Manley Builders

I apologize, but I was unaware of any complaint until now.  Unfortunately, we have received many ficticious emails posing as the Revdex.com, so when a legitimate one is sent, it is not surprising that it could go ignored.  I appreciate you sending this email today.  I do remember this...

customer and I have very detailed notes about my communication with her.  It is our company policy, for the past 12 years, that the customer pay the town directly for the permit fee and is also responsible to  schedule and be present at all required inspections.  Our company will complete the permit application and submit to the appropriate building department on their behalf. This policy goes for EVERY SINGLE CUSTOMER, so I know there was no miscommunication on our part, because there is no other option.  Water heater permit fees, in Bergen County range from $23 up to $128, depending on the specific towns’ fee schedule.  There is no set rate, so for us to include it in the price, we have to charge a general permit fee to the customer, and in most cases, it would have to be greater than the actual fee, just to cover the expense.  It is just best to have the individual pay the town directly.   On Saturday, 10/26/13, [redacted] contacted our office for a water heater quote, and the owner, [redacted], went to her home and gave her the estimate.  He quoted her $1500 PLUS PERMIT FEE.  He collected a deposit of $600 with the balance to be paid upon installation. Another technician was sent out the next day, Sunday 10/27/13 to install the 50 gallon Bradford White gas water heater. The customer paid the balance, $900 with cash.    The permit application was submitted to the Teaneck Building Dept on 10/28 and our office was notified on 11/6/13 that it was ready. The cost of the permit was $77.  Our office called [redacted] and left a voicemail advising her of all the necessary information, including the amount, location of building dept, inspection scheduling, etc. In February 2014, the building department contacted us to say that the permit had still not been picked up.  Another message was left for the customer on 2/27/14.     10 months later, on 8/28/14, the building department informed us again that the permit had not been paid for and an inspection on the installed heater needs to be performed.  Another voicemail was left for the customer. Again, on 1/15/15, the building dept called again to say the permit is still outstanding from 2013. I called and phone just rang so on 1/16/15 I mailed [redacted] a letter alerting her to the permit situation. Once again, in August 2015, almost 2 years later, the building department contacted us again to say that they will start issuing fines if the permit and inspection is not taken care of. We called on 8/14/15 and this time there was no voicemail setup to leave a message.  On 8/17/15, we mailed her a 2nd letter regarding the permit. Finally, on 8/25/15, [redacted] called our office to complain about the fact that she has to pay for the permit when she claims that we told her that we would “take care of everything”.  She was arguing that she was mislead and she would have taken care of it if she believed that it was her responsibility.  I told her it never our policy and the permit fee is always the responsibility of the homeowner and that is that. We’ve only been contacting her for 2 years letting her know. She said we should never call her again.  I figured that meant she was finally going to take care of her responsibility.    So now here we are. Your email said that we were contacted on 10/1/15 and she wants the $77 she paid to the town for her permit fee because she was told that we would “obtain the permits related to the job”.  She also claims that she received 1 letter a year after the installation. She failed to mention any of our other attempts to communicate. I will NOT pay her that since it was never indicated to her that the fee is included. The only thing I can gather, is that she did not understand that submitting the permit app and paying for the fee are 2 separate actions.  The fact stands that the fee is never included for ANY job we perform and the fact that we pursued her for 2 years to handle the permit situation with the town, is a clear indication of this. In addition to that, the amount of time I have demonstrated to you, in respect to my office staff making numerous attempts to contact her for 2 years, preparing letters, communicating with the building dept, before she decided to contact us with her issue, was just unreasonable.  I hope you can see that every effort was made to communicate this fee to her and our efforts were ignored. Regards, [redacted] Owner/General Manager BZ Dependable Plumbing & Heating, Inc. [redacted] Ph# [redacted] Fax# [redacted]