CRAWFORD, Texas — Numerous Clayton Construction clients have raised their concerns about unfinished work after signing contracts and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for projects to be completed at their homes.
One Clayton Construction client, Carol Shaw, says the company started building her family a house about a year ago. Since then, there have been nothing but issues along the way.
"Between out of our pocket and the bank, we're out $350,000. This whole house has failed and so the only recommendation is to totally destroy and rebuild and we just can't afford that," Shaw explained.
She went on to say they have failed every single inspection on the home and nothing in the home is up to any codes. To attempt to get at least some of her money back, Shaw filed an insurance claim with the Clayton Construction liability insurance but was later denied.
Another client, Benjamin Christlieb, signed a contract with Clayton Construction to build a barn dominium on his home property. He says there has been little to nothing done.
He and his family are now $200,000 in the hole as a result.
"Things started smooth at first with the progress of the project and communication with the contractor. But when another company came to our home to take away the steel needed to build the barn, we knew there was a problem. We had about $600,000 to spend and we gave him $200,000. Now we're short $200,000 to finish our house because now we've got to pay for the concrete concrete laborers and other needed things to get this done," Christlieb shared.
These are just two of the alleged 15 people claiming that Clayton Construction did not complete their projects. Alleged victims spread across Austin, Crawford, Waco and other parts of Central Texas.
Some of these alleged victims made a group chat to voice to each other their concerns and vent about their construction troubles.
Most of them say they have little to no communication with the company owner.
6 News was able to get in contact with Loyd Clayton Yost, the owner of Clayton Construction, and address these complaints with him.
Yost explained that he is not a con man or a swindler. He says his business grew extremely fast and as a result, it fell apart.
"I'm not a crook," he said. "Not arguably, you can say I'm a terrible businessman and I wouldn't deny that. I started this company with the goal of putting people to work and treating customers better than the way I've been treated dealing with people the construction. But it blew up in my face terribly."
Yost went on to say he has been working two jobs since October to pay his clients back and make things right.
"I went completely broke due to mismanagement of my company," he said. "Finances are in a total disarray and I have a lot of debt through my company that I'm trying to get paid off. I'm now working to just fulfil contracts and [I] trusted people I shouldn't have trusted, but at the end of the day, [it] is my responsibility to make it right. That's what I'm trying to do."
Christlieb didn't have a comment when we asked him how many people were affected by his business and how much he owes them.
Christlieb is hoping to remove Yost from his loan and title insurance; he won't be able to get his home completed by a different contractor until this happens.
Shaw and Christlieb have filed police claims with Williamson County against Clayton Construction LLC and Clayton Construction US Corp.