A South Florida woman paid to have windows installed on her back porch, but despite being brand new, they leaked every time it rained. When she couldn\u2019t get ahold of the installer, she called Help Me Howard with Brandon Beyer.<\/p>\n
Eighty-five-year old Susan Hansford gets by just fine on her own, something she attributes to being brought up by her single father.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cI was raised by a man, so I learned to do man things and to be independent.\u201d<\/p>\n
It serves her well. Despite losing her husband years ago, she runs her Fort Lauderdale home all by herself. One of her favorite spots to sit and relax is her back porch.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cEvery morning I get up and I\u2019m blessed to be able to able to look at the water like that and just enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make the porch even cozier, she hired someone to install new windows. She paid along the way and the work got done. Only problem, every time it rained, her windows leaked.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cI did not realize until we had a rainy, very rainy September, the flood, every window leaked.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was constantly cleaning up the mess.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cIt comes in and it just goes right along here and that\u2019s why I decided to leave all the towels up, because I was tired of mopping the water that comes in from the leaking windows.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she wasn\u2019t cleaning, she was calling the installer to come out and fix the problem.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cI\u2019ve been trying and trying and trying.\u201d<\/p>\n
First he said, he\u2019d take care of it. Then he told her he no longer had a car.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cSo I said, \u2018Well, I can come get you,\u2019 I said, \u2018If it\u2019s all caulking that you need, I can come get you.’\u201d<\/p>\n
After that, she couldn\u2019t get a hold of him.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cAw, just please come fix the windows, you know, caulking, whatever it needs, so that the windows don\u2019t leak all over.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s when Susan called us.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cI paid him in good faith without me even being here and I trusted him, I paid him. All I want is to finish the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard, the windows are brand new but they leak when it rains. Can the installer just walk away?<\/p>\n
Howard Finkelstein: \u201cThe contract required both getting the windows and installing them and that means installing them properly, so the job is not done until they are. By law, he owes her a return visit to fix the windows.\u201d<\/p>\n
We called the installer for weeks. Finally, he said he\u2019d send someone by and he did.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cThey caulked all the way, that\u2019s where it needed to be done, all the way around there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The independent 85-year-old even tested the work herself.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cHe kept saying \u2018Wait for the rain.\u2019 Well it hasn\u2019t rained that much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brandon Beyer: \u201cRight but it survived your hose test? <\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cOh it did yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susan does pretty well on her own. When she needed a little help, it was our pleasure.<\/p>\n
Susan Hansford: \u201cI appreciate everything you\u2019ve done for me, because it would not have gotten done otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard says It\u2019s important to deal with someone who has a good reputation for reliability. So if something like this happens, you can count on them to come back and make it right.<\/p>\n
Got a problem, need a hand? Here\u2019s how you reach us. It\u2019s Help Me Howard. I\u2019m Brandon Beyer 7News.<\/p>\n
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n \tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A South Florida woman paid to have windows installed on her back porch, but despite being brand new,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-224344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Email:\u00a0helpmehoward@wsvn.com<\/a>
Reporter: Brandon Beyer at\u00a0bbeyer@wsvn.com<\/a>
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
Broward: 954-761-WSVN<\/p>\n