A local family is taking part in a lawsuit filed by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office in November against a home-improvement company based in Pittsburgh.

Iron City Builders, owned by Richard Brourman of Pittsburgh, had customers in at least 14 counties, including Lawrence and Mercer counties. The company recently settled a lawsuit with 10 homeowners who claimed the firm lured people into contracts and failed to live up to its side of those bargains.

A Mercer County family that is part of the pending attorney general's lawsuit claims they found themselves in debt and stuck with siding on their home that was flapping in the wind after they dealt with the same company.

"I feel we were misled in many different things. We were so naive and thought everyone was honest," said Terri Thompson of Blaine Steet in Grove City.

The family said they were approached by Brourman in the spring of 1996.

"He said that he was representing the borough and that they were doing work on homes through the borough," said the 30-something wife and mother of two. "We had just moved into our home in the borough ... so we didn't know."

Mrs. Thompson said her mother thought it was funny that a company from Pittsburgh was representing the borough when there are so many local home-improvement companies, but the family just accepted the information they were given.

She said the company of fered her and her husband the chance to refinance other outstanding loans along with paying for siding the home.

"They said they could consolidate all our loans and make one low payment," she said. "When they gave us the monthly amount, we thought we could handle it."

She said the agreement was to side their home and put in a couple of windows as well as consolidate some of their loans. Mrs. Thompson said they signed papers for the agreement and the company said the numbers would be plugged in later.

"We did it without even thinking. They said they'd send the papers to the company, but start as soon as tomorrow on our siding," Mrs. Thompson said.

She said a work crew came out in the next few days and began pulling down siding and putting up insulation. Three weeks later, the family received the final agreement in the mail, she said.

"It was at least $4,000 more than we agreed, and the finance rate was about 18 percent," she said. "We weren't sure what was going on or if there was anything we could do, since they had already started the work."

She added workers would stop and start work for weeks at a time, and one of the workers told her to tell Brourman if he called that they were working a certain amount of hours when they weren't.

Mrs. Thompson said the crew sided their house and replaced several windows in about six months, but did not side their garage which was attached to the home.

"We assumed the price included the garage. They also didn't finish part of the work around the deck," she said. "They said the garage was not considered part of the house," she said.

Within a few months -- in February 1997 -- Mrs. Thompson claimed that siding began to fall off their home and it took repeated phone calls to get it repaired, but within a few weeks it was falling off again, with some of it flapping against a window.

"The siding was whipping around hitting my window, so we had to tape it so it wouldn't break the window," Mrs. Thompson said, adding that it was finally repaired during the summer after repeated phone calls.

"Then another piece fell off by my daughter's room, and after all the hassles we had had, I said I was not going to bother," Mrs. Thompson said.

Then someone she talked to found out that they had been charged about $18,000 for the work, and "we were told it was outrageous."

In July 2001, her father told her about a lawsuit in the Franklin area against the business and she decided to call.

When she decided to sign onto the lawsuit, she says Brourman began calling her at home and at work incessantly.

"He said he wanted to meet with me and said he wanted to come fix the house," Mrs. Thompson said.

She added that one time he asked: "Are you threatening me?" when they were talking on the phone, and she replied "No, I have someone in the room with me. Do you want to ask them?" He said no, then quickly finished the phone call, she said.

She said she eventually let him send someone out to do the work properly, including siding her garage and around her deck, so she doesn't expect any compensation from the lawsuit, but is still taking part in it.

"Luckily enough I was able to refinance everything at a better rate, but some people are losing their homes over what he did," Mrs. Thompson said. "I'd like to see this guy get justice for those people. My situation was nothing compared to them. They shouldn't be walking around so dishonest and hurting people."

According to the attorney general's office, five other families in Mercer County were also allegedly scammed by Iron City Builders, but they chose not to take part in the lawsuit.

A lawsuit filed by 10 homeowners by Venango County attorney Keith Pemrick against the home improvement business was settled recently. Iron City Builders agreed to a settlement, but denied any wrongdoing.

Brourman, who has an unlisted number, could not be reached for comment. There is no phone listing for Iron City Builders and his attorney, Bernard Marcus of Marcus and Shapiro, Pittsburgh, is out of town. The state attorney general's office did not have Brourman's number.

Some of the information in this article is from an AP story which ran Monday.