WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The home has been in Deidra Brown’s family for more than 45 years. The ranch-style home is at the end of a quiet road in Winston-Salem.
“I love it here, I really do,” Brown said.
Her parents built the home back in 1976 when Brown was just a kid. The home is hers now and she couldn’t be happier. The home sits next to a vacant lot that has a grove of trees. One day Brown realized a couple of the trees were leaning a bit toward her home. Hall kept an eye on the trees and would eventually contact the lot owner about taking them down. The conversation must have gone well because the lot owner immediately hired someone.
“I came home next the day and I noticed a guy in full gear ready to take down the trees,” Brown said. “He explained to me how it would fall (back) away from my house.”
Brown stood in her driveway as the man started to cut the two trees that were intertwined down. The lot owner was also there and watched from her car on the street. A short time later the trees started to fall, but instead of away from the home, it fell on top of Brown’s garage.
“I ran to get out of the way,” Brown said. “It was frightening, it was frightening.”
A short time later the owner came up and apologized for the incident. The man she hired to cut the trees down was a friend of hers and did not have insurance. Brown ended up filing a claim with her insurance company.
An adjuster and restoration company were sent out the next day to investigate. The restoration company was able to get a tarp on the roof until the claim could be completed and the repair work started.
Brown would hire the restoration company to repair the roof after the contractor told her he had a crew ready to go and could get it fixed quickly.
"He said he could get the work done right away, that he had a team that could do a fantastic job,” Brown said.
After a couple of weeks passed without any repairs starting Brown started to ask questions. She had already paid the company almost $4,000 to fix the roof. Brown said the contractor kept giving her excuse after excuse about not having enough people to start the job.
After waiting about a month Brown hired another roofing company to do the work. She then reached back out to the other company and asked for a refund.
“They guaranteed I would get all my money back, well that did not happen,” Brown said.
After trying for a couple more weeks to get the refund Brown reached out to News 2 for assistance. We immediately contacted the company and explained the situation. An executive with the company told us he would investigate the issue and get back to us.
It only took a bit more than a week for him to call us back and let us know that a refund check had been issued and sent to Brown. The money arrived a few days later.
“I would just like to thank Kevin Kennedy from WFMY News 2, if not for him I would still be waiting on my money,” Brown said.
The new roof is holding up just fine and it doesn’t appear any trees in the lot next door need to come down anytime soon.