The purpose of this letter is to request you to take whatever actions you are authorized to take to discipline an unscrupulous professional plumber, Mr*** *** owner and operator of
Keane *** Plumbing & Excavating, LLC
Highway W
New England, ND (701) 290-According to what I could find on the internet his has two license numbers which are 46810, This man was not willing to take any responsibility for his negligence, he proposed something unethical, he threatened me and then tried to blackmail me At a minimum, he should have his plumber’s licenses revoked due to the facts presented belowBelow is a summary of events that occurred which have led up to my request to have your organization take whatever action you are able in order to keep another person from having to endure a similar issue as a result of Mr***’s negligence and bad behavior- At the end of June my parents left ND to move to NY leaving their home at 5th Avenue East in New England, ND vacant to be sold at a future date As a precaution, we turned the water off to the house Also, we arranged for one of their neighbors to help out and take care of the property prior to it being sold- On October 26, we received an offer from a buyer and signed a contract to sell the house Efforts continued until early January to support the sale of the house which was expected to occur sometime in January - The week of 1/9/the realtor notified me that the bank appraiser had inspected the house but could not check the water system for leaks since the water had been turned off therefore we would need a professional licensed plumber to perform an inspection, at our cost- On approximately 1/10/Mr*** was hired by the realtor to inspect the water system for leaks The realtor told me that she hired him based the fact that he is a professional plumber and licensed by the state of ND- On approximately Friday 1/13/17, Mr*** performed the inspection of the water system in the house The realtor informed me she had hired *** *** to perform the inspection and that he had reported to her that there were no leaks He had entered the house, turned on the water in the basement at the main shutoff valve, inspected the system, turned the water off, drained the system and left the house He provided her with invoice #dated 1/13/for $stating “Labor for service at 5th Ave E in New England to check all plumbing fixtures for leaks Everything works properly” As the home owners we had to pay for this bill, which we did- Based on prior issues we had with other people performing inspections (leaving the lights on or not locking up the house when they left), I asked the neighbors watching over the house to perform their own inspection- At approximately PM MST (PM EST) on the evening of 1/13/17, the neighbors informed us that there was water all over the kitchen floor, that six ceiling tiles in basement had severe water damage (several had actually fallen), that water had run down the wall in the basement storage room and the carpet in the basement was saturated We told him that the plumber who had performed the inspection was *** *** whom the neighbor knew He immediately called Mr*** who came over to inspect the situation They determined that the water had come from the dishwasher which had filled when the water had been turned on by Mr*** during his inspection Since Mr*** did not check the dishwasher he did not know that the fill valve had been stuck in the open position allowing the dishwasher to fill with approximately gallons of water and subsequently leaked out onto the kitchen floor- I asked Mr*** to help us quickly fix the situation since we were in NY and we needed someone who could act on our behalf We needed someone to coordinate the cleanup of the house and the replacement of the ceiling tiles and we wanted the repair to be performed as quickly as possible in order to avoid the growth of mold and mildew I told him that we did not want the sale of the house to be cancelled as a result of this issue He agreed He said that he knew someone who could clean the carpet and thought that he would be able to do it the next day- Later that evening Mr*** showed a level of unethical behavior when he suggested to me that he would not say anything to anyone if he were able to get the dishwasher working the next day so that we would not have to pay to have it replaced I told him that regardless of whether or not the dishwasher worked when he did his trouble shooting, we would be disclosing the fact that it had failed to the realtor and buyer- On 1/14/Mr*** reported to me that he had been able to get someone to come to the house and clean the basement carpet The cleaning and drying of the carpet took approximately two days- On the morning of 1/17/at 11:AM, Mr*** called to inform me that he had the invoice for the carpet cleaning along with an invoice for the work he had done to coordinate the efforts, purchase replacement ceiling tiles and his time During our discussion, I asked Mr*** to provide me with the invoice for the carpet cleaning in addition to two invoices from him, one for the materials (ceiling tiles for the basement ceiling) since my Father had stated that he would be willing to pay for the material but not Mr***’s time, and a separate invoice for his time, so that I could pay for it myself I told him that I was willing to pay him for his time because I recognized the amount of effort he had put into fixing the issue and it sounded like he had done a good job of taking care of it I told him that while we believed he should have noticed the dishwasher filling and ultimately leaking during his inspection I could understand that it could be missed Therefore, I requested that he take into consideration his responsibility for the incident when determining how much he would be charging me He clearly got upset that we felt he was responsible at all Mr*** stated to me that he did not check the dishwasher at all because he was not specifically asked to inspect it I reiterated to him that I was willing to pay him for a reasonable amount of his time and that I was only asking that he minimize the cost due to the fact that the leak occurred as a result of his inspection We ended the minute second call with my expectation that I would be receiving invoices as I had requested, two of which I would be providing to my Father (the one from the carpet cleaning company and one for just the ceiling tiles) and one that I would be paying (for his time) At 12:PM I sent him a text with my address At 5:PM Mr*** e-mailed me images of two invoices, one from the carpet cleaning service ($510.00) and one from him combining the cost of the ceiling tiles ($28.08) and his time ($196.00) for a total of $ Being annoyed that he did not provide me with two invoices from him like I had requested, I forwarded both invoices to my Father- There is no debate on our part that Mr*** did the work required to fix the damage caused by the leaking dishwasher and returned the house to the condition it was in prior to his inspection My Father was not as sympathetic as I was with the sequence of events While I was willing to pay Mr*** for his time because I felt he did help us out a lot from afar, my Father was not- My Father and I agree that the damage caused by the leaking dishwasher was entirely due to Mr***’s negligence when he performed an inadequate inspection of the water system in the house- I discussed the potential failure modes of a dishwasher with a local appliance company in NY Based on that discussion my assessment is the dishwasher had been turned on by an inspector who had previously been in the house thereby starting it when the water to the house was turned off Since the water system was dry the dishwasher fill valve opened and ended up getting stuck in an open position since it could not complete its cycle When Mr*** came in to perform his inspection, he turned the water on and did not notice that the dishwasher was filling If he had checked the dishwasher he would have noticedI also discussed this issue with two plumbers that I work with I asked them if they would have checked the dishwasher if they had been asked to inspect the water system for a house, they both told me absolutely yes since it is considered part of the household water system I asked them if it would be possible for a dishwasher to fill with water after the system had been depressurized, and they both said no I also asked them if the fill valve sticks open such that the dishwasher fills up entirely while the water is on and the system pressurized, would the seal on the dishwasher be good enough to hold back the water, and they said no, the water would have been leaking out of the dishwasher and it would have been obvious Their expertise supports my conclusion that the dishwasher had been filling while Mr*** was there and if he had gone into the kitchen after having drained the lines, he would have found the water leaking out of the dishwasher onto the kitchen floor- Based on the fact that he is a professional plumber, the fact that a dishwasher is a plumbing fixture and therefore part of the water system he was hired to inspect for water leaks and the fact that he admitted he never inspected the dishwasher at all, he was negligent- On the morning of 1/18/I received a voice mail from Mr*** stating that he was upset since we were thinking he had any responsibility in the issue and therefore we should tear up his invoice I have saved that message on my phone and have made a copy to a digital recorder Here is a transcription of the voice mail:
Phone Info: “Sent Wednesday January 18, at 8:AM from phone number 701-290-4163, duration seconds.”
Keane ***: “Hey Pat, its Keane Hey, after I talked to you yesterday, last night I talked it over with my wife about that, and that really kind of pissed me off about how nice I was to help you guys out and you guys were really appreciative that I did that and then after I got it done you guys kind of turned on me and put the blame on me, you and the realtor And at o’clock, o’clock this morning I was so mad I couldn’t sleep So, what I’m gonna do is, I didn’t even charge you for cleaning the snow off to get into the house or my time for cleaning up the tile or putting the tile in All I charged you for was for my time to go get the tile, and to charge for the tile and my mileage So what I’m gonna do is tear up my invoice and don’t worry about it I’m gonna talk to Branden Ok, bye.”
- He annoyed me with his statement that he was going to talk to Branden (the buyer of the house) implying that he was planning on causing problems Therefore, I chose to take him up on his offer and “tore up his invoice”, after all, if he had done an adequate inspection, the leaking dishwasher would have been found during his inspection- On 1/19/at 10:AM I sent him a courtesy e-mail noting that payment had been mailed for the carpet cleaning company He e-mailed me back at 4:PM asking if we were mailing a check for only one invoice, implying that even after he had told me to tear up his invoice, he was expecting we would be paying him- Six minutes later he e-mailed me the following statement at 4:PM:
“After I cooled off the night I couldn't sleep, I decide not to call Branden, and I still don't feel it is my fault, I'm not gonna stir anything up about the house so feel I should be payed”
- This is clearly blackmail He is threatening to go to Branden if I don’t pay him- On the morning of 1/20/I received a call from the realtor stating that Mr*** had been talking with both the buyer and the parents of the buyer making claims that there are significant issues with the house (which there aren’t) She said that he told her several times during their discussion that if only I had paid him he wouldn’t be saying anything at all about the house This is clearly vindictive behavior with the intent to cause the failure of the sale of my parents’ house- On Wednesday February 15, 2017, the closing occurred even with all of the exaggerated claims Mr*** made about how bad the house was to the buyers It should be noted that with every claim he made, both the realtor and I had to extend extra effort to prove that his accusations were inaccurateI am a Mechanical Engineer and I know about fluid systems and how they work While I am not a plumber I do know enough about household plumbing that I do most of it myself in my own home So the conclusions I have reached during my investigation of this incident are viableI have worked at the Naval Nuclear Laboratory (previously called the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory) in Niskayuna, NY for over years as a noise test engineer I work on nuclear submarines for the US Navy I have a top secret clearance with the Department of Energy I have a reputation for being a person who is truthful, having high integrity, being very thorough at what I do to make sure things are done correctly and I am known to hold others accountable especially if they make inaccurate statements My most recent performance appraisal points these traits out as a few of my good qualitiesAs a part of my job I have been qualified as a Critique Chairperson Part of my duties as a Critique Chairperson are to collect and document the facts In fulfilling this duty, one of the key attributes is the need to pay close attention to what others say and thoroughly document things, especially the sequence of events immediately after something happens I have been told I am very good at it and I have used that training and experience to help with the documentation that I have made of this incidentThis documents the fact that there is an unscrupulous, negligent, unethical plumber working in New England, North Dakota who, at a minimum, should not be allowed to have a licenseFeel free to contact me if you have any questions
The purpose of this letter is to request you to take whatever actions you are authorized to take to discipline an unscrupulous professional plumber, Mr*** *** owner and operator of
Keane *** Plumbing & Excavating, LLC
Highway W
New England, ND (701) 290-According to what I could find on the internet his has two license numbers which are 46810, This man was not willing to take any responsibility for his negligence, he proposed something unethical, he threatened me and then tried to blackmail me At a minimum, he should have his plumber’s licenses revoked due to the facts presented belowBelow is a summary of events that occurred which have led up to my request to have your organization take whatever action you are able in order to keep another person from having to endure a similar issue as a result of Mr***’s negligence and bad behavior- At the end of June my parents left ND to move to NY leaving their home at 5th Avenue East in New England, ND vacant to be sold at a future date As a precaution, we turned the water off to the house Also, we arranged for one of their neighbors to help out and take care of the property prior to it being sold- On October 26, we received an offer from a buyer and signed a contract to sell the house Efforts continued until early January to support the sale of the house which was expected to occur sometime in January - The week of 1/9/the realtor notified me that the bank appraiser had inspected the house but could not check the water system for leaks since the water had been turned off therefore we would need a professional licensed plumber to perform an inspection, at our cost- On approximately 1/10/Mr*** was hired by the realtor to inspect the water system for leaks The realtor told me that she hired him based the fact that he is a professional plumber and licensed by the state of ND- On approximately Friday 1/13/17, Mr*** performed the inspection of the water system in the house The realtor informed me she had hired *** *** to perform the inspection and that he had reported to her that there were no leaks He had entered the house, turned on the water in the basement at the main shutoff valve, inspected the system, turned the water off, drained the system and left the house He provided her with invoice #dated 1/13/for $stating “Labor for service at 5th Ave E in New England to check all plumbing fixtures for leaks Everything works properly” As the home owners we had to pay for this bill, which we did- Based on prior issues we had with other people performing inspections (leaving the lights on or not locking up the house when they left), I asked the neighbors watching over the house to perform their own inspection- At approximately PM MST (PM EST) on the evening of 1/13/17, the neighbors informed us that there was water all over the kitchen floor, that six ceiling tiles in basement had severe water damage (several had actually fallen), that water had run down the wall in the basement storage room and the carpet in the basement was saturated We told him that the plumber who had performed the inspection was *** *** whom the neighbor knew He immediately called Mr*** who came over to inspect the situation They determined that the water had come from the dishwasher which had filled when the water had been turned on by Mr*** during his inspection Since Mr*** did not check the dishwasher he did not know that the fill valve had been stuck in the open position allowing the dishwasher to fill with approximately gallons of water and subsequently leaked out onto the kitchen floor- I asked Mr*** to help us quickly fix the situation since we were in NY and we needed someone who could act on our behalf We needed someone to coordinate the cleanup of the house and the replacement of the ceiling tiles and we wanted the repair to be performed as quickly as possible in order to avoid the growth of mold and mildew I told him that we did not want the sale of the house to be cancelled as a result of this issue He agreed He said that he knew someone who could clean the carpet and thought that he would be able to do it the next day- Later that evening Mr*** showed a level of unethical behavior when he suggested to me that he would not say anything to anyone if he were able to get the dishwasher working the next day so that we would not have to pay to have it replaced I told him that regardless of whether or not the dishwasher worked when he did his trouble shooting, we would be disclosing the fact that it had failed to the realtor and buyer- On 1/14/Mr*** reported to me that he had been able to get someone to come to the house and clean the basement carpet The cleaning and drying of the carpet took approximately two days- On the morning of 1/17/at 11:AM, Mr*** called to inform me that he had the invoice for the carpet cleaning along with an invoice for the work he had done to coordinate the efforts, purchase replacement ceiling tiles and his time During our discussion, I asked Mr*** to provide me with the invoice for the carpet cleaning in addition to two invoices from him, one for the materials (ceiling tiles for the basement ceiling) since my Father had stated that he would be willing to pay for the material but not Mr***’s time, and a separate invoice for his time, so that I could pay for it myself I told him that I was willing to pay him for his time because I recognized the amount of effort he had put into fixing the issue and it sounded like he had done a good job of taking care of it I told him that while we believed he should have noticed the dishwasher filling and ultimately leaking during his inspection I could understand that it could be missed Therefore, I requested that he take into consideration his responsibility for the incident when determining how much he would be charging me He clearly got upset that we felt he was responsible at all Mr*** stated to me that he did not check the dishwasher at all because he was not specifically asked to inspect it I reiterated to him that I was willing to pay him for a reasonable amount of his time and that I was only asking that he minimize the cost due to the fact that the leak occurred as a result of his inspection We ended the minute second call with my expectation that I would be receiving invoices as I had requested, two of which I would be providing to my Father (the one from the carpet cleaning company and one for just the ceiling tiles) and one that I would be paying (for his time) At 12:PM I sent him a text with my address At 5:PM Mr*** e-mailed me images of two invoices, one from the carpet cleaning service ($510.00) and one from him combining the cost of the ceiling tiles ($28.08) and his time ($196.00) for a total of $ Being annoyed that he did not provide me with two invoices from him like I had requested, I forwarded both invoices to my Father- There is no debate on our part that Mr*** did the work required to fix the damage caused by the leaking dishwasher and returned the house to the condition it was in prior to his inspection My Father was not as sympathetic as I was with the sequence of events While I was willing to pay Mr*** for his time because I felt he did help us out a lot from afar, my Father was not- My Father and I agree that the damage caused by the leaking dishwasher was entirely due to Mr***’s negligence when he performed an inadequate inspection of the water system in the house- I discussed the potential failure modes of a dishwasher with a local appliance company in NY Based on that discussion my assessment is the dishwasher had been turned on by an inspector who had previously been in the house thereby starting it when the water to the house was turned off Since the water system was dry the dishwasher fill valve opened and ended up getting stuck in an open position since it could not complete its cycle When Mr*** came in to perform his inspection, he turned the water on and did not notice that the dishwasher was filling If he had checked the dishwasher he would have noticedI also discussed this issue with two plumbers that I work with I asked them if they would have checked the dishwasher if they had been asked to inspect the water system for a house, they both told me absolutely yes since it is considered part of the household water system I asked them if it would be possible for a dishwasher to fill with water after the system had been depressurized, and they both said no I also asked them if the fill valve sticks open such that the dishwasher fills up entirely while the water is on and the system pressurized, would the seal on the dishwasher be good enough to hold back the water, and they said no, the water would have been leaking out of the dishwasher and it would have been obvious Their expertise supports my conclusion that the dishwasher had been filling while Mr*** was there and if he had gone into the kitchen after having drained the lines, he would have found the water leaking out of the dishwasher onto the kitchen floor- Based on the fact that he is a professional plumber, the fact that a dishwasher is a plumbing fixture and therefore part of the water system he was hired to inspect for water leaks and the fact that he admitted he never inspected the dishwasher at all, he was negligent- On the morning of 1/18/I received a voice mail from Mr*** stating that he was upset since we were thinking he had any responsibility in the issue and therefore we should tear up his invoice I have saved that message on my phone and have made a copy to a digital recorder Here is a transcription of the voice mail:
Phone Info: “Sent Wednesday January 18, at 8:AM from phone number 701-290-4163, duration seconds.”
Keane ***: “Hey Pat, its Keane Hey, after I talked to you yesterday, last night I talked it over with my wife about that, and that really kind of pissed me off about how nice I was to help you guys out and you guys were really appreciative that I did that and then after I got it done you guys kind of turned on me and put the blame on me, you and the realtor And at o’clock, o’clock this morning I was so mad I couldn’t sleep So, what I’m gonna do is, I didn’t even charge you for cleaning the snow off to get into the house or my time for cleaning up the tile or putting the tile in All I charged you for was for my time to go get the tile, and to charge for the tile and my mileage So what I’m gonna do is tear up my invoice and don’t worry about it I’m gonna talk to Branden Ok, bye.”
- He annoyed me with his statement that he was going to talk to Branden (the buyer of the house) implying that he was planning on causing problems Therefore, I chose to take him up on his offer and “tore up his invoice”, after all, if he had done an adequate inspection, the leaking dishwasher would have been found during his inspection- On 1/19/at 10:AM I sent him a courtesy e-mail noting that payment had been mailed for the carpet cleaning company He e-mailed me back at 4:PM asking if we were mailing a check for only one invoice, implying that even after he had told me to tear up his invoice, he was expecting we would be paying him- Six minutes later he e-mailed me the following statement at 4:PM:
“After I cooled off the night I couldn't sleep, I decide not to call Branden, and I still don't feel it is my fault, I'm not gonna stir anything up about the house so feel I should be payed”
- This is clearly blackmail He is threatening to go to Branden if I don’t pay him- On the morning of 1/20/I received a call from the realtor stating that Mr*** had been talking with both the buyer and the parents of the buyer making claims that there are significant issues with the house (which there aren’t) She said that he told her several times during their discussion that if only I had paid him he wouldn’t be saying anything at all about the house This is clearly vindictive behavior with the intent to cause the failure of the sale of my parents’ house- On Wednesday February 15, 2017, the closing occurred even with all of the exaggerated claims Mr*** made about how bad the house was to the buyers It should be noted that with every claim he made, both the realtor and I had to extend extra effort to prove that his accusations were inaccurateI am a Mechanical Engineer and I know about fluid systems and how they work While I am not a plumber I do know enough about household plumbing that I do most of it myself in my own home So the conclusions I have reached during my investigation of this incident are viableI have worked at the Naval Nuclear Laboratory (previously called the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory) in Niskayuna, NY for over years as a noise test engineer I work on nuclear submarines for the US Navy I have a top secret clearance with the Department of Energy I have a reputation for being a person who is truthful, having high integrity, being very thorough at what I do to make sure things are done correctly and I am known to hold others accountable especially if they make inaccurate statements My most recent performance appraisal points these traits out as a few of my good qualitiesAs a part of my job I have been qualified as a Critique Chairperson Part of my duties as a Critique Chairperson are to collect and document the facts In fulfilling this duty, one of the key attributes is the need to pay close attention to what others say and thoroughly document things, especially the sequence of events immediately after something happens I have been told I am very good at it and I have used that training and experience to help with the documentation that I have made of this incidentThis documents the fact that there is an unscrupulous, negligent, unethical plumber working in New England, North Dakota who, at a minimum, should not be allowed to have a licenseFeel free to contact me if you have any questions