HOUSTON – A man said that misguided repair work by a city contractor has led to a growing headache that has lasted him almost a year.
He said massive flooding has led to his home deteriorating, and to this date, no one is taking responsibility.
Right now, there is a lot of confusion about who’s responsible for a massive mistake at the beginning of the year that seems to still be wreaking havoc on the home that sits on the corner of Adrian and Fennel.
Kelly Williams said the problems with his home began back on Jan. 6.
”There was a reported water main leak outside my garage,” Williams said.
But, he said it wasn’t the leak itself that created issues, but the repair process initiated by the city who had contracted a company called Hydromax USA to shut off the valves so that another city-contracted company called Nerie Brothers Construction could make repairs to the water main.
”They have to let the city engineer tell Hydromax USA which controls the pressure to these lines, they have to tell them (which valves to shut off),” Williams said. “They told them the wrong valves to shut off.”
Williams added that the result of the wrong valves being shut off spilled out when Nerie Brothers tried to begin its repairs.
”There was this geyser that came out,” he said. “It ran for almost two hours before they could get it shut off.”
Williams showed pictures to KPRC 2′s Deven Clarke that he said were taken that day, showing the massive amounts of water flooding his property. In one of the pictures, you can see what appears to be a city-contracted Nerie Brothers truck on site.
Now, inside his home that sits on block and beam, the issues are endless.
”There is a separation in the middle of this wall,” Williams said pointing to a gap between the wall and floor.
He said that there are countless cracks due to the home being unleveled. ”It’s almost above every window,” he said.
Williams said he now worries that if he takes a shower in one of the bathrooms attached to the ground-floor bedroom, he’ll fall through the floor.
”You hear that? It just shifted. That’s what I was telling you about,” Williams said as he stood in his shower stall.
After reaching out to the City of Houston, its senior attorney, Randy Zamora told us it was CenterPoint’s contractors installing gas lines that caused the problem, but Williams showed us what he said is an email from city-contracted Hydromax’s insurance company, Travelers Insurance, denying a claim because “Hydromax worked under the instructions from the City of Houston engineer, they provided instructions to our insured which valve to turn on and off.”
The slab of concrete that was put down after the repairs is right next to a City of Houston manhole cover.
Williams said there aren’t even any gas lines on this side of the street, and CenterPoint backed that up through an email to KPRC 2 that reads:
”Hi Deven, I have received confirmation that CenterPoint Energy’s mapping system shows no existing or proposed gas facilities on Fennel St. between Adrian and Scanlock.”
Williams estimates the damage inside his home to be between 35 to $50,000 thousand and counting.