Castelucci Construction Inc

Review: Castelucci Construction contracted with me and built my new home on my site in 2011. As part of my home construction contract with him,he installed a 5 ton electric heat and air system into the house, the system carries a 10 year warranty. The system failed after just 4 years, both heat and air conditioning do not work at all. I hired a local authorized HVAC company to make repairs under warranty, it was found that the equipment was not new when installed during construction of my home. The furnace was manufactured in 2006 and the heat pump in 2009, additionally the contractor failed to make warranty registration for the system which has all compromised warranty coverage. I was informed that under this unusual case I should go through the contractor, [redacted] to perform the repairs or replacement with warranty coverage, I contacted him and he refused to help, stating his warranty with us has expired.Desired Settlement: [redacted] the contractor I hired and paid, installed the Heating and airconditioning system under our new home construction contract, the equipment has failed after only 4years. The Equipment sold to me as new has been found to be much older than the time of my purchase and contractor to register for the manufacturers, end user 10 year warranty. The Equipment has been found to be a complete failure and replacement of the entire system is recommended. Because of the unusual discrepancies of age of equipment furnished by [redacted] and no warranty registration made by [redacted], I am advised and further request that [redacted] himself, the responsible party deal directly with the distributor or manufacturer to make the needed repairs or replace the system under warranty . To also reinstate the balance of time left from my purchase date of the 10 year end user warranty and to refund the costs I have already paid out caused by this problem.

Review: Home Renovation Project:On January 23,2013, a Job Contract Areement was made between my wife and I (owners) and [redacted] Construction Inc. (Contractor). The agreement was to complete all home renovations based on our architects plans. The contract naturally included the agreed upon cost to complete the job. Shortly after starting the renovation project, [redacted] the owner of [redacted] Construction Inc. began playing a number shuffling game. Cost began to escalate and the estimated time to complete the job kept getting pushed back. Each aspect of the project came in substantially higher than [redacted]'s original estimates. As a matter of fact the actual numbers came in roughly 30% higher than [redacted]'s initial estimates. When hearing of the high cost on certain aspects of the job [redacted]'s own workers just shook their heads in confusion. Also, a promised completion date was given to us of April 30, 2013. Using this information we listed and sold our current house. Playing it safe we originally scheduled a closing on this house for May 10, 2013. However due to [redacted]'s failure to meet the promised April 30th completion date we needed to reschedule our closing for May 17, 2013 and then again for May 20, 2013. Each closing postponement costing us thousands of dollars.At the present time: After coming in roughly 30% over the originally agreed upon contract price and close to a month behind schedule [redacted] Construction Inc., [redacted] is withholding our Release of lien letter and continues to send us an unsubstantiated invoice. In all actuality based on the original agreed contract and the added cost of [redacted]'s delays we are due a refund.Desired Settlement: I request a release of lien letter be sent out immediately and to stop sending the unsubstantiated invoice. I have signed documentation of our agreed job contract. I also have copies of cancelled checks made out to [redacted] Construction Inc. totaling close to 30% more than the agreed contract. Also at this time I request reimbursement of the overpayment and added cost incurred due to [redacted]'s completion delays. An invoice for this balance has been sent to [redacted] Construction Inc.

Business

Response:

In response to the false claim that was filed against my company, I offer the following facts: 1- The owner says that I played a number shuffling game. FALSE Contract had a fixed number with agreed upon scope of work and necessary allowances for product not selected at the time of proposal. It is impossible for me to know the owner’s tats in product selection at the time of bidding, so we offer our best estimate for these. As you start to renovate an older home, unforeseen items arise. Options are giver to the owner with an appropriate cost for the said work. No work for this is done until we have authorization from the owner 2- The owner mentions that as the work progressed the estimated time to complete the job kept getting pushed back. FALSE The time in which to complete the contract is established in Article 2 of the Contract at 150 days after commencement of the work. The work began on January 29, 2013, just four days after the Contract was executed. Pursuant to Article 2, we had until June 25, 2012 to complete the work. The work was substantially complete on May 16, because they moved in that day, and fully completed by May 22, 2013, well within the time permitted under the Contract. 3- The owner mentions that the final numbers came in 30% higher. FALSE Any cost over runs came from extras added by the owner. They had the option to not add anything to the scope once they got the price for it. They could have just not accepted the change order 4- The owner mentions that my workers shook their heads? FALSE This is the most ridiculous statement I’ve ever heard. My workers have been working for me for so long, they would never say anything bad about us 5- The owner mentions that a completion date of April 30th 2013 was given. FALSE No date was ever given. The only date given other that what the contract allowed was possibly May 10,2013 in an email to them dated 4/1/13 6- The owner mentions that I have not given him a completed release of liens. TRUE Section 4.3 of the accepted contract says that one will be provided upon receipt of final payment due if the owner requests it. Final payment still hans’t been received as of today’s date 7- The owner moved into the house on May 16, 2013

Consumer

Response:

Rebuttal to Contractor’s Response to Revdex.com Review: #1: The allowances set by [redacted] for plumbing, electrical, cabinetry, and flooring were significantly lower than other contractors. When we asked him about these low estimates, [redacted] assured us that as long as we used his vendors, we would be able to stay within these estimates. This proved to be untrue and we ended up being charged an additional $14,517.74 even after we agreed to use the lowest grade items offered by his vendors. #2: After we signed the contract, [redacted] told us that he would have the job completed by April 30th. Based upon this representation, we agreed to sell our house and set closing for early May. Despite knowing that we sold our house and had a closing scheduled, [redacted] told us right before closing that he did not have to complete the job by April 30th and since it was not specified in the contract, there was nothing we could do about it. Because of [redacted]’s delays, we had to reschedule the closing twice and it cost us almost $4,000.00 to keep the buyers from walking away. #3: The final cost of the job was 30% higher than original contract. And we have the contract and the cancelled checks to back this up. #4: [redacted]'s workers (who seemed like good guys and honest people) told us that they felt bad about the inflated cost. Apparently, [redacted]’s MO is to submit a low bid to get the job and then use these extra charges as a way to generate additional profits. These workers also told me that [redacted] was adding an additional 30% to the cost of each of his vendors. #5: After we signed the contract, [redacted] told us that he would have the job completed by April 30th. If he didn’t tell us that, why would we have agreed to sell our house and set closing for early May? Surely we didn’t intentionally cost ourselves almost $4,000.00! #6: [redacted] has not released a completed release of liens letter: The original signed contract states a job total of $121,145.00. We paid a total of $156,716.77. That amount (for which we have the cancelled checks) more than satisfies the original agreed upon amount and a release of liens letter should be released. Rebuttal to Contractor’s timeline: 3/4/13 Line item 3 on change order 2 accepted by [redacted]s email to [redacted] @ [redacted] We did not agree to Change Order #2 and therefore did not sign it. 4/1/13 Line item 14 on change order 2 accepted by [redacted]’s email and by [redacted]’s email and payment on 4/12/13 I do not have any record of these emails and would request copies of same. 4/10/13 Line item 2 on change order 2 accepted by [redacted]’s Email to [redacted]4/10/13 Line item 2 on change order 2 accepted by [redacted]’s Email to [redacted] @ [redacted] Electric As stated above, we did not agree to Change Order #2 and therefore did not sign it. 4/12/13 Line item 1 on change order 2 accepted by [redacted] verbally with [redacted] @ [redacted] and by [redacted]’s email on 4/12/13 We did not agree to Change Order #2 and therefore did not sign it. 6/10/13 [redacted] emailed me a settlement offer of 5,000.00 We were so tired of [redacted]’s games that we were willing to give him an additional $5,000.00 just to be done with him. But now enough is enough. And we hope we can prevent others from going through an experience like this again.

Business

Response:

In response to the additional concerns as per your letter dated 10/22/13, I offer the following facts: 1- The owner mentions that our allowances were lower than other contractors and say that they would meet the allowance if they used our vendor is FALSE Why wouldn’t they have had us increase the allowances prior to accepting the contract. This is an easy change to increase or decrease them and we do it all the time. All that this would do is increase or decrease the contract amount 2- The owner mentions that a completion date of April 30th 2013 was given. FALSE Same as in # 5 of our prior response. No date was ever given. The only date given other that what the contract allowed was possibly May 10,2013 in an email to them dated 4/1/13 3- The job cost grew because the scope changed. Please see change orders from our prior response 4- The owner mentions that my workers felt bad. FALSE Same response as # 4 in our prior response 5- Same response as # 2 above 6- A release of liens comes when all payments due are received. They have not paid us in full yet As for the rest of the items below that they show as a rebuttal to the contractors time line, Change order number one and two were excepted by the [redacted]’s and payment for 90+ percent has been received. It seems to us that they are just trying to get out of paying what is truly owed. Sincerely, [redacted]