Corban Design & Remodeling Inc

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and it is clear that MrDurnal accepts no responsibility for his fraudulent conduct with regard to our remodelThis is unfortunate for him because we, along with two other individuals, are currently in the process of accepting an offer from the surety company HCC that issued the bond to Corban Design. HCC would not be paying individuals unless they believed there was credible evidence to warrant a payout! We also have been contacted by the California Contractor's State License Board, pursuant to our complaint filed with them, and have an appointment scheduled with an investiagator at our home in January 2015. It would appear the CSLB also believes that there is truth to our complaint, which we have painstakingly documentedShould you, the Revdex.com, care to have this documentation, please let me know and I will be happy to forward you copies.
MrDurnal will be held accountable for his fraudulent and corruptive activity
For your reference, details of the response I reviewed appears below
Regards,*** ***

Dante's Response to RODRIGUEZ - Revdex.com Complaint ID #[redacted] Customer’s Statement of the Problem:...

We met Dante Durnal of Corban Design at the Del Mar Home Show in October 2012. We were interested in a remodel of our manufactured home in Julian California. We subsequently hired Corban Design and signed a contract in late October. We had an agreed price for remodel to include adding two wood-burning fireplaces, covered wrap-around porch, 1200 sq. ft. Driveway with pavers, automatic gate of wrought iron with stone pillars, and 3 car garage with automatic doors for $399,000. Dante's response: We performed a high end interior remodel to their manufactured home. Work commenced easy April 2013, by which time we had paid him 50% of contract price. By June he had more than 80% of the total payment, and we had a demoed house with frame only! Dante's response: This was a design build contract. Payments were made within the legal limit of 20%. Then, after the permit was issued and work had begun, they authorized a change order for $40,000 for extensive structural defects. When we balked at a change order for $8000 more in drywall, Dante became passive aggressive and worked slowed down dramatically. Dante's response: Work did not slow down. The owners redesigned the entire project and did not want to pay for upgrades. We terminated our contract with him on January 1, 2014 and attempted mediation. Despite my record-keeping which documented our experience from day one, Dante refused to return any of our money. Dante's response: The owners illegally broke the contract due to their financial issues. Then they asked me to return, which I did. Then they asked me to leave again. We then hired architect David Neagely who spent months analyzing the data etc, and discussed his findings with Dante and Dante's lawyer in June. We have since filed our complaint and documentation to the Contractors State License Board. We have also learned of another couple who has experienced the same fraudelent work with Corban Design. And yet he continues to go to the Home Shows to find more niave and trusting victims, like myself, and take their life savings and leave them with an unfinished home. Dante's response: The owners have slandered me at the homeshows with which I am investigating a lawsuit against them. He is an unethical contractor who uses his Revdex.com rating and alleged Christian values to lure trusting victims, and take their life savings. Dante's response: I have abided by the code of ethics and charged a fair price for the services I completed. We have had to spend an additional $150,000 with a subsequent contractor, to finish the home. And we still don't have a 3-car garage, as it is not permittable on our property. Dante's response: I finished the interior of the project and left enough money to finish the remainder that they, to this day, have not finished the design on. They did not spend $150,000 to complete the project. It was complete to the level that they paid me for. Complaint Background:Product/Service: RemodelPurchase Date: 10/31/2012Problem Occurred: 6/15/2013Purchase Price: $392000.00Disputed Amount: $200000.00 Desired Settlement:                        For Corban Design's AAA+ rating to be seriously downgraded and for someone to shut him down.  We want $250,000 back from Corban Design.

In December of 2013 we contracted Corban to do the above work. All was OK, until we noticed that we rarely saw anyone doing work on our project. In the 10 months of working with this outfil, they averaged working 2 days per week. When I confronted the contractor/president of Corban, Dante Durnal, he did not like being called a liar. I called him this due to the fact that for the 5 months into our agreement he had made little progress on our project. We paid him according to the schedule we agreed to, however things came to a head because we realized we had paid him 80% of our contract agreement of $155,000, yet he had only completed about 50% of the work. We started feeling that he was taking advantage of us due to the front loading of his payment schedule. After this our working relationship took a turn for the worse and for the last 5 months we only communicated via email. It was a one way communication as he rarely ever answered my emails or phone calls. He was all over emailing me about when he wanted more money. About this time he also abandoned the job for 2 weeks as he still wanted more money even though he hadn't done the work. We were not about to pay him more as we felt he was about to go under. We also found out he had no more workers compensation insurance. He then explained to us that he had no permanent workers on staff, thus he didn't need this insurance.
Since things appeared to not be moving in our project I began to call his subcontractors in order to have them come and complete the work that was pending. All of their names and numbers had been included in the Corban folder that Dante provides his customers. When I called them I found out that 4 of his subcontractors would no longer work for him because he had not been paying them. The first one that informed me of this was the tile setter. I contacted him first because our kitchen remodel was at a standstill due to the backsplash not being installed. I had to pay him $2000 for him to do the work even though Dante Durnal had already been paid for this service. Same thing with the electrician. I had to pay him $2000 as well to complete the kitchen lighting. The plumber, same thing. The interior decorator also had severed ties with Dante Durnal. Again, all because they had not been paid by Dante Durnal. And again, he had already been paid by us. It is no wonder our project was not moving. In effect, I have become the quasi contractor in order to get our kitchen operational.
One thing to note is that although we contracted with Dante Durnal for $155,000, he slipped in $30,000 in additional charges that he deemed change orders. I will not argue about these however one charge of $16,000 was deceitfully included. Let me explain. One thing we wanted in our remodel was to remove a wall between the kitchen and the living room. In interviewing other contractors, they all stated that the wall we wanted removed was a "load bearing" wall. Dante Durnal was the only contractor that stated that it was not. He had already given us an initial bid for the job and we had decided not to contract with him as we thought it was too much. He then came back to us with a second bid which was lower at $155,000, however he then informed us that the wall was indeed a "load bearing" wall and that it required $16,000 over our contract price in order to proceed with the job. He informed us of this after the demolition of the wall and the gutting of our kitchen. He had us right where he wanted us. I will have to give him that he was really good at lying and cheating us. Oh, and another one of his sales pitches was that he was a "christian".
On Aug, 29, 2014, after 10 months of stress and paying this thief, we finally fired him. I had been doing much of the work that he refused to do. We have filed a complaint against him with the Contractor's State License Board. They state that they will investigate. They sent him a letter in which they asked him to contact us to resolve the issue. He never has.
He didn't complete our remodeling project and we will now have to hire an attorney in order to attempt to get back about $15,000 he owes us due to overpayment of work he didn't complete. If anyone needs information on our experience I would be more than happy to talk to future potential victims. My email is [redacted]

In December of 2013 we contracted Corban to do the above work. All was OK, until we noticed that we rarely saw anyone doing work on our project. In the 10 months of working with this outfil, they averaged working 2 days per week. When I confronted the contractor/president of Corban, Dante Durnal, he did not like being called a liar. I called him this due to the fact that for the 5 months into our agreement he had made little progress on our project. We paid him according to the schedule we agreed to, however things came to a head because we realized we had paid him 80% of our contract agreement of $155,000, yet he had only completed about 50% of the work. We started feeling that he was taking advantage of us due to the front loading of his payment schedule. After this our working relationship took a turn for the worse and for the last 5 months we only communicated via email. It was a one way communication as he rarely ever answered my emails or phone calls. He was all over emailing me about when he wanted more money. About this time he also abandoned the job for 2 weeks as he still wanted more money even though he hadn't done the work. We were not about to pay him more as we felt he was about to go under. We also found out he had no more workers compensation insurance. He then explained to us that he had no permanent workers on staff, thus he didn't need this insurance.

Since things appeared to not be moving in our project I began to call his subcontractors in order to have them come and complete the work that was pending. All of their names and numbers had been included in the Corban folder that Dante provides his customers. When I called them I found out that 4 of his subcontractors would no longer work for him because he had not been paying them. The first one that informed me of this was the tile setter. I contacted him first because our kitchen remodel was at a standstill due to the backsplash not being installed. I had to pay him $2000 for him to do the work even though Dante Durnal had already been paid for this service. Same thing with the electrician. I had to pay him $2000 as well to complete the kitchen lighting. The plumber, same thing. The interior decorator also had severed ties with Dante Durnal. Again, all because they had not been paid by Dante Durnal. And again, he had already been paid by us. It is no wonder our project was not moving. In effect, I have become the quasi contractor in order to get our kitchen operational.

One thing to note is that although we contracted with Dante Durnal for $155,000, he slipped in $30,000 in additional charges that he deemed change orders. I will not argue about these however one charge of $16,000 was deceitfully included. Let me explain. One thing we wanted in our remodel was to remove a wall between the kitchen and the living room. In interviewing other contractors, they all stated that the wall we wanted removed was a "load bearing" wall. Dante Durnal was the only contractor that stated that it was not. He had already given us an initial bid for the job and we had decided not to contract with him as we thought it was too much. He then came back to us with a second bid which was lower at $155,000, however he then informed us that the wall was indeed a "load bearing" wall and that it required $16,000 over our contract price in order to proceed with the job. He informed us of this after the demolition of the wall and the gutting of our kitchen. He had us right where he wanted us. I will have to give him that he was really good at lying and cheating us. Oh, and another one of his sales pitches was that he was a "christian".

On Aug, 29, 2014, after 10 months of stress and paying this thief, we finally fired him. I had been doing much of the work that he refused to do. We have filed a complaint against him with the Contractor's State License Board. They state that they will investigate. They sent him a letter in which they asked him to contact us to resolve the issue. He never has.

He didn't complete our remodeling project and we will now have to hire an attorney in order to attempt to get back about $15,000 he owes us due to overpayment of work he didn't complete. If anyone needs information on our experience I would be more than happy to talk to future potential victims. My email is [redacted]

Review: We met Dante Durnal of Corban Design at the Del Mar Home Show in October 2012. We were interested in a remodel of our manufactured home in [redacted]. We subsequently hired Corban Design and signed a contract in late October. We had an agreed price for remodel to include adding two wood- burning fireplaces, covered wrap-around porch, 1200 sq. ft. Driveway with pavers, automatic gate of wrought iron with stone pillars, and 3 car garage with automatic doors for $399,000. Work commenced easy April 2013, by which time we had paid him 50% of contract price. By June he had more than 80% of the total payment, and we had a demoed house with frame only! When we balked at a change order for $8000 more in drywall, Dante became passive aggressive and worked slowed down dramatically. We terminated our contract with him on January 1, 2014 and attempted mediation. Despite my record-keeping which documented our experience from day one, Dante refused to return any of our money. We then hired architect David Neagely who spent months analyzing the data etc, and discussed his findings with Dante and Dante's lawyer in June. We have since filed our complaint and documentation to the Contractors State License Board. We have also learned of another couple who has experienced the same fraudelent work with Corban Design. And yet he continues to go to the Home Shows to find more niave and trusting victims, like myself, and take their life savings and leave them with an unfinished home. He is an unethical contractor who uses his Revdex.com rating and alleged Christian values to lure trusting victims, and take their life savings. We have had to spend an additional $150,000 with a subsequent contractor, to finish the home. And we still don't have a 3-car garage, as it is not permittable on our property.Desired Settlement: For Corban Design's AAA+ rating to be seriously downgraded and for someone to shut him down. We want $250,000 back from Corban Design.

Business

Response:

Dante's Response to RODRIGUEZ - Revdex.com Complaint ID #[redacted] Customer’s Statement of the Problem: We met Dante Durnal of Corban Design at the Del Mar Home Show in October 2012. We were interested in a remodel of our manufactured home in Julian California. We subsequently hired Corban Design and signed a contract in late October. We had an agreed price for remodel to include adding two wood-burning fireplaces, covered wrap-around porch, 1200 sq. ft. Driveway with pavers, automatic gate of wrought iron with stone pillars, and 3 car garage with automatic doors for $399,000. Dante's response: We performed a high end interior remodel to their manufactured home. Work commenced easy April 2013, by which time we had paid him 50% of contract price. By June he had more than 80% of the total payment, and we had a demoed house with frame only! Dante's response: This was a design build contract. Payments were made within the legal limit of 20%. Then, after the permit was issued and work had begun, they authorized a change order for $40,000 for extensive structural defects. When we balked at a change order for $8000 more in drywall, Dante became passive aggressive and worked slowed down dramatically. Dante's response: Work did not slow down. The owners redesigned the entire project and did not want to pay for upgrades. We terminated our contract with him on January 1, 2014 and attempted mediation. Despite my record-keeping which documented our experience from day one, Dante refused to return any of our money. Dante's response: The owners illegally broke the contract due to their financial issues. Then they asked me to return, which I did. Then they asked me to leave again. We then hired architect David Neagely who spent months analyzing the data etc, and discussed his findings with Dante and Dante's lawyer in June. We have since filed our complaint and documentation to the Contractors State License Board. We have also learned of another couple who has experienced the same fraudelent work with Corban Design. And yet he continues to go to the Home Shows to find more niave and trusting victims, like myself, and take their life savings and leave them with an unfinished home. Dante's response: The owners have slandered me at the homeshows with which I am investigating a lawsuit against them. He is an unethical contractor who uses his Revdex.com rating and alleged Christian values to lure trusting victims, and take their life savings. Dante's response: I have abided by the code of ethics and charged a fair price for the services I completed. We have had to spend an additional $150,000 with a subsequent contractor, to finish the home. And we still don't have a 3-car garage, as it is not permittable on our property. Dante's response: I finished the interior of the project and left enough money to finish the remainder that they, to this day, have not finished the design on. They did not spend $150,000 to complete the project. It was complete to the level that they paid me for. Complaint Background: Product/Service: Remodel Purchase Date: 10/31/2012 Problem Occurred: 6/15/2013 Purchase Price: $392000.00 Disputed Amount: $200000.00 Desired Settlement: For Corban Design's AAA+ rating to be seriously downgraded and for someone to shut him down. We want $250,000 back from Corban Design.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and it is clear that Mr. Durnal accepts no responsibility for his fraudulent conduct with regard to our remodel. This is unfortunate for him because we, along with two other individuals, are currently in the process of accepting an offer from the surety company HCC that issued the bond to Corban Design. HCC would not be paying 3 individuals unless they believed there was credible evidence to warrant a payout! We also have been contacted by the California Contractor's State License Board, pursuant to our complaint filed with them, and have an appointment scheduled with an investiagator at our home in January 2015. It would appear the CSLB also believes that there is truth to our complaint, which we have painstakingly documented. Should you, the Revdex.com, care to have this documentation, please let me know and I will be happy to forward you copies. Mr. Durnal will be held accountable for his fraudulent and corruptive activity. For your reference, details of the response I reviewed appears below.

Regards,