Adele Put Her 401(k) Into Two Rental Units So She Could Retire. Then the Contractor Walked Off the Job: "I Don't Have a Safety Net"
Adele Sheets had a plan for her retirement, and it was sitting in her own backyard. The El Cajon, California, retiree wanted to turn two garages on her property into accessory dwelling units, the small rental homes often called ADUs. The rent would add to her Social Security and a small pension. “So, this was how I could retire comfortably,” she told ABC 10News San Diego reporter Austin Grabish in a Team 10 report this May. To pay for it, she used her retirement savings. “My 401(k) was my savings,” she said. In the spring of 2022, she hired general contractor Benjamin Wiatrak and his company, Top Tier Homes and Remodeling, according to the station. After an initial 1,000 dollar deposit, she made several more payments. She says she was told that paying in advance for materials would save her a lot of money. “He kept asking for progress payments, even though very little had been done,” she said. According to California’s Contractors State License Board, Wiatrak abandoned the project in December 2023. State investigators listed missing roofs, uninstalled doors, electrical fixtures and basic weatherproofing among the unfinished work, 10News reported. “So, when he left, it was just a frame.
