Midwest Home Services

We purchased our current home in July 2019. Prior to listing, the previous owners had MIdwest Home Services perform a fireplace and chimney cleaning and inspection. This report indicated that the fireplaces and chimneys were in good working order. This information was provided to us at the time of making an offer and factored into our decisions in the purchase process. Our home inspection noted that there was some surface cracking on the chimney crown, which we planned to have addressed after the purchase. When we had a second company come out to look at the crown and provide an estimate, they noted extensive damage to the chimney flue tile joints and recommended that the fireplaces not be used until this was fixed. Their estimate for this repair was $3500 for both chimneys plus $1500 for the chimney crown. I have tried to work with the owner of Midwest Home Services to find a remedy for this, given that his company provided an inaccurate/incomplete inspection that impacted our home purchase. In addition, this could have been a serious safety concern if we had not followed up and gone on to use the fireplaces. The owner was initially contacted on August 1st, 2019. It wasn't until the end of September that anyone was sent to look into this. This person performed a new cleaning and sealed some of the cracks, but was not able to address the flue issues. At the time, I was told that the owner would send a mason out to look into those issue, but it took until November 11th until this happened. On November 16th, the owner sent me an estimate for the work that was for $5700 (discounted from $6700), which is still $700 more than the quote I received from the other company. After informing the owner that this was not an adequate discount for the failed service and extreme delay, he has not continued to respond to further messages. I have offered to work with him to negotiate a fair price, but he has not engaged significantly and often neglects to respond for weeks at a time.