The Better Business Bureau is mediating a quarrel between a contractor and an El Paso homeowner while a roofing job goes unfinished.

Elizabeth Alfaro and her mother live in a two-story house in El Paso's lower valley. Her mother owns the home, but Alfaro signed a contract with Roberto Construction to re-roof the house. The contract was signed in April 2011 with work scheduled to be completed in May 2011. Alfaro paid a down payment of $2,900, just over half of the total cost $5,750, in order to start the work. Head contractor Roberto Torres pulled a city permit for the job and started in April.

Torres said while working on the roof, Alfaro told him she might not have the money to pay for the other half of the job so he stopped working and told her he would finish when she had the money.  He also said the family would interfere while his employees were working on the roof, and Torres received several harassing phone calls from someone threatening him to get the job done.

"I don't want to be like other contractors, I'm not trying to take the money and run," said Torres. "I want to finish this job. I'm willing to do that if they want me to or I'll refund the rest of the money. I've worked in El Paso for more than 20 years. I'm not perfect, but out of a hundred clients you're bound to have two or three who won't be perfectly satisfied."

Alfaro denies Torres's claims. She said the unfinished roof has caused additional damage to the home on rainy days, and roofing materials left on top of the house blew off and hit her mother on the head. Several water damage spots have leaked through from the roof to the main floor of the home, requiring the Alfaro family to store big buckets in different parts of the house to catch the water. Alfaro also has a medical report from her mother's hospital visit, citing "a deep bruise around the face." She also filed a police report.

"I tried to do things the right way make sure he was licensed bonded insured," said Alfaro. "He pulled out the permit I thought everything was going to be ok. This is like the worst nightmare ever I mean I see it on TV all of the time and I never thought it would happen to me."

Alfaro said she originally hired Roberto Construction after watching the company work on the Valero at North Loop and Lomaland, just down the road from her home.

"He did it quick and nice," Alfaro said. "I don't see why he couldn't do mine."

Alfaro took her case to the Better Business Bureau of El Paso, which has been mediating for the two parties through email.

"It's ok for a business to get a complaint," said Annabelle Estrada, Director of Communications for the bureau. "Sometimes things will go wrong or sometimes you'll have a really picky consumer, and that's ok. We just ask that the businesses respond to the complaint one way or another."

Alfaro showed KFOX 14 one of the emails from November in which Torres agreed to finish the work as long as family and friends of Alfaro did not interfere with the work or threaten the company. Torres said he sent an email on Jan. 20 listing the expenses for the work he started and is willing to refund the other part of the $2,900 if Alfaro chooses another contractor to do the job.

The BBB said many times it's services go unused at a homeowner’s expense.

"Half of the calls we get are from people that call when it's too late," Estrada said. "It's best to do the research beforehand; it saves time, money, and headaches."

You can visit the bureau's website at http://elpaso.bbb.org/