound up in an emergency room for examination.

She and her family called a halt to Sun's work on the house until things were straightened out.

They're still not.
The state's Contractor's Licensing Board is investigating Sun Construction's role in the state of affairs at the Lewis home. But the governmental and nonprofit agencies that participated in the disaster on Lincoln Way continue to dither.

Sun Construction left Lewis' house for the last time on Jan. 10. Sun and the Lewis family each have a version of a punch list. The HCDC and the Mayor's Office of Housing are trying to come up with their own lists. In the meantime, they've held onto an $18,000 payment to Sun, even though an HCDC construction manager had approved it.

In April, with the $18,000 construction draw still in limbo, Daniel Sun filed a $33,000 mechanic's lien against Lewis' house.

Virtually anyone can file a lien against a piece of property; a lien merely notifies possible buyers that the lienholder might take action to seize the property to pay off a debt. In California, that action must occur within 90 days of the filing of a mechanic's lien. That three-month deadline for the lien against Lewis' home is fast approaching.

For no apparent rational reason, the lien seems to have stymied all the agencies involved in managing Lewis' project. Both the Mayor's Office of Housing and the HCDC say there's not much they can do about the unfinished rehab job because of the lien -- even though the lien doesn't directly involve government agencies, and even though there are processes set up for settling such disputes.

The rehabilitation contract signed by Lewis and Sun requires that they resolve any dispute by legal arbitration. Lewis does not have the slightest understanding of the intricacies of the legal process. She cannot afford an attorney to represent her.

And neither the city nor the HCDC, which are paid to manage the rehabilitation program, has bothered to mention the arbitration process to Lewis.

"No one has ever talked to us about arbitration," says Whitaker, Ora Lewis' daughter. "They have never said anything about how we're going to proceed in this case."

In fact, the Lewis family hasn't heard from the HCDC since April and has talked to staff at the Mayor's Office of Housing fewer than five times in the past six months.

"They all said that everything was put on hold because the lien was filed," says Whitaker. "And that's typical. If they changed typewriter ribbons, it would delay the project by months. We always contacted them. They didn't contact us. I have no idea what's going on."

Here's what one HCDC construction manager says is going on, for what it's worth:

"It hasn't been dropped or dismissed," says Tom Watts. "[Sun] has responded in a way that [Lewis] didn't like. And that has not set a good tone for negotiating the contract.

"We meet and discuss the issue between ourselves at least once a week. Sometimes a situation like this is just bad.