Home Remodeling Nightmares Blog
Posted on October 23rd, 2007 by burned23
This is the place for homeowners to share their Home Remodeling or Building Horror stories. Whether you just need to vent, warn others or are simply appalled at the lack of consumer protection and the ease in which unethical contractors can continue to work and harm unsuspecting consumers - this is your sounding board.
Just keep the language decent but other than that have your say!
Quick Update: I was having a bit of a problem with this blog on my end but now it appears to be working fine; If you’d like to see your comments, just hit either the home remodeling blog link under “Recent Posts” or click on the numer of comments, i.e., 8 comments.
25 Responses to “Home Remodeling Nightmares Blog”
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Home remodeling is a great thing to change our surroundings and looks as a new one. Its cost may extends to cheap or expensive, all depends on the changes that we make or remodel our home.
I bet no one can top this……Not only did my daughter and I get scamed by a rogue Plumber, we had a Kangaroo Court and every crooked Attorney that could took us for a ride. I will go into detail with this. I realise it will be too long for your comment but since you write about problems with these Liens, you have got to hear my story and just maybe you can give homeowners advice about our case. I have tried to contact our State legislators and they don’t want to help or get involved.
In Iowa, the AG’s office recently emailed me and said that a new law has created a right for the homeowner to go to Small Claims Court and file an action challenging the validity of a mechanic’s lien.
Because of Courthouse employee’s that enter the Public Records, that new law is worthless;
*We were robbed of that priviledge, the Courthouse put the Lien in my name with no address I do not own the property, I just moved in with my daughter, my daughter is the title holder so she was never notified that a lien was filed. When Court employee’s realized they made a mistake, they went back in and changed the Public Records.
The first we knew of this was when someone came to the door with a summons that my daughter was being sued in District Court, I called the Courthouse and was told, “there is no Lien of that name on record or anything on that address”, That has to be why my daughter was never notified of a Lien.
But after more phone calls back I asked to talk to the supervisor, her name was Anna of District Court, finally I told her my name she did some more checking and said, “yes, there is a Lien in your name but with no address”, i found out a few days later after calling back that when they realized they made a mistake, they went back in and changed the Lien and put it in my daughters name and added her address. So if you go on line, type in my name it now jumps to newscreen now with my daughters name.
So I requested a copy of this Lien and they sent it to me along with the bill which was in my name. This all happened ‘after’ my daughter was summons to District Court. So there was never a Lien in my daughters name until after she was summoned to District Court and then Courthouse employee’s changed it.
This has to be fraudulent actions for Courthouse employee’s to go back in and change records after they have been filed, and if it is not against the law it should be. Yet when notifing all State Legislators, no one wants to touch it.
The Plumbers Attorney, then went back and immedately ‘filed an amendment now adding my name’ So Court emplowee’s had to contact him ?
But all the time there never was a Lien on record or recorded in my daughters name and then changed after she was summoned to Court calling for Fore-Closure on the home and they won !
My daughter and I immiedately contacted an Attorney #1, he said, “pay it, it cost too much to fight it’ so athen we never signed a contract with him we just left him a check for the Lien amount $2200.00 and paid him for his office call but the plumber and his Attorney refused it and would never call our Attorney back and refused to even respond to faxs. Then un-beknown to us another Attorney in the same office of Attorney #1 sent to the Court an “Appearence” we never met him, we never hired him or we never talked to him, and we had no idea what an Appearence meant.
So we got a call from the first Attroney #1 that we left the check with and he told us what this Attorney #2 did that shared his office, we could not believe this and asked to see a copy of what he filed, then this Attorney #2 started calling us and demanded that we get to his office right away, my daughter and I refused to come to his office until he sends us a copy of what was sent to the Court.
But two days later he called with an alternative that if we do not come to his office by 3:00 that afternoon that he would file a “Withdraw” (course we did not know what a Withdraw meant either) his excuse was that he was leaving for Chicago that evening and he must see us. I pleaded with him that my daughter could not leave her work but that she could make it a day later, he yelled at me and said he would immiedately file a Withdraw, and he did.
(We are dumb women and at the time did not know that he had to show cause to the Court why he was with drawing) after that Withdraw for some reason it was very difficult to get another Attorney to represent us and when we did find one and he filed this ‘Appearence’ but from then on he never followed our case and refused to listen or use any evidence we had. We tried to tell him the Plumber pulled the same thing on another couple as they contacted us they wanted to go to Court for us but our Attorney refused. He even refused my pictures of the walls and the damage to the home. He did present our bills for the damage to the Court and that is all.
I wanted him to suponea all my witness, he refused. I even called a new Plumber over to the home see the mess we had so he agreed to go to Court for us. Also, i found out the Plumber I fired was fined $500.00 from the State b/c he was not licensed with them. So i got a letter from the State showing that.
So all my daughter and I went to Court with was the Plumber that I got and the copy of the State’s fine……..
I will not even go into how I was discriminated in Court it was unreal, by the way, our Attorney who represented us also told my daughter and I that he does not ‘Object’ in Court….We went to Court last November 19, 2007………….We were treated like criminals, we were discriminated and lost and told by Attorney’s that we cannot even appeal this !
This resulted, a small town Attorney druming up business for himself dragged this out a year and a half charging $25,000.00 for a $2200.00 lien ? The bigger issue here is homeowners in this State are getting scammed by corrupt contractor’s and attorney’s……….and the Judge.
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This is regarding a rogue Contractors putting a Lien for $2200.00 on my daughters property after I fired him for not doing what I hired him to do, he also damaged the home very bad with a huge Jack-Hammer when he was hired to use a sledge hammer only b/c the Townhome is open to all three levels then this plumber re-cycled used plumbing material and when I fired him he threatened me and used very bad verbal language. Stocked our home preventing other contrators from coming working.
I just moved in with my daughter and was fixing the basement for myself, my daughter owns the Townhome but she never met this plumber, I was the one who hired him to move a floor drain just around to the other side of the furnace as a wall was to be framed there and he was also hired to help me install a bathroom.
(When we went to Court, I was not allowed in the Coutroom, they said that I was only a witness so they kept me out of the Courtroom therefore making it easier for the plumber to set up on the stand and lie and tell a completely different story, he completly lied about everything, my daughter said “his face was as red as a beet” and he never had to prove anything……… I always thought the Burden of Proof was on the person that sued. We never had a chance in Court, the Judge refused to admit any of the proof I had, nothing. Then the Plumber lied and told the Judge that it was my daughter who hired him, she never met him.
1. The plumber told the Judge; that I told him, “I did not want a building permit b/c I wanted to keep taxes down”.
*Before I started the job I had the head of the Clive City Building Dept. over to look at the basement I showed him the pipe I wanted moved and what I was going to do with the basement and he said fine, I can move the plumbing and that the existing plumbing did meet code though and that is how they do it in Iowa with island sinks above on the first floor.
2. The Plumber then told the Judge that, ” I told him to park in the garage and hide b/c I did not want the neighbors to know I was finishing the basement”.
*Before I started the project I went to the neighbors and got permission for the men working here to be able to park in their drive as we have ‘no parking’ on our street. Menards delivered all of the material on one long truck and the material filled our garage and most all the driveway….the Judge refused to believe me.
After Mennards delivered the material the neighbor across the street even helped me sweep the street.
3. The plumber told the Judge the reason that I hired him was b/c the existing pipe did not meet code and that I hired him to install new plumbing so it would meet code.
*Just four months prior to this my daughter just purchased the home and we moved in, everything met code as the Townhome is only about ten years old. There is an island sink on the first floor so the pipe in the basement was in the middle of the room and according to the man from the City it did met code.
But I wanted to make that area a small bedroom for my grandchildren. The ceiling was all furnace runs and was very low, so on one side of the room only where this pipe was I hired the plumber to raise the pipe up higher into the ceiling so it would be above hte ceiling joist and there was plenty of room to do this with enough drop. That way I would gain height for my grandchildren’s new bunkbed to set there. (I fired him b/c lowered it and made it even worse )
4. The Plumber told the Judge that the basement was entirely closed off with a door and that when I hired him to move the floor drain around to the other side of the furnace and that I said, “he could use a huge Jack-hammer to tear all of the concrete out” and that I agreed to cover all of the upstairs”.
*He was hired to move a floor drain and he agreed and promised me that he would use a sledge hammer only to break a small area out and then a small path around to the other side of the furnace and he promised that he would remove the pieces of concrete out through the basement window. (I have health issues with bad allergies and made him agree to use a sledge hammer only)
Our entire Townhome is opened up from the basement to the first and second floor, there never was a door or walls on the basement steps it is all opened up the townhome is an open concept, when I arrived home hours later from running errands only to find terrible clouds of dust coming out of the garage i was in shock, concrete dust had filled the entire Townhome and all of the furniture and walls ( the walls are 26 feet high) they were badly damaged and there is concrete dust an inch thick on them.
5. When I told the Plumber that he would have to correct his mistake and raise the pipe like I hired him to do, he became very verbal abusive, so I called my daughter at work and she said,” lock him out of the house” so when he went out to his truck I quickly closed the garage door and told him he was fired. His behavior concerned me
I was alone with him in the basement.
He told me he would see to it other contractors take care of me. At the time I did not take him serious but he lived up to his promise, he prevented the heating guy from running the cold air vents. The plumber called and left messages that “They all stick together in this town” he then parked by our home and prevented a Plumber, Marc Paup of City Rule Plumbing from helping me just as he was walking up to our home, I had to get my framing Contractor to cap the open sewer vent as it was flammable and inches from the furnace.
6. I had other problems then in getting the basement done, I forgot about this plumbers threats; the carpet layer came to the house. stole my extra pad, cut the carpet in several seams, broke the walls half way up and busted the new trim and he took most all of the paint off the walls (I have pictures and bids for the damage) then this carpet layer, Scott Lee also went down and put a lien on my daughters property and he too left very bad verbal messages on the answer machine, I have been able to save a few of his messages as the phone deletes messages after they are so old. Then this carpet layer went into hiding, no one can find him.
So in Court the Plumbers Attorney used Scott Lee as evidence telling the Judge that, ” I am a very hard person to get along with’ etc; I was shocked our Attorney allowed this as he agreed once we get through this with the plumber, as we thought sure we would win that we would then take the carpet layer to Small Claims.
7. We knew this Plumber was watching our home as the Framing Contractor said his men seen him parked in the neighborhood.
My daughter was a night class a few blocks away from our home and her car had the back window broke in the parking lot. After that we were very careful as we knew we could not prove a thing but again, in our heart we knew when the Plumbers Attorney wanted my daughter to disclose where she worked in the Discovery, Because of my dughters office location and that she is at work at night sometimes, our Attorney explained to the Judge the reason why she was afraid to disclose that.
The Judge fined my daughter $250.00 and forced her to disclose it.
The Plumber, along with his same Attorney and using his same witness, pulled the same terrible thing on a young couple from Indianola, these young kids warned me this Plumber would lie through his teeth in Court……I was shocked at how right they were.
We went to Court knowing we would win that we would have a fair trail, it was far from that it was a Kangaroo Court the Judge was very very bias.
She said I lied about everything and according to my daughter she said, “The Judge told the Plumbers Attorney to write up anything he wants” we left the Courthouse in tears and had another shock when we arrived home from the Courthouse less then fifteen minutes later as we drove stright home, a note was in the door from the Assessor, they were already at our house and they are forcing fore-closing on my daughters Townhome. The Judge has awarded him $25,000.00 and this does not include Court cost or our Attorney’s several thousand dollars
Can you say you can top this ?
I am sorry for the typo errors and because my comment is very lengthly, but if I can help homeowners from having to live the nightmare that my daughter and i did then I have accomplished something.
Also, I might add in Iowa Plumbers do not write up contracts if the job is by the hour so there was never a written contract.
Again, rogue contractors can write up a bill such in our case and put any amount on it they so choose and the law here will always favor them.
I am sorry for the typo errors and because my comment is very lengthly.
I have a question for anyone on this board;
Here in Iowa anyone can walk into the Courthouse and write up a bill putting any amount they so choose and file it on anyone’s property without ever having to prove they were ever in the home, or did the work, and no written contract or estimate is needed or signed by either the homeowner or the contractor.
Is that the way it is in other States as well?
Panama City, Florida must be the headquarters for the contractors from hell. There is nothing stopping them here. I have tried for months to contact every regulatory agency in the state. The only one getting scolded is me.
If you move to Florida and build a house expect to get screwed. Don’t look for anyone to help you as I assure you that you are on your own.
I have a contractor horror story to share about a cement contractor. I thought no one could mess up a cement job, but boy was I wrong. I paid this man $3700 to pour six inches of cement on an existing slab to cure a drainage problem in our garage. Two days after he poured it, the cement started to peel like it had a sunburn. Everything peeled. He claimed never to have seen anything like it, but every other contractor (electrical, plumbing, framer) knew exactly what it was - delamination. This is caused when the top of the cement is finished off too soon, trapping excessive amounts of water underneath - at least that’s what I was told by the cement engineer that came to the house. The contractor, paid in full, was one of the biggest whiners and liars I ever have encountered. He literally left me speechless. It cost me $3,000 to fix his mess - but “fix” is a misnomer. Delamination also causes cracking, and when you try to repair and pour more concrete over it, you usually get the cracks, minus the peeling. We have cracks all over the floor. The old floor looked like a dream compared to this floor. By the way, I sued Mr. Householder, and won a paltry $1500 for my trouble, none of which I expect I will be able to collect since he’s apparently judgment proof. Take the advice on this site and only use contractors who other people can HIGHLY recommend. Good luck folks.
I have recently been the victim of an unscrupulous contractor and although I am angered that this man (via bankruptcy) gets to walk away scott free after stealing over $8,000 of my money I am more upset by the complete impotence of the Contractor’s State Licensing Board in this matter. The license under which the bankrupt business operated is currently under suspension however this man has a pattern of starting a new business and obtaining a new contractor’s license number just before the claims against the old business make it to the court dockets. True to form he is still in business (he is so cocky that he doesn’t even bother to change his business address or contact information) under a new business name and new contractors license even while his old business is defunct and the victims of his scam tactics are left with nothing not even the satisfaction of knowing that he will not be victimizing anyone else…at least not under the auspices of a legitimate contractor’s l icense. What I propose and hope you consider for legislative action is that building contractor licenses like those for doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, and other professionals on whom the consumer is totally reliant on for their expertise and skills should be issued one to a person. A lawyer who has been disbarred cannot as a matter of course retake the bar, get issued a new license and continue to practice law under the new license. A doctor whose license is suspended cannot apply for and get a new license with no marks against it and continue to practice medicine. Why should a dishonest contractor who can cause financial, emotional and physical damage (to a property) on a level equal to that of an incompetent doctor or unscrupulous lawyer be allowed to procure numerous licenses and continue to victimize the public with impunity? A contractor, like any other licensed professional, should be required to clear whatever marks there are against his one and only license in order to cont inue to do business under that license. If you are not moved by the consumer protection aspect of the one license policy consider the benefits to the CSLB and how the policy can assist the CSLB to achieve their goals as defined in their mission statement. The one license policy would make the monitoring of individual contractors easier because a contractor could not hide his illegal conduct behind more than one license. The single license number would have a business history that can be easily tracked by the Board as well as assist the consumer in making an informed choice by providing a comprehensive history of a contractor’s business practices similar to that provided on lawyers at the California Bar web site. The only disciplinary action the CSLB has authority to take against a contractor for his misconduct is to suspend or take away his license. However, because it is possible for contractors to circumvent the Board’s sanctions by getting a new license number the CSLB is nothing but a “toothless tiger”; a license fee collection agency with no ability to accomplish any of the goals set forth in its mission statement. The one license policy would provide the CSLB with real power to regulate the industry not just give the appearance of it. It would make it more difficult for a scam artist contractor to be legitimized because he has an active contractor’s license despite having numerous open client complaints against him under another license number. I know I have been long winded and if there is a real human being who has read this I thank you for “listening” to my mini tirade. Rita
My mother, home owner of house in Marysville, California contacted a license contractor to do some addition and repairs to our home. He quoted us $33,000 for the project which included a 10×23 Kitchen and bedroom addition (total). Up on the signing of the contracted he asked for $1,000. Then he asked for $5,000 for the plans, and before he started the project he asked us for $13,000. This was a total of $19,000 prior to him starting the job. During our conversations he had said he was going to do many things, which he did not include on the plans. Since my mother and I didn’t know anything about house plans, we never told him anything until we started asking him questions after he had already started. Then, he started to tell us that he didn’t remember talking about those items and that they weren’t part of the plans. He said that we should have paid close attention to the plans and should have said something to him if we didn’t agreed. He said he would do the work we were requesting, but he would have to charge us more. We decided to just let these things go because we didn’t want to get in bad terms with him since we feared that he was not going to do a good job. The next payment of $13,000 was scheduled up on start of the sheetrock, which was not close to having half of the work done. He asked for the $13,000 prior to even starting the sheet rock (2 weeks prior). We agreed to give him the money because we wanted to cooperate with him. His workers began to complaint about him not paying them. They said that the contractor had told them that he didn’t have any money. Which I was surprised because we had already given him a total of $32,000 and we only had $1,000 more to give him and he wasn’t even close to being done. When the floor installer went to install the vinyl, he informed my mother about the floor being out of level. I then contacted the contractor and he yelled at me over the phone stating that we had not bid for having him level the floor at my house. I was surprised at his unprofessional behavior and told him that I understood that, but I believed it was only fair for him to have built the new construction according to the same level as our old one. He said that that wasn’t part of our contract. I was shocked. The story is a little long, but as of now. I have sent him a letter postponing his services until further notice. I am afraid that he is going to use the postponement against me. He said that he had sent me a 14 day notice, until now I have not received such letter and I am afraid of loosing all of our money. Do you know what type of lawyer can help me with this? C.S.
who else can i contact on getting this contractor who ripped me off big time i have notified the bbb the states attorney in my area i filed everycomplaint with who i can think of and noone has been able to track this man down along with his son. he has been known to start a construction company and leave and start another this his company who ripped me off has not only taken 7500.00 in grant money for the goverment but also took cash money from me and took the money and left my house look like crap they didnt put my suppory beams up to code like they were suppose to my deck is falling apart my windows were replaced by cheap stuff they were supose to replace windows that were broken with the same windows. left a live wire as when i touched it i got zapped and ended up in the emergency room i have been trying to find this man and his son for over 2 years and his name is bill twohey and his son is also named bill twohey one is sr and the other is jr.they have had at least 4 other contstruction companies since i started looking for them so that i can file the papers in court. to sue them for damages to my home i dont know who else to turn to this company that i was dealing with eagle home improvement who was based out of seneca ill at the time and twohey sr lived in ottawa at the time in illinois i just want justice and i want my home fixed the way it was suppose to be i want to try to get my money back so i can hire someone to do the job right and get it done right thank you. ill
I am in a law suite with my builder. Lots of lawyer costs. If I submit my story before court date, Would my name be disclosed or, should I wait?
John Butterfield of Redwood City California is definitely in the worst nightmare any homeowner could ever experience category.
In biz 30 yrs.. and didn’t have a contract with my friend. He took advantage of her inexperience in the construction field at every opportunity.
Bottom line: The remodel ran at least $120,000 over the estimate, on a job that was poorly done. She had to pay the subs directly (cabinets, countertops, paint, roof, floors, stairs, etc.) Then, he put a lien on her house for an additional $100,000, forcing her to get a lawyer… which ended in her paying an additional 20,000 to release the lien! After that, she had to hire plumbers, electricians and pool repair people to undo the damage. By the way, she hasn’t passed final inspection yet…failed the first time.
She would have won hands down in a court case… but you have to remember our wonderful judicial system… who wins? The lawyers.
Even if she had won a judgment, there is no way to collect. Not from someone like him.
I can not say enough to warn you from selecting this guy.
He is a perfect example of why people are afraid of getting ripped off by contractors.
I wholeheartedly agree with Rita above and would like to add my frustration that you can’t even get a list of the last 10 jobs done. Why would a dishonest contractor provide an honest listing of customers? If he was forced to use our name as references that would halt any future business.
It’s also wrong that as soon as we hired an attorney to remove the lein he erroneously placed on our property… the CSLB considered the case under arbitration and were not, per their website, interested in maintaining a record of our complaint.
So let me see if I get this… he does a sales job… assures her that he’ll deliver the house per plans per the bid and because she paid as the job went along that’s percieved as the contract and therefore we have to pay a quarter of a million dollars over the original estimate?
John Butterfield has every right to be as ashamed as he must be… it’s not easy to overcharge someone as much as he did and still sleep at night.
I thought it might be a good idea to give you another “contractor from Hell” anectdote. I’ve read about your story, how you were expanding your house in order to have your mother live with you in her later years. We were doing a similar project - building a companion unit (granny flat) for my in-laws. My father-in-law is in a wheel chair and my mother-in-law is having a harder time handling the physical care of him. My husband is an architect, so he designed the small house and successfully pulled the permits from San Diego’s development services. This alone was a coup, since San Diego has only issued 2 permits for companion units since 2000 - and 1 is ours. The project involved significant grading and retaining walls since our lot, while big, is sloped. Several contractors we interviewed were nervous or hesitant to take on the grading portion of the job. Finally we found a contractor that had a decent price and seemed to have grading experience. He gave us references to call and addresses to drive by and see his work. We called all the references - which were all glowing. We drove by the addresses - but did not contact the owners because one was noted as an ownership change and another we knew was involved in a dispute with the contractor. The contractor had explained that he had been underpaid then fired and was suing for time and materials spent. If only we’d contacted those owners. The job started off strong. The first retaining wall went in, compaction and grading was progressing. The payments for this portion of the job had been carefully spelled out in the contract. The remainder of the payments were listed as “progress payments”. When we reached that portion of the contract the demand for “progress payments” started coming fast and furious. We raised concerns that we were paying in advance and were told we HAD to pay in advance. Our contractor regularly threatened to walk off the job. Usually picking critical moments like when the cement truck was there, or a piece of equipment like a trencher was waiting to be unloaded. With each payment he would state, verbally what the payment would cover. Every time it included some expensive pumps we needed for the sewer and dewatering system. Every time the pumps and basins were not paid for or installed. We balked and demanded that he sign a payment application guaranteeing what he’d deliver. He signed. He didn’t deliver. $129,780 into this $250,000 project he demanded payment and we refused. His financial accounting, as presented to us in spreadsheets, showed were paid in advance. By his accounting he had only delivered $128,000 worth of work. A quick look at the spreadsheet showed he included items multiple times and some grossly inflated items. We estimate he’d delivered about $90,000 worth of work. We hired an attorney who advised us our best option was to get him back on the job. Several letters went back and forth. He never came back on the job. Now we’re picking up the pieces. We’ve discovered that contractors do not like to take over jobs that were abandoned by other contractors. We’re also discovering that we are not the only victim of this contractor. Two of the addresses he gave us to view his work were unhappy customers. On one, he forged lien release signatures of the subs. On the other he inflated figures on a cost-plus contract, where he knew he’d have to provide receipts. (Greed knows no bounds.) The former case, the customer filed a complaint with the state. As soon as it appeared on the cslb.ca.gov website, the contractor filed suit against the customer. The state pulled the complaint, waiting for the courts to resolve the issue. It was pulled from the website less than a month before we checked the website. We’ve been sharing notes with the former customer being sued. We learned that our contractor from hell is savvy enough not to lie under oath during his deposition - instead he plead the 5th. We also filed with the state board, but have not had our complaint referred for investigation yet - 2 months later. So new consumers will have no clue that our contractor is a crook. KT
Hello, I have read the stories on your site and I’ve become even more furious however, better edutcated on the process of contracting. I am a homeowner in Scranton, PA. I have a 100 year old home and needed alot of renovation on my home. Unfortunately I had to prioritize and choose what could be affordable for me for my first project. In Scranton, PA it is difficult to find a good, licensed and more importantly honest and reliable contractor. My first experience was with a roofer who used OSB board that cost $5.00 per panel but was charging me for Plywood 3/4 ” that cost $15.00 per panel. This man also ruined my neighbors home by spilling tar on their siding and clogging their gutters with all sorts of debris. I ended up paying my neighbors for their damages and now they don’t speak to us. Needless to say, I ended up in court with him because I refused to pay for materials that were not used. This was my first horror. Several months later, I needed to find another contractor to continue the renovation process. After three months of calling contractors, I was able to hire a contractor by the name of Shane Russell. He was hired to tear down a wall in the kitchen and drywall it and replace five windows. This was only supposed to take approximately a week because of his scheduling. The wall took two weeks and the windows were picked up from the material place we ordered them and never brought back to my home. Mr. Russell took the windows and disappeared off the face of the earth. The windows were customized due to the large and unusual sizes that were on the original framing of my home and were very expensive. After attempting to contact this man, we discovered all the telephone numbers were disconnected. We then attempted to see him at home and he was nowhere to be found. A week later we contact the police, assuming that he wasn’t going to return and was told that they could not do anything about it because he was authorized to pick them up an d that since he is a contractor, I was being unreasonable with the amount of time I was giving this man to surface. I was told “after all ma’am, he is a contractor and they are busy!” My attorney said, he was authorized to pick them up and didn’t take them off my porch, therefor it is not a criminal offense. No one could seem to advise how this should be handled. I feel as if I am losing my mind! I am still battling the roofer in court and now I have to track down this person who took my windows but cannot be charged because there really was no crime committed? Isn’t there something that can be done about someone taking property that wasn’t theirs to begin with and keeping it? I don’t understand where did all the honest people go? R.A.
I too have a contractor from hell story that ends in litigation with a company called A New View Windows and Doors. The owner of the company is very smart.
What I have learned is that CSLB will either not touch the case, or pressures you to close it. I am on my second enforcement representative who has attempted to pressure me into closing the case and paying the contractor without even looking at the extensive supporting documentation and photos. The contractor says it is a nonpayment case, they look no further.
The trick is for the contractor to file a civil action for nonpayment, and everyone takes off running. With my case there are such compeling elements as an extensive list of defects for the work completed, gross missrepresentations, termite concealment, abandonment of the job and over 10 clear violations of the California business and professions code. The CSLB seems to feel that it is up to me to enforce the law through my defense of his complaint and my multiple count counter suit for such things as fraud and misrepresentation. Whatever the claimed role of the CSLB, law enforcement is not one of them. Their objective is closing case inline with this years objectives from their strategic plan.
Does anyone have the org. structure for the CSLB and the contact info for the head of the enforment division? It is looking like my only recourse with CSLB will be appealing to the CSLB management and/or publicity.
I had a horrifying experience with California Creek Landscaping, at http://www.tryccl.com. Owner: Sherry Wright and Son.
I caution every home-owner that lives in Maple Falls, Wa, Everson, Ferndale, Bellingham, Sumas, Kendall and Deming Washington. These people are crooks with a Capital C.
To be as brief as I can be, I hired this contractor to do some simple landscaping. All they were supposed to do was move some boulders from around a big tree in my front yard, remove most of the dirt, and flatten around the tree area, and save some of the boulders for other areas of landscaping, (others rocks were to be moved outside of my fenced in yard, near the street in a culvert), also plant a couple of small flowering trees, do some beauty bark, some misc. shrubbery, weed control, (using the black fabric laying it on top of the area that weeds were removed from to prolong weed growth) a dry creek bed, and some plants.
The first day Sherry came to do the bid, she originally told me it would be $10,500. I told her that was too much. I only had a budget for $7500. She said “No problem, but I would like to use your job in my portfolio for advertising.” I agreed. She then lowered the bid to the $7500 after many emails, and changes to the original work she agreed to do. I gave her a deposit of $3000. (money she asked for up front before she could start any work.) The very first day her and her son show up to work, (they were late, and it was pouring rain), she first had her son remove the boulders from under the tree, instead of doing the weed control first. Her son was moving these huge boulders to other areas of the yard (with big equiptment) and dumping them onto the lawn and areas to be rototilled to remove the weeds. He was making a huge muddy mess all across my driveway. I went outside to talk to Sherry that it was not in the original contract to do that work first. She got into a shouting match with me, and told me “to go back inside the house, that we are the professionals, and we know what were doing.” With that I went into the house, and let them finish the day. Sherry ended up leaving shortly after, and her son continued to work in the pouring rain. The next day, she came, and I explained that I really wasn’t happy with what they were doing, and to do the job as was originally agreed or to return my $3000 deposit. I found out later that day when I called my bank to stop payment on the check, she had already cashed the check days before. So I was out of luck in getting the payment cancelled. Sherry refused to return my $3000 deposit, and said they quit, and walked out of my house. I called the local law enforcement, and told the police that she was hired to do a job, but she is walking away without finishing it. The police said there was nothing they could do. So to court I went to plead my case, but apparently her case was better. I ended up losing in court. She sued me for for an additional $3500 for equiptment rentals, gas to the job site, equiptment return fees, design work, you name it, she sued me for it, and won. Then I had 30 days to pay what the court awarded her, but she didn’t want to wait. She got into my bank account with a judgement, took it to the courthouse, the courthouse notified my bank that she had this judgement, and my bank held the money for her because they were court-ordered. She also filed a lien on my house, until the bank would release the judgement to her. Then she had the nerve to call me and tell me that if I met with her that day and paid her the $2600 judgement, she would go to the courthouse and release the lien she had placed on my house. I flat out refused. She wanted to get paid twice. To make a long story short. The bank released the money to her before the 30 days were up given to me to pay the judgement, then she wouldn’t go to the courthouse to release the lien on my house, (which I had put up for sale, because she had taken money out of my checking account used to pay my house payment.) I wasn’t working at the time. Hadn’t worked for awhile.
I tell you the crooks get richer, and the poor get poorer, because of under-handed contractors who know the legal loopholes to jump through, and they know all the ins and outs of the business of sticking it to less knowledgeable people. I don’t understand how they can get away with it. It’s infuriating how they know what they can get away with to scam innocent people out of their hard earned money.
I just hope my terrible experience will help other unsuspecting people, and to be wary. Don’t fall for their sweet demeanor, and polite mannerisms because they will turn on you in a heartbeat. I learned the hard way…….I hope people will BEWARE.
Even after numerous emails to BBB, filing complaint after complaint, my voice didn’t get heard.
Yep. All these stories are very familiar. The building industry pays lobbyist to go to the legislature. The lobbyist smooze with the legislators (most are attorneys). The legislators pass laws to screw the consumers, by favoring contractors, and, create a system to generate business for attorneys. Wake up people, government and laws are on the side of business, that’s where the money is for these legislators and attorneys. Unfortunately, homeowners are on their own. It’s based on the honor system and, there is no more honor (or craftsmanship) in a single molecule of blood running through these people’s veins.
Sorry to everyone out there who has had a nightmare problem because of a contractor. But let me add another.
Back in March of 2005 me and my husband were looking into adding on to our house. 2bedrooms and a bathroom(Approx, 480sqft.). We had six different contractors come out give us bids and discuss there experience with us. After careful consideration and the proper investigation on the contractors (to make sure they are liscenced and that they are bonded and insured and check their complaint history) we chose a contractor. This contractor stated in his contract that he could complete the addition in 65 working days. He said he could complete the project in that time frame because of several reasons. First, because he had been in business for over 30 years and had used the same subs for a long time so he would not be in the situatuion of having to find subs to use he already had them, second he stated that he drew his own plans and that would save time because we would not have to wait for an archetect. Also this contractor was easy to reach and if you left a message for him he was quick to call back. Everything sounds great right? Wrong
We had problems from the start, once plans were approved the concrete sub came out dug footings and set forms, six weeks later after our contractor found a plumber the under ground plumbing was done and concrete was poured. Too bad our “65 working days” could not start until the day concrete was poured. Then the framers came, walls went up things seemed to be moving along, oops problem with the trusses, the framers did not know how to tie in the trusses, two week delay while our contractor explained how to do it to the framers. The roof sheeting is done and the new and existing roofs dont line up. I am told by the framers you wont notice that once the roof tile is on. Roofer comers and puts on the roof tile, it wont lay down flat because of the difference in the roofs. Oh, I forgot to tell you we already had water damage and mold because the contractor was negligant in weather proofing our house when he tore off the stucco so they could do their tie ins. Back to the problem with the roof, everything had to be redone because the trusses were set to high causing the two roof lines not to match up. Lets fast forward make a long story short. We had neumerous more problems with the job and at nine months, after consulting with an attorney we fired our contractor. We subed out the job ourselves to correct his mistakes (which included hireing a structral engineer, because the trusses were still not done to plans and things were missing like the valley pad and jack perlins these things help distribute the weight of the roof evenly so you do not have roof failure). We finished the job and were relieved to finally be done. Well the addition was done anyway. This contractor filled a lein, for the remainder of the contract amount, which was only one more draw, and it was for work he never completed because he was fired. It is now April 2008 and we are still waiting for our court date. We have been to mediation and won, but that is not binding. We have paid out over $15,000 in attorney fees and we have not even had depos yet. The CSLB is investigating and has found through the contractors own admissions that he used unlisc. subs for our job at almost every phase of consrtucton, and the workers he said were his emplayees, he had no workers comp insurance on. The big kicker is, he is now wanting both parties to walk away. And has stated that if we dont and he looses he will just file for bankruptcy. I guess he gets away with screwing us twice.
Connie Burton
California License #872264 Terry G Joplin currently has a total of $195,00 in unsecured debt. He just filed Chapter 13 Bankruptcy so the CSLB can not legally take his license away. Bankruptcy law proceed Contractor Law. He abandoned our job and left us with a big mess. I filed a claim thru the CSLB arbitration program and won an award. He is the worst CON-tractor out there. He has other relatives Paul, Seth, or Kathy Joplin. Please call the bankruptcy court of northern ca and get a copy of case number 08-51376RLE13. He has so many judgements against him the Bankruptcy Clerk ran out of ink while printing a copy of his judgments for me.
Mary,
I am sitting here looking at what happened and I am sorry to say that you brought this on yourself. Don’t send the hate mail yet.
One thing you all must understand is if you read all of the posts in this site, you will see my point or you are blind.
The one thing is upfront honesty.
I have picked up on a number of things in her story that if I were a Judge I would have had no choice but to decide as the Judge in this case did.
If you are placed in a situation like this one you need to keep the mouth shut and only take notes! The more you talk the more you lie(maybe not intentionally but it is fact that the more you talk the more you lie). A Judge looks at these cases like a school principle looks at a fight. If you keep to the facts that are relevant you will increase your chances of prevailing.
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5. When I told the Plumber that he would have to correct his mistake and raise the pipe like I hired him to do, he became very verbal abusive, so I called my daughter at work and she said,” lock him out of the house” so when he went out to his truck I quickly closed the garage door and told him he was fired. His behavior concerned me
I was alone with him in the basement.
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Your tone here is very childish and it seems if you lock a contractor out of his job site you automaticly get incomplete work. If you were that scared you should have called the police not your daughter.
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You make a comment about how the lawyer says you are hard to work for and it is very apparent that this is correct.
Many innocent contractors deal with many unrealistic requests from customers. We are asked everyday to cut corners by home owners. This is not to say a little better planning could have resolved this. Home owners must be aware that when you start to haggle price you are already doomed. Judges know this and deal with it everyday.
I did a deck for a fellow last year. The HO wanted to cut costs by getting the materials himself. We let him doso. He did pretty good but on day two of the actual work he jumped into his camper and left for two weeks. While he was away we needed a few more items such as screws because he got the wrong ones, materials because he was shorted by the delivery guy (still his responsibility by contract to handle all materials), he fogot to order an auger he agreed to order (brother worked at rental place), and other little things. The point is, we charged the customer an extra $1200.00 to perform these tasks which were a breech of contract against him. He refused to pay the extra and only after the extra bill was discovered by him did he have a problem with our work. Otherwise he was estatic and full of delight when he saw the finished product. He never did pay and I did not pursue the case because of the ammount. However the result, the job was a complete failure 100% because of the customer.
The project is a featured deck on a major decking manufacturers website and we are an invited member of their most elite contractors.
Now had I put a lein on his house till he paid, you all would have heard about how awful we were, but because I am running a tight ship I could endure that small loss. Either way it does not make it ok for you to unjustly smear a contractor. Please continue to voice real problems and you will be heard.
My heart goes out to all of you who were wronged… I know it happens.
As to this lady and her daughter I would not have ever worked for you and that is the only way to keep you happy. Please remember that I am only voicing my opinion based on your story and my experiences with people I know like yourself. Contractors do come in all shapes, sizes, and ethical balances.
Home-improvement spending is unlikely to improve until 2009, and the second half of 2008 is shaping up to be weaker than the first, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
http://contractor-remodeling-home-repair.blogspot.com
Just went threw a nightmare with a contractor named Steve Vazzana on long island.
Here is the story.
http://vazzana.blogspot.com/
read rays story about shane russell in scranton pa he ripped us off badly on a paint and bathroom in scranton he left the job unfinished and took money intended for supplies . he is the worst horror i have ever dealt with and im taking him to court and hope others will step forward and tell their stories about this total crook from hell
I’m glad I stumbled upon this website and no longer feel I am alone.
We are homeowners in Chicago. We bougt a ranch house to put an addition on it. A contractor ‘friend’ wanted to do the work but told us the permit process moves faster if we list ourselves as the general contractor. Turns out, he wasn’t licensed or insured and that’s why he couldn’t list himself as the gc on the permit.
Long story short….the project ran several months and tens of thousands of dollars over. The contractor provided us with a fraudulent hand written bill that included receipts from years past when we didn’t even own the house! He put a lien on our house six months after the job was finished (he never did really finish) and is suing us for $120,000. We have orange water coming out of two tubs in the bathrooms and this lawsuit has already cost us $25,000.
I’ve been so stressed about this lawsuit going on for 2 years now that I’m ready to throw in the towel. Anyone got any good advice on how to get through this?