Woman says contractor bailed out of barndominium
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – An Oklahoma woman who says she budgeted six figures to build a barndominium project now believes she was scammed by the man originally contracted to complete the work.
Judi Holten said she had high hopes for the project, which was supposed to be a set of two steel builds for $109,928 including material and labor, according to a contract she provided to KFOR in email.
However, she said the contractor, doing business under 1st Class Barndominium & Steel Structures LLC , left the property soon after starting and never returned to finish the work.
A Facebook page with the same name had been removed from the site as of Wednesday evening.
“$57,784 I’ve paid [Chance] in cash [already],” Judi said in an earlier interview with KFOR, saying she also paid for equipment rentals, totaling nearly $6,000.
“He’s just such a crook,” she added.
Holten said she contacted the station after learning a building materials company was preparing to file a lien on her property for unpaid bills.
In a series of messages, Holten said Greenhagen later contacted her saying his lawyer required a contract amendment for nearly $20,000 more than the pair originally agreed upon.
“He said, ‘Well, my attorney says I need a new contract,' [but] I said, ‘You never honored the first contract’,” Holten stated.
“He wants $19,800 more to finish what he was supposed to do on the first contract,” she added.
When contacted by phone, Chance Greenhagen claimed he and Holten needed to agree on new terms for him to finish the project.
“Both of us need to be on the same page with a contract amendment with all the changes so there is nothing being left out. I will do it when I get some time, probably tomorrow or the next day,” said Greenhagen over the phone.
However, Holten said Greenhagen never sent her a contract revision to review.
“There were some changes, and I knew that. But he never would tell me [exactly] how much those changes cost,” said Holten.
“I was trying to keep on good terms, hoping he would do the right thing and come and finish our building,” she said.
“He had no intention of ever doing it, I believe," she continued.
This isn’t the contractor’s first brush with supposedly bad behavior.
Arkansas’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Greenhagen and his wife back in 2020 for violating the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (ADTPA), claiming they required large deposits and upfront payments for home improvement projects they couldn’t or wouldn’t finish, and calling his work "deceptive" and "unconscionable".
According to affiliate KARK, Arkansas Contractor’s Licensing Board later revoked Greenhagen’s contractor licenses.
Oklahoma consumers who have been impacted by Greenhagen or other contractors can file a complaint with the state’s Consumer Protection Unit (CPU), through the Office of the Oklahoma Attorney General.