NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -
A Nashville family who wanted to build a backyard oasis ended up with a $39,000 hole in the ground instead. They may have to pay another $3,000 to have the mess dug up and carried away.
Alyson and Andy White hired a company called Outdoor Living Experts to build an in-ground pool with a spa, landscaping and a fence.
Alyson White said the workers dug a hole, smeared a thin layer of concrete on top of the dirt, then disappeared.
"I was sold a bill of goods," Alyson White said.
The Whites tried to find another pool company that could finish the job, but two companies told her the pool would never hold water.
Jeff Slaughter is the general manager of Blue Diamond Pool and Spa.
"It think they were just attempting to do something they'd seen on a TV show or something," Slaughter said. "He said nothing about the pool meets building code; the concrete should be 6 to 8 inches thick with steel inside."
"With a very thin coat of concrete it would just crack to pieces and break," Slaughter said.
He said the pump put in by Outdoor Living Experts was too small and would not have kept the pool clean.
Outdoor Living Experts started the work in April without a building permit. After the Metro Codes Department stopped the work, the Whites said the company forged her husband's signature to apply for a permit. The permit was taken out in the name of Pool and Spa Depot, although that company had nothing to do with the project.
The owner of Outdoor Living Experts, Bob Bomar, used to work at Pool and Spa Depot, but according to Pool and Spa Depot owner Peter VonHopffgarten, Bomar was fired for embezzling more than $66,000 from the company.
The Whites aren't the only ones who have issues with Outdoor Living Experts. Dr. Habib Doss complained that his pool collapsed after a heavy rain.
The Whites have hired a lawyer to sue Outdoor Living Experts.
The company lists its address as a house on Belcourt Avenue. When Channel 4 confronted Bomar in front of the house, he insisted that he was not the business's owner, although on his LinkedIn profile page, Bomar said he owns the company.
"I'm just a salesman," Bomar said. "I don't have any ownership role in the company," he said. Bomar denied his departure from Pool and Spa Depot had anything to do with an embezzlement charge.
"We just parted ways," he said.
Bomar was never criminally prosecuted in the case.
Alyson White said she wishes he had been; she said maybe she and her husband would not have lost $39,000.
"I have to start over. We would like our money back from these people. I don't know how I will get that money back, but that's what I need," Alyson White said.
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