Sanford homeowner says driveway removed without her permission

Luz Lenzi came home to a shock in Sanford, where she says her driveway had been ripped out and removed without her permission, leaving gravel piled in front of the house and the concrete gone. Lenzi said she is selling the home to help fund her retirement, and now faces a repair bill she puts at about $5,000.

Lenzi said the trouble began after she had a crack in the driveway repaired in February 2026. Weeks later, she said, a second crew showed up and tore out the entire driveway. A colleague later warned her, “there is a mountain in front of your house and your driveway is gone,” she said, before she saw the damage for herself. Lenzi described the scene as “awful” and “a pile of junk.”

The Sanford resident said she never hired anyone to replace the driveway. “I didn’t hire them. I didn’t need to have my driveway redone,” Lenzi said. The episode has turned what should have been a routine property repair into a dispute over who authorized the work, who paid for it, and who is responsible for fixing the mess left behind.

Lenzi filed a police report, and Sanford police have said the case remains under investigation because it involves contracts and financial transactions. Officers reportedly tracked down the crew after workers left a business card with a neighbor. A man who answered the contractor call reportedly said a contractor hired him to do the job and told him to stop after a check bounced.

When News 6 contacted the contractor, a representative said the company was cooperating with police and that the matter was under a pending investigation. What remains unclear is who authorized the work in the first place, and whether the crew was acting on a contract that matched the Sanford property where the driveway was removed.

For homeowners, the case is a blunt reminder to verify any crew that shows up for work: confirm the company name, the exact address on the job order, and who signed off on the project before concrete comes out. In Lenzi’s case, a driveway that should have supported daily access, deliveries and emergency entry instead became the center of a costly fight over accountability in Seminole County.