LakeCare Construction

Review: In the fall of 2013 I hired LakeCare Construction to repair roof damage on my cabin, located at [redacted] in [redacted].

After that job completed successfully, I inquired with the owner, Ed Buchholz, and his employee/partner [redacted], about estimates to make repairs to my garage, driveway and additional repairs on the cabin.

Garage and driveway estimates were fairly straightforward. We went back and forth several times on the cabin estimates and scope of work, with both parties taking time out for other work or travel out of the country for periods of time. The cabin construction itself is somewhat out of the ordinary in that it is a true log cabin of modular design. Purchased from [redacted] in South Carolina. At one point in the process, I entrusted to [redacted] and Ed, my original, one-of-kind blueprints for the cabin, in order to help them understand the construction methods used and which they are now 'unable to locate'. At the time of the exchange I offered to make copies first and was told that wasn't necessary. I implored them to handle with care, keep in a dry office and that I would be needing them back at some point.

This is wholly unacceptable and has put me in a very bad position. Without those blueprints I am unable to convey many important details in the event I want to make additions, significant repairs, or even sell the property. I think LakeCare had (and still has) a responsibility to handle my critical plans documents responsibly and they clearly have not.Desired Settlement: Locate and return to me the construction blueprints for my cabin, in good condition.

Business

Response:

I have recently looked into this situation in response to your letter as we were never contacted directly by this complaint. Our records indicate the following:1. First contact was in late August 2013 2. Sent him proposal to do repair work to his home 8/30/13 3. Contracted to do those repairs shortly thereafter 4. Successfully completed work on 9/15/13 5. Discussed doing additional work to his garage in March 2014 6. Had several on site meetings during that summer 7. Prepared drawings and proposal on 11/1/14 8. Did not reach an agreement and closed fileI have no recollection of ever receiving the cabin plans or why we would have needed them as no serious discussions took place about doing work on the cabin itself. I do recall being given a tour of the cabin and discussing the problems he was having with bees and ants.The complaint did contact a former worker who has not done any work for us in the past nine months. This individual was kind enough to contact me after receiving a call from the compliant about the plans and being told that he did not have them or recall receiving them.On May 7 I sent the complaint an email at the address shown in his file informing him that we could not locate his plans. I did not receive a response from him. We receive sets of plans each year from prospective customers but dispose of them after a period of time if there is no further contact after preparing a proposal. This may have happened in his case although as stated earlier I don’t recall every having them.I fully understand his frustration but feel it is unreasonable to expect us to still have his plans after not hearing from him for almost eighteen months. My suggestion is the he contact the modular manufacturer and see if they can send him another copy.Please let me know if you have any further questions about this matter.Sincerely,Ed Buchholz, President

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Predictably, this business owner's response highlights his own lack of accountability and cavalier attitude towards his customer’s projects, and sheds a bit of light on how he runs his business. I cannot convey how frustrated I get when reading Ed’s response. He says “I have no recollection of ever receiving the cabin plans or why we would have needed them”. Fact: the plans were given to [redacted] (LakeCare employee) this I can attest to as I handed them to him myself, told him how valuable they were to me and asked him to take special care with them, as they were original, one of a kind. Fact: plans were given to LakeCare to help [redacted] and Ed understand how the log cabin was constructed, in particular the fascias and dormers and roof because this is what I wanted replaced with Hardiplank cement board in order to prevent further damage from Carpenter Bees and Ants that had been wreaking such havoc. This insect damage was, in fact, the primary reason for engaging with LakeCare. Fact: Date of last contact w/ Ed was 6-12-15 , less than 1 yr ago and NOT the 18 months that Ed claims. On June 12, 2015 I received email from Ed saying "[redacted] – I was unable to set up the meeting with the bug man (my fault), I will try and arrange for him to call you next week - Ed". Needless to say nobody ever contacted me and no follow-up from Ed or LakeCare was forthcoming. Insect removal/eradication was a critical component to reaching an agreement and quite simply, Ed dropped the ball on this multiple times. Apparently, sometime after this email exchange he decided he did not want to do the job and ‘closed the file’ on me. Fact: There are/were no 'drawings' in any estimates I received from LakeCare. They were simple 2-page documents with a section on the scope of work, a section for terms, conditions, warranties and a signature line for acceptance. Not sure why Ed would say his estimates included any drawings. The other part of his response I would be remiss not to call out is this paragraph: “We receive sets of plans each year from prospective customers but dispose of them after a period of time if there is no further contact after preparing a proposal. This may have happened in his case although as stated earlier I don’t recall every having them.” On one hand Ed is saying it is quite common for LakeCare to receive plans from prospective customers, except that in my case he cannot think of any reason why he would have needed them. Convenient. And to dispose of them after a period time may be reasonable if they are copies, certainly not acceptable if they are originals. I learned a costly lesson here about blindly trusting a general contractor. In my case, it cost me a set of irreplaceable blueprints. Yet I still feel as though I dodged a bullet and I’m happy I did not actually contract w/ LakeCare for a large sum of money if this is indicative of how they operate.

Regards,