ROCKDALE, Texas —
Comal County-based contractor Raymond Rau has been in trouble with the law before, but a Rockdale woman spent months putting a case together before Milam County would get involved.
Now, the Milam County District Attorney’s office has charged Rau with “Securing execution of document by deception” in an amount between $150,000 and $300,000." The charge is a second degree felony.
Rau finally come before a judge last March and was given additional time to find an attorney.
It took Smith a year to make that happen.
Lara Smith signed a contract with Rau Builder LLC in August 2017.
“I was originally told it would be done in February," Smith told Channel 6 in early 2018. "When I started questioning the fact that nothing was getting done, they told me it would be done in March."
Smith said builder Raymond Rau kept pushing the date back but still took money from a bank loan she had taken out for the project.
She said the bank was supposed to inspect Rau’s progress, but he was not getting back to either of them.
"He’s not answering my calls, texts or emails. I’ve written him a certified letter asking to meet with him in person,” Smith said in 2018. “My loan officer has sent him several emails that he has gotten no reply to.”
Channel 6 News reached out to Raymond Rau to confront him about the issues in May of 2018. Rau blamed the slow progress and problems on "change orders" or additional requests by Smith.
"If everything went smooth and we didn’t have change orders it would have been finished in a month," Rau said.
When Smith further researched the builder, she found negative reviews all over BBB.org, Yelp and BuildZoom.com along with several other sites.
Some of the reports called Raymond Rau, the company's owner, a "scammer" and "thief."
Smith said other contractors told her she couldn’t fix the work. When she hired engineering firm Charles D. Fowler, they confirmed those claims.
“He said that it needs to be torn down and started over because of the foundation issues,” Smith said.
But Smith was not giving up.
She kept her emails, got in touch with other customers who had similar experiences with the builder, took statements and paid for a detailed report from the engineering firm.
She then went to the Milam County District Attorney.
“I refused to leave until I spoke with the district attorney himself,” Smith said. “He was just appalled at what had happened.”
Smith had to follow up with the Milam County District Attorney several times afterwards, but on Nov. 15 the county finally put out a warrant for Rau’s arrest.
Rau was taken into custody in Comal County in December.
Smith doesn’t yet know if she will get any money back or if she will resolve the loan with her bank, but she hopes others will find the strength to fight back like she did.
“Just continue to be persistent," Smith said. "Don’t give up, because… that’s what’s happening. So many contractors are doing this to people, and they are getting away with it because people give up.”