JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Contractors say they worked for a local contracting company and they never got paid.
Action News Jax told you earlier this week about complaints from homeowners about Chase Massey of Massey Contracting.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
Now, workers tell us they’re still waiting for empty promises to be fulfilled.
Two Hispanic contractors in Jacksonville claim that a roofing company allegedly owes them thousands of dollars. They have asked us to protect their identity.
“Those people started ... at first, they started paying very well, everything was fine, peaceful, but later on, everything became a web of lies,” subcontractor 1 said.
RELATED: Jacksonville homeowners say Massey Contracting took thousands, then disappeared
What began as a relationship of trust with Massey Roofing & Contracting ended, according to them, in broken promises.
“They started lying. Everyone would say ‘the money is coming, it’s coming,’ and it never came,” subcontractor 1 said.
The pattern of financial irregularities behind this local roofing company is not new. Court documents obtained by Action News Jax show previous lawsuits against the owner.
Duval County records reveal that the owner already faces lawsuits from former employees for more than $36,000 in unpaid wages, in addition to commercial litigation with financial firms claiming more than $440,000.
‘Beautiful house has been destroyed’: Family claims roofer caused water damage, which brought mold
“When we stopped receiving payments ... we still kept on working,” subcontractor 2 said.
These two subcontractors assure us they continued to work for this company, but suddenly, the payments stopped.
“But approximately November, they started failing me with the checks, and they didn’t have funds, and ...” subcontractor 2 said.
One of the victims claims that payments were delayed and checks bounced.
“It never crossed my mind because of the trust I had in them,” subcontractor 1 said.
Bank records from the workers showed a systematic pattern of checks returned for insufficient funds.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
We saw individual checks ranging from $5,000 to $17,000 bounced.
Seeing that the company was not responding, these subcontractors made a painful but ethical decision -- they used their own savings and took out loans to pay their workers.
“It has been a bit difficult for my family because I paid the other people who worked with me. So I used all my money to pay people,” subcontractor 2 said.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
We contacted the owner of the company, Chase Massey, who told us he was an absentee owner and is now playing catch up with many outstanding accounts.
“If there are any overdue balances, they need to contact me directly and we will get it taken care of,” Massey said.
Victims say, never work without a signed legal contract since trust, in this case, cost them their life savings.
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.