Re: Knipe Complaint - 18 Pau-Len Drive, Bridgeton NJ ID # 11590497 We are in receipt of your information with the complaint which was...
submitted on 7-23-16. We appreciate the opportunity to provide the relevant facts to support the position that this claim is unfounded. The [redacted] entered into two separate contracts for the design and the construction of their home. The design of the home was provided by [redacted] Architecture and the construction management for the project was provided by R[redacted] Each of these items was provided through written agreements which specifically detailed the work being provided. The drawings and the contract of [redacted] were completed with the submission of the drawings for permit. They were then utilized for construction of the home. There were no issues with any design related components to the project. The permits were issued as the drawings met all code requirements of the local authorities having jurisdiction. The construction contract was through [redacted] Properties and will be completed upon the completion of the construction as detailed in the contract. The contract specifically excludes Work NOT within this Contract:: Exterior Landscaping Any work not included on the plans or uncovered during construction Work not specifically identified above Owner to Provide: All fixtures for lighting All tile All cabinets and tops All appliances. Within the contract the provision is clearly detailed Per Article 3 of the Contract. "Should the Contractor be delayed by the activities of the Owner, authorities having jurisdiction, their subcontractors or other actions which are not of their control, adjustments in time shall be accommodated. " Our ability to complete the contract is impacted by the Owner: One, the Owner has been communicating directly with the subcontractors. They have been following them around as they work and they have tried to directly separate the subs from us and hire them directly. These actions caused the sub contractors to repeatedly avoid going to the job as it was not a good working environment. These actions have caused delays to the project. Two, the owner has not completed their contract required work which delays our ability to complete our work. As an example, the Owner wants the plumbing work completed. However the plumbing work can not be completed until the cabinets and countertops are installed. The cabinets and countertops are the Owner's responsibility per the contract. These actions have caused delays to the project. During the construction the project was inspected by the local code officials and all inspections are current and passed up to this day. On July 23, 2016 we were advised through text that the [redacted] wish to terminate the construction contract. On July 25, 2016 we responded in writing and advised that we wish to complete the project but we respect their desire to terminate. We documented the status of the project as of that date. We advised that we will await their decision on whether they wish to terminate or keep going with the completion. As of that date the project was 95% complete and we document any and all remaining contract work as a final punch list. We clarified the remaining costs on the contract and summarized any and all executed change orders to date. We clarified that we will require an agreement that this listing covers the full completion of the contract. The [redacted] then responded via text that they want us to complete the construction. On July 26, 2016 we met with the [redacted] on site and we were asked to complete the project. On July 27, 2016 we sent a follow up letter confirming the understanding from the meeting and again detailed the final punch list for signature as clarification. We clarified that we will be able to schedule to return to complete the work as soon as the work is agreed upon. On 8-2-16 we received a call from [redacted] asking why no one was on site. We followed up with a letter dated Aug 2, 2016 advising that we continue to await the acknowledgement of the final punch listing. We have heard nothing from the [redacted] since this letter. In good faith we even had the electrician return to the site on 8-3-16 to help the [redacted] with the installation of outlets in a kneewall which was not in our contract. As to the issues in their report: The [redacted] advised us that they had other contractors come and look around. This by itself is irresponsible. First, the contractors are not engineers and can not make decisions on engineering. Second, until the project is turned over to the Owner through Certificate of Occupancy, we do not permit anyone on site without our approval. How do we know that an unknown contractor will not damage something in an attempt to create an opportunity. The Owner and any other entities are not permitted in an active construction site. Our focus is to complete the contract. The header is at the access opening in the basement. This was presented as a punch list item in the walk through on 8-2-16. The garage is constructed per the plans and we know of no "stud issue". Your report is the first we have heard of it. The framing was inspected and approved. The siding and the door are installed and any issues should be brought to our attention in writing, so the subs can be notified. The foundation is concrete as existing. The mason who worked on the new foundation used concrete. It is not clear how concrete is perceived to not be a structural material as related to the foundation. The Owner met numerous times with us on site and we discussed the hardwood floors and the drywall in the garage. To say that it was never discussed is untrue. Yes it is true that these changes were not documented in a change order and this is our responsibility. The added drywall was installed in the living room ceiling however which speaks to the understanding. If the Owner wishes to have the drywall installed in the garage, we will be happy to provide the contract work and install it and remove the drywall from the Living Room ceiling. As to the deck, we noted that the balance of the unpaid portion of the contract would be credited back to them for the deck. Our framing subcontractor will simply not work on the site any longer. The Owners kept interfering with them and conversing with them while they were on site. The credit provided is our cost as the credit for the work and it is per the contract. The value of the credit has nothing to do with what the Owner gets as costs from other contractors. We have said and continue to say that we will be happy to complete the project. We need the Owner to allow us to do so and provide the clarity to facilitate the completion. This is simply the signing of the project punch list close out summary so we can complete the contract work. Thank you again for allowing us the opportunity to provide clarity.
Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
In response to [redacted] Properties comments, let us inform
you of the truth. I have saved texted
messages, e-mails, and receipts to prove that Mr. John T[redacted] is in fact, not
telling the truth. We don’t want this to
be a he said, she said issue. We just
want you to know things are not being accomplished, things that are being done
are not satisfactory and it’s mediocre work, things that need to be fixed are
not getting fixed, and things that are in the contract are now being removed by
John T[redacted]. And he’s trying to put
blame on us, when it’s our house he’s working on and trying to say we don’t
belong on our own property and that we need to not say anything to the hired
sub-contractors for things that are incorrect or not done the way we wish and
want, and are paying for them to be done a certain way. By the way, I should point out that John T[redacted]
is not hardly ever even at the construction site supervising anything, which is
why we stop by frequently to check on progress and if they need anything. Another thing, he claims we “follow the
sub-contractors around as they work” and we make the work environment “not a
good working environment”. And he claims
“the sub-contractors repeatedly avoid going to the job” because of this supposedly
bad working environment. But in fact,
many of the sub-contractors gave us their personal cell phone numbers and also
took ours, and we call each other for questions and answers, and many times
they let us know when they are coming so we can stop by incase there are
questions or issues. Many of the
sub-contractors actually told us, the reason they weren’t coming back to our
job, was because they weren’t getting paid by John for both our job and other
jobs they were working on for John. We
informed them, it wasn’t because of us they weren’t getting paid, because we
were always on time with payments, in fact we have been paid in full since
April 27th. We also stop by frequently
because we were promised by John T[redacted] that our house would ALWAYS be secure,
which it has NEVER been secure since the day we moved out. None of our doors are locked and we have all
of our belongs, along with all of the brand new appliances, cabinets, fixtures,
etc. stored in the house and garage.
We have NEVER caused ANY delays in the completion of our
house as John T[redacted] claims. In fact, he
told us in the beginning to purchase everything early and have it ready so we
are not being held up on waiting for materials.
We ordered and purchased EVERYTHING in 2015, so we would never hold up
anything on our end. John T[redacted] on the
other hand, is constantly ordering things for our projects last minute and we
sit and wait for things to get accomplished because they haven’t been ordered
or delivered. Such as, tile work, paint,
nor trim were started until June 6, 2016.
Tiles went in before paint, which he told us, paint should be first so
they don’t get it on the floor, but he chose to do tiles first. He texted us and told us on June 3rd that
paint was ordered and being picked up.
And then on June 13th he texted us and said he needed new paint samples
because the painter lost them. On June
21st he picked up the new paint samples. Our kitchen cabinets were ordered on Nov. 30,
2015 we asked them to have them ready for April (that’s when John predicted
they would be ready for them to be installed).
They were ready and being held in the warehouse, they called frequently
asking to deliver them and we had to keep pushing delivery back due to the
house not being ready. They were finally
delivered around May 30th. They
still sat in our garage until July 11th when Lowe’s said they have
to install them, they can’t keep pushing back our job. So the kitchen cabinets went in before
painting, and on the same day trim was being done. We asked John to upgraded our deck to
composite decking and remove the concrete patio as an even swap, he made the
blueprints for the requested change in March.
We then asked to make the deck larger, he gave us a price on the
extension with railings on June 3rd via text and we approved it. On June 8th, I asked John if he
ordered the decking and railings via text and never got an answer. We asked John for figures on the decking so
we could compare apples to apples, because we were pricing out other
contractors for the deck since he was taking so long on ordering and completing
our deck. John said we need to have the
other contractors to spell out exactly what materials they would build with
along with their prices, to compare apples to apples, so we did. And John comes back on July 21st
with a figure of $9,085. for credit on the deck. He didn’t spell anything out to show us how
he comes up with that figure. So we
requested to meet with him, and he never met with us. On July 22nd we still hadn’t heard
from John. Painting had stopped on July
19th. On July 23rd around
8:30pm I sent John a text saying we had deadlines that he knew about, to have
our carpet installed first thing on Monday, July 25th, and were going to go in
and finish all the painting and fix the hardwood floor that he decided to rip
out (without disclosing it to us), so we wouldn’t have to worry about our new
carpet being ruined by paint and so the floor would be finished for carpet to
be installed on it. And there was a huge
section that the flooring wasn’t repaired between the remaining hardwood floor
and the new sub-floor. So on Sunday
night, July 24th, my husband fixed the floor himself, which the
hardwood floors are 3/4inch and the new sub-floor is 1/2inch, and there’s a
slope in our hallway due to the different heights of flooring. John knew the carpet company also was no
longer allowing us to push them back, because they too held our carpet in their
warehouse for months waiting on us to be ready.
We filed a complaint on Sat. July 23th with the Bureau and on
Monday, July 25th we received a text from John stating, “I heard you
loud and clear, you want out of your contract with us”…we NEVER wanted out of
our contract, we NEVER said or texted we wanted out of our contract. The only thing I said in the text to John on
July 22nd was that we were going to go in and finish the work his
hired sub-contractors can’t seem to get done and meet deadlines which we
have. And we were going to finish those
few things ourselves so the carpet could be installed when scheduled and not
get ruined by someone coming in to finish painting after it’s been
installed. And I said, we’ll send you a
bill for our work completed by us, we weren’t going to pay someone else for
work they didn’t complete and that we would.
Anyway, my husband stopped me from doing anything in the house, so we
wouldn’t void our contract, and we waited until Sunday night to complete the
flooring, hoping John would get someone there to do it for us. John never even texted or called us back that
entire weekend. In fact, we hadn’t heard
from John since Thursday, July 21st until we got the text to end the
contract on Monday, the 25th.
Again, John claims we are the cause of delaying work because
of the kitchen installation, if that’s the case, then how come our “fixes” aren’t
getting done, they consist of the roof, siding, ground (topsoil and grass
seed), fence, electric, foundation (the opening in the basement needs a
Lintel), plumbing in bathrooms, and the deck.
There was so much that could have been getting done, but John only
schedules for 1 thing to get completed at a time. And he doesn’t schedule ahead of time, he
waits until that project is complete and then he schedules the next, so we have
these HUGE time lapses where NOTHING gets done, because we’re just waiting
around for whenever the next sub-contractor is ready and willing to come work
again, or waiting to get paid to work again.
On Tuesday, July 26th, we met with John at our
house with my father present, and discussed how we never requested or wanted
out of our contract. We told him we just
want him to finish and quickly. He
admitted in front of my father and us, that he did play a part in holding up
the project, he also tried blaming it on the weather, which I must point out we
had beautiful weather even in the winter. John
said he would type up a letter and list all the things that still needed to be
completed & fixed in order to fulfill our contract and get done. He said he wanted us to sign it by the end of
the day Wednesday the 27th and we said we would sign the deck credit
of $9,085 so we could get someone else in to do it. He said, no, don’t sign the deck credit, I’ll
include it in the letter. And if we want
to add to the list we could. I told him,
I had a list, he said email it, so I did.
As soon as we all left, Jeff and I decided, we would just have John finish
the deck because we couldn’t afford paying anyone else the mass difference in
completing the deck, and I texted him back immediately and told him, we wanted
him to do the deck and not to credit us.
On Friday, July 29th we finally received the letter from John
and he only listed a handful of things to be done, none of which were any of
the fixes, and he completely took the deck out of the contract and claims he’ll
credit us back $4,709. So now, we went
from July 21st credit for deck was $9,085 to July 25th
ending the contract completely and not finishing anything and no deck at all
crediting us back $3,081 to July 28th crediting us back $4,709 for
only completing some things and completely eliminating the deck from the
contract. We have no idea where he’s
pulling these numbers from, but none of it makes any sense.
The deck is a 20 X 28 Azek composite deck with railings and
steps up to our pool, and everyone else that quoted us a price for the deck are
between $21,000-$21,500 and we received 3 quotes. Plus, we already paid in full for a change
order for steps up to the pool of $1,800.
So how was he going to credit us back any of the figures above for our
deck which he was completing until all this happened a few weeks ago. Granted, we still owe $5,400 for the
extension of the deck and railings which we requested. And we have been informed that we can’t purchase
the material for less than $12,000 let alone labor.
So needless to say, John T[redacted] of [redacted] Properties and
[redacted] is a dirty, rotten, crook trying to steal from us, over
charging in many cases, and doing crappy mediocre work. He won’t get “fixes” done, he won’t get
things completed in a timely fashion, and then he tries to put blame on us for
holding him up. Oh, and yes, electric
and plumbing are still being worked on so far.
All we wanted was to get our dream home built and live in it ASAP. We’ve been in this nightmare for 9 months,
and still not living in our house. But
we sure are paying for it.
Which also reminds me, we have been paid in full since April
27th, because we were ready to pay our 2nd to last
payment and we chose to pick our own HVAC company (we didn’t like the equipment
his sub-contractors use), plus we purchased some materials John had to credit
us back for, so we were getting a credit of $17,775 and he refused to credit us
back the second to last payment, he said we had to pay him that payment and he
would credit us back our last payment which was only $12,100 and that didn’t
cover it all, so our 2nd to last payment was also our last payment
due to credit and we paid $10, 631 out of what originally was $16,306. So we don’t have a final payment to hold on
to until the project is complete and inspected.
We were going to hold off on paying for the deck extension and railings
of $5,400 as our last payment. But now
he says he’s removing it from the contract all together.
Thank you for taking the time to address this issue. We hope to get some justification.
Re: Knipe Complaint - 18 Pau-Len Drive, Bridgeton NJ ID # 11590497 We are in receipt of your information with the complaint which was...
submitted on 7-23-16. We appreciate the opportunity to provide the relevant facts to support the position that this claim is unfounded. The [redacted] entered into two separate contracts for the design and the construction of their home. The design of the home was provided by [redacted] Architecture and the construction management for the project was provided by R[redacted] Each of these items was provided through written agreements which specifically detailed the work being provided. The drawings and the contract of [redacted] were completed with the submission of the drawings for permit. They were then utilized for construction of the home. There were no issues with any design related components to the project. The permits were issued as the drawings met all code requirements of the local authorities having jurisdiction. The construction contract was through [redacted] Properties and will be completed upon the completion of the construction as detailed in the contract. The contract specifically excludes Work NOT within this Contract:: Exterior Landscaping Any work not included on the plans or uncovered during construction Work not specifically identified above Owner to Provide: All fixtures for lighting All tile All cabinets and tops All appliances. Within the contract the provision is clearly detailed Per Article 3 of the Contract. "Should the Contractor be delayed by the activities of the Owner, authorities having jurisdiction, their subcontractors or other actions which are not of their control, adjustments in time shall be accommodated. " Our ability to complete the contract is impacted by the Owner: One, the Owner has been communicating directly with the subcontractors. They have been following them around as they work and they have tried to directly separate the subs from us and hire them directly. These actions caused the sub contractors to repeatedly avoid going to the job as it was not a good working environment. These actions have caused delays to the project. Two, the owner has not completed their contract required work which delays our ability to complete our work. As an example, the Owner wants the plumbing work completed. However the plumbing work can not be completed until the cabinets and countertops are installed. The cabinets and countertops are the Owner's responsibility per the contract. These actions have caused delays to the project. During the construction the project was inspected by the local code officials and all inspections are current and passed up to this day. On July 23, 2016 we were advised through text that the [redacted] wish to terminate the construction contract. On July 25, 2016 we responded in writing and advised that we wish to complete the project but we respect their desire to terminate. We documented the status of the project as of that date. We advised that we will await their decision on whether they wish to terminate or keep going with the completion. As of that date the project was 95% complete and we document any and all remaining contract work as a final punch list. We clarified the remaining costs on the contract and summarized any and all executed change orders to date. We clarified that we will require an agreement that this listing covers the full completion of the contract. The [redacted] then responded via text that they want us to complete the construction. On July 26, 2016 we met with the [redacted] on site and we were asked to complete the project. On July 27, 2016 we sent a follow up letter confirming the understanding from the meeting and again detailed the final punch list for signature as clarification. We clarified that we will be able to schedule to return to complete the work as soon as the work is agreed upon. On 8-2-16 we received a call from [redacted] asking why no one was on site. We followed up with a letter dated Aug 2, 2016 advising that we continue to await the acknowledgement of the final punch listing. We have heard nothing from the [redacted] since this letter. In good faith we even had the electrician return to the site on 8-3-16 to help the [redacted] with the installation of outlets in a kneewall which was not in our contract. As to the issues in their report: The [redacted] advised us that they had other contractors come and look around. This by itself is irresponsible. First, the contractors are not engineers and can not make decisions on engineering. Second, until the project is turned over to the Owner through Certificate of Occupancy, we do not permit anyone on site without our approval. How do we know that an unknown contractor will not damage something in an attempt to create an opportunity. The Owner and any other entities are not permitted in an active construction site. Our focus is to complete the contract. The header is at the access opening in the basement. This was presented as a punch list item in the walk through on 8-2-16. The garage is constructed per the plans and we know of no "stud issue". Your report is the first we have heard of it. The framing was inspected and approved. The siding and the door are installed and any issues should be brought to our attention in writing, so the subs can be notified. The foundation is concrete as existing. The mason who worked on the new foundation used concrete. It is not clear how concrete is perceived to not be a structural material as related to the foundation. The Owner met numerous times with us on site and we discussed the hardwood floors and the drywall in the garage. To say that it was never discussed is untrue. Yes it is true that these changes were not documented in a change order and this is our responsibility. The added drywall was installed in the living room ceiling however which speaks to the understanding. If the Owner wishes to have the drywall installed in the garage, we will be happy to provide the contract work and install it and remove the drywall from the Living Room ceiling. As to the deck, we noted that the balance of the unpaid portion of the contract would be credited back to them for the deck. Our framing subcontractor will simply not work on the site any longer. The Owners kept interfering with them and conversing with them while they were on site. The credit provided is our cost as the credit for the work and it is per the contract. The value of the credit has nothing to do with what the Owner gets as costs from other contractors. We have said and continue to say that we will be happy to complete the project. We need the Owner to allow us to do so and provide the clarity to facilitate the completion. This is simply the signing of the project punch list close out summary so we can complete the contract work. Thank you again for allowing us the opportunity to provide clarity.
Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
In response to [redacted] Properties comments, let us inform
you of the truth. I have saved texted
messages, e-mails, and receipts to prove that Mr. John T[redacted] is in fact, not
telling the truth. We don’t want this to
be a he said, she said issue. We just
want you to know things are not being accomplished, things that are being done
are not satisfactory and it’s mediocre work, things that need to be fixed are
not getting fixed, and things that are in the contract are now being removed by
John T[redacted]. And he’s trying to put
blame on us, when it’s our house he’s working on and trying to say we don’t
belong on our own property and that we need to not say anything to the hired
sub-contractors for things that are incorrect or not done the way we wish and
want, and are paying for them to be done a certain way. By the way, I should point out that John T[redacted]
is not hardly ever even at the construction site supervising anything, which is
why we stop by frequently to check on progress and if they need anything. Another thing, he claims we “follow the
sub-contractors around as they work” and we make the work environment “not a
good working environment”. And he claims
“the sub-contractors repeatedly avoid going to the job” because of this supposedly
bad working environment. But in fact,
many of the sub-contractors gave us their personal cell phone numbers and also
took ours, and we call each other for questions and answers, and many times
they let us know when they are coming so we can stop by incase there are
questions or issues. Many of the
sub-contractors actually told us, the reason they weren’t coming back to our
job, was because they weren’t getting paid by John for both our job and other
jobs they were working on for John. We
informed them, it wasn’t because of us they weren’t getting paid, because we
were always on time with payments, in fact we have been paid in full since
April 27th. We also stop by frequently
because we were promised by John T[redacted] that our house would ALWAYS be secure,
which it has NEVER been secure since the day we moved out. None of our doors are locked and we have all
of our belongs, along with all of the brand new appliances, cabinets, fixtures,
etc. stored in the house and garage.
We have NEVER caused ANY delays in the completion of our
house as John T[redacted] claims. In fact, he
told us in the beginning to purchase everything early and have it ready so we
are not being held up on waiting for materials.
We ordered and purchased EVERYTHING in 2015, so we would never hold up
anything on our end. John T[redacted] on the
other hand, is constantly ordering things for our projects last minute and we
sit and wait for things to get accomplished because they haven’t been ordered
or delivered. Such as, tile work, paint,
nor trim were started until June 6, 2016.
Tiles went in before paint, which he told us, paint should be first so
they don’t get it on the floor, but he chose to do tiles first. He texted us and told us on June 3rd that
paint was ordered and being picked up.
And then on June 13th he texted us and said he needed new paint samples
because the painter lost them. On June
21st he picked up the new paint samples. Our kitchen cabinets were ordered on Nov. 30,
2015 we asked them to have them ready for April (that’s when John predicted
they would be ready for them to be installed).
They were ready and being held in the warehouse, they called frequently
asking to deliver them and we had to keep pushing delivery back due to the
house not being ready. They were finally
delivered around May 30th. They
still sat in our garage until July 11th when Lowe’s said they have
to install them, they can’t keep pushing back our job. So the kitchen cabinets went in before
painting, and on the same day trim was being done. We asked John to upgraded our deck to
composite decking and remove the concrete patio as an even swap, he made the
blueprints for the requested change in March.
We then asked to make the deck larger, he gave us a price on the
extension with railings on June 3rd via text and we approved it. On June 8th, I asked John if he
ordered the decking and railings via text and never got an answer. We asked John for figures on the decking so
we could compare apples to apples, because we were pricing out other
contractors for the deck since he was taking so long on ordering and completing
our deck. John said we need to have the
other contractors to spell out exactly what materials they would build with
along with their prices, to compare apples to apples, so we did. And John comes back on July 21st
with a figure of $9,085. for credit on the deck. He didn’t spell anything out to show us how
he comes up with that figure. So we
requested to meet with him, and he never met with us. On July 22nd we still hadn’t heard
from John. Painting had stopped on July
19th. On July 23rd around
8:30pm I sent John a text saying we had deadlines that he knew about, to have
our carpet installed first thing on Monday, July 25th, and were going to go in
and finish all the painting and fix the hardwood floor that he decided to rip
out (without disclosing it to us), so we wouldn’t have to worry about our new
carpet being ruined by paint and so the floor would be finished for carpet to
be installed on it. And there was a huge
section that the flooring wasn’t repaired between the remaining hardwood floor
and the new sub-floor. So on Sunday
night, July 24th, my husband fixed the floor himself, which the
hardwood floors are 3/4inch and the new sub-floor is 1/2inch, and there’s a
slope in our hallway due to the different heights of flooring. John knew the carpet company also was no
longer allowing us to push them back, because they too held our carpet in their
warehouse for months waiting on us to be ready.
We filed a complaint on Sat. July 23th with the Bureau and on
Monday, July 25th we received a text from John stating, “I heard you
loud and clear, you want out of your contract with us”…we NEVER wanted out of
our contract, we NEVER said or texted we wanted out of our contract. The only thing I said in the text to John on
July 22nd was that we were going to go in and finish the work his
hired sub-contractors can’t seem to get done and meet deadlines which we
have. And we were going to finish those
few things ourselves so the carpet could be installed when scheduled and not
get ruined by someone coming in to finish painting after it’s been
installed. And I said, we’ll send you a
bill for our work completed by us, we weren’t going to pay someone else for
work they didn’t complete and that we would.
Anyway, my husband stopped me from doing anything in the house, so we
wouldn’t void our contract, and we waited until Sunday night to complete the
flooring, hoping John would get someone there to do it for us. John never even texted or called us back that
entire weekend. In fact, we hadn’t heard
from John since Thursday, July 21st until we got the text to end the
contract on Monday, the 25th.
Again, John claims we are the cause of delaying work because
of the kitchen installation, if that’s the case, then how come our “fixes” aren’t
getting done, they consist of the roof, siding, ground (topsoil and grass
seed), fence, electric, foundation (the opening in the basement needs a
Lintel), plumbing in bathrooms, and the deck.
There was so much that could have been getting done, but John only
schedules for 1 thing to get completed at a time. And he doesn’t schedule ahead of time, he
waits until that project is complete and then he schedules the next, so we have
these HUGE time lapses where NOTHING gets done, because we’re just waiting
around for whenever the next sub-contractor is ready and willing to come work
again, or waiting to get paid to work again.
On Tuesday, July 26th, we met with John at our
house with my father present, and discussed how we never requested or wanted
out of our contract. We told him we just
want him to finish and quickly. He
admitted in front of my father and us, that he did play a part in holding up
the project, he also tried blaming it on the weather, which I must point out we
had beautiful weather even in the winter. John
said he would type up a letter and list all the things that still needed to be
completed & fixed in order to fulfill our contract and get done. He said he wanted us to sign it by the end of
the day Wednesday the 27th and we said we would sign the deck credit
of $9,085 so we could get someone else in to do it. He said, no, don’t sign the deck credit, I’ll
include it in the letter. And if we want
to add to the list we could. I told him,
I had a list, he said email it, so I did.
As soon as we all left, Jeff and I decided, we would just have John finish
the deck because we couldn’t afford paying anyone else the mass difference in
completing the deck, and I texted him back immediately and told him, we wanted
him to do the deck and not to credit us.
On Friday, July 29th we finally received the letter from John
and he only listed a handful of things to be done, none of which were any of
the fixes, and he completely took the deck out of the contract and claims he’ll
credit us back $4,709. So now, we went
from July 21st credit for deck was $9,085 to July 25th
ending the contract completely and not finishing anything and no deck at all
crediting us back $3,081 to July 28th crediting us back $4,709 for
only completing some things and completely eliminating the deck from the
contract. We have no idea where he’s
pulling these numbers from, but none of it makes any sense.
The deck is a 20 X 28 Azek composite deck with railings and
steps up to our pool, and everyone else that quoted us a price for the deck are
between $21,000-$21,500 and we received 3 quotes. Plus, we already paid in full for a change
order for steps up to the pool of $1,800.
So how was he going to credit us back any of the figures above for our
deck which he was completing until all this happened a few weeks ago. Granted, we still owe $5,400 for the
extension of the deck and railings which we requested. And we have been informed that we can’t purchase
the material for less than $12,000 let alone labor.
So needless to say, John T[redacted] of [redacted] Properties and
[redacted] is a dirty, rotten, crook trying to steal from us, over
charging in many cases, and doing crappy mediocre work. He won’t get “fixes” done, he won’t get
things completed in a timely fashion, and then he tries to put blame on us for
holding him up. Oh, and yes, electric
and plumbing are still being worked on so far.
All we wanted was to get our dream home built and live in it ASAP. We’ve been in this nightmare for 9 months,
and still not living in our house. But
we sure are paying for it.
Which also reminds me, we have been paid in full since April
27th, because we were ready to pay our 2nd to last
payment and we chose to pick our own HVAC company (we didn’t like the equipment
his sub-contractors use), plus we purchased some materials John had to credit
us back for, so we were getting a credit of $17,775 and he refused to credit us
back the second to last payment, he said we had to pay him that payment and he
would credit us back our last payment which was only $12,100 and that didn’t
cover it all, so our 2nd to last payment was also our last payment
due to credit and we paid $10, 631 out of what originally was $16,306. So we don’t have a final payment to hold on
to until the project is complete and inspected.
We were going to hold off on paying for the deck extension and railings
of $5,400 as our last payment. But now
he says he’s removing it from the contract all together.
Thank you for taking the time to address this issue. We hope to get some justification.
Sincerely,
[redacted]