Lifestyle

Mary, 74, Put Most of Her Retirement Money Into Building Her Forever Home. Eight Years Later She Still Can’t Move In: “All That I Had”

By Mike Harper · November 11, 2026

Mary Browning walks through the house in East Tampa that was supposed to be her retirement home and points to what is missing. The roof was never finished, and the ceiling is coming down in places.

“This is my master’s bedroom,” she told a reporter last month. “Not a room in this house that is completed.”

Browning is 74. According to 10 Tampa Bay, records show she paid a 69,000 dollar deposit to Hopps Construction in 2018 to build a three bedroom home. The station says it was supposed to be finished in 120 days. Eight years and an extra 100,000 dollars later, she says the work that was done was not done right, from uneven floors to a cracking foundation and faulty wiring.

“I’m unemployed, I’m on Social Security,” she said. “All that money that I had put towards this house was all that I had.”

Browning says the contractor sued her in 2022 and put a lien on the house. She filed a countersuit, and the court combined the two cases. In March, she won a judgment of 193,000 dollars. “And as of this day, I haven’t received a penny,” she said.

The contractor tells a very different story. Victoria Hopps told 10 Investigates reporter Emerald Morrow that she stopped work because Browning wanted to add more than 500 square feet to the home and did not pay for the changes. “That’s common sense,” Hopps said. “It’s gonna cost more money.”

The station checked, and city records do show approved plans for a building revision. Browning confirmed she asked for changes. She had a written contract for the home, but she says the addition was covered by a verbal agreement: no extra cost as long as she paid for the plumbing and electric. As the station noted, verbal agreements are hard to enforce in court.

Earlier this year, Hopps Construction dropped its claim. Hopps said she could not keep paying an attorney for a case she did not think she would collect on, and Florida law requires businesses to have a licensed attorney to bring a civil claim. Asked about the judgment, Hopps was blunt. “I’m not gonna give her a brown penny,” she said.

You can watch the full report in 10 Tampa Bay’s video on YouTube.

Browning is living with family for now, the station reports. “So I’ll probably have to end up selling it, so I can try to find me somewhere else to move to,” she said.

Winning in court and getting paid are two separate steps. The state’s Construction Industry Licensing Board runs the Florida Homeowners’ Construction Recovery Fund, which it describes as a resource of last resort for people who lost money dealing with state licensed contractors. Under state law, a homeowner generally needs a final judgment or restitution order based on specific licensing law violations, must show the contractor has no assets that can be collected, and must file within one year after the case ends. Payments are capped by law.

If you are planning to build or remodel in retirement, the experts the station spoke with offered simple advice. Get every agreement in writing, including changes to the plans. Have an attorney review the contract before you sign it.

It also helps to look up a contractor’s license with your state licensing board before you hire, and to pay in stages tied to finished work.

Browning says she will take any help she can get, even volunteers willing to help finish what was supposed to be her forever home.

This article is for general information and is not legal or financial advice. The account of the construction dispute reflects what each side told 10 Tampa Bay; Hopps Construction disputes Ms. Browning’s account, as noted above. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.