Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  06/20/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I purchased a fixer upper house and reached out to Paul Sept 2021. We met. He looked at the house twice. He gave me a bid for $21,000 and if I booked with him for the winter he would knock off 15% labor to $18,900. We signed a contract in October paid him a $10,000 deposit. He started the job in January. He told me he would have the whole job done by February 1st. He worked only on my basement laundry room and bath for that month. He never started the other 2 bathrooms, dining room, kitchen, sunroom, doors or upstairs flooring. In February when he wasn’t even finished with the basement he said he had to go do another job and would come back. Weeks later he messaged me saying he wasn’t coming back because he is “way behind and can’t get caught up.” And he “physically can not afford to come back and finish” and he “has to worry about my family and situation first”. He did maybe a quarter of the contracted work. He admitted to bidding the job low to get the work and he feels like he did enough work for $10,000. The quality and the amount of work completed is not worth $10,000 and it is not what I paid for. He shared material receipts for the job totaling a little over $3500. However many of those items on the receipts are tools that I should not be responsible for as well as miscellaneous items such as energy drinks, socks, umbrellas etc. The actual total for materials is less than $3000. He completed maybe a quarter of the contracted work, left me with an unusable bathroom, a fire hazard and poor quality work. I filed a complaint with the attorney general. Paul apologized for the inconvenience but wouldn’t participate in a mediation. He breached our contract and owes me a refunding.

  Business response

  07/01/2022

  Hello My name is Paul R****. First let me start by saying this complaint is not legit. I have more than $3000 in receipts for material. The bathroom that was "left unusable" was the fault of the plumber and not myself. Under normal circumstances I would've gone back and corrected and mistakes made. This is not normal circumstances. This lady is trying to get work done for free. She has been harassing me online since the day I informed her I would not be able to come back. I was unable to complete the job due to lack of funds. They received a full bathroom, full basement remodel with a laundry room, livingroom space and storage room. All new flooring, walls, ceiling, lighting, electrical throughout. The last thing I wanted was to leave them feeling g ripped off but with that 10000 they gave me I used it all in her basement. Spent hundreds of my own money over the 10000 to just get the basement finished. For the 8900 that remained on the contract she wanted the rest of her house done. I apologized repeatedly to no avail. I did not start thw upstairs work because I would've never been able to get it finished with the money available to do so. I had no choice but to move on with other work. I had no money left to my name and was looking at losing my house. I have a family to support and I put in 5 weeks on her house not close ting any money in that time. I have receipts for over 5 grand in material and another 3200 that went to pay the help for that month. Another 1000 for the dumpster needed. Not to mention fuel consumption driving to and from daily. I understand they are angry but all I. Really guilty of is inconveniencing them to find another contractor. My mistake was made when I under bid the job in the first place. Was the biggest job I had bid to that date and I made a rookie mistake. I tried to explain that but nothing I had to say was good enough. She is online telling everyone not to use my company stating that I stole money from her. I didn't steal anything. Again I am sorry they are upset but like I said then I had to worry about my family first. Thank you for your time and I hope to get a response to this matter soon.

  Customer response

  07/02/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  As a consumer, my role in a professional contract is to render payment for services provided. As a contractor, their role is to render said services. In this case, Ground Floor Renovations did not complete the services outlined in the contract. The contract was for an extensive remodel (including additional spaces not mentioned in Ground Floor Renovations’ rebuttal to the complaint). The contract included me, the homeowner, purchasing many of the materials for the job. Throughout the time worked, never once did the contractor indicate that there was a supply issue, a workforce/compensation issue, a monetary supply issue, or a need to revisit the contract and perhaps renegotiate the terms. Out of the blue, Ground Floor Renovations announced one morning that he would not be returning to complete the job as he had “run out of time and money”. Respectfully, this is not an issue that should fall on the shoulders of the consumer. Ground Floor Renovations’ poor budgeting, planning, specking, and quoting the project falls on that company. I paid a significant amount of money for a great deal of work and only a fraction was completed. 
  
  
  In addition, as a contractor that hires a third-party for plumbing work, Ground Floor Renovations should have inspected the lower bathroom to ensure the job was completed accurately. Due to such negligence, the bathroom must now be gutted and redone at the expense of $3k. Ground Floor Renovations is responsible for that cost due to their lack of quality control. 
  
  
  In addition, the receipts provided for materials that Ground Floor Renovations purchased include tools for his company that should not be the responsibility of the consumer such as Wagner power sprayer, protection plan, drywall tools, saws, clamp tools as well as personal items such as socks, gloves, umbrellas and monster drinks. According to the receipts, the total of materials used for my home renovation was $2989.54.  Ground Floor Renovations claims he spent over $5,000. Also, the dumpster use should not be the responsibility of the consumer also as it sat unused for many weeks @$50 extra a day is ludicrous. 
  
  
  The bottom line is simple: a contract was entered into in November 2021 for the following:
  1. new basement floors
  2. drywalled basement walls, paint and lights
  3. Full renovation of basement full bath including a mirror that he did not hang and a vent that he connected to my clothes dryer causing a major fire hazard as well as a stair rail  that was not replaced causing a safety hazard. 
  4. Installation of 1 partition wall in laundry room that includes bifold doors that do not work and fall over when opened. 
  5. Full renovation of main bath that included installation of tile around tub, toilet, vanity, lights, vent fan, mirror and removal of a bulkhead and new floor
  6. Renovation of 1/2 bath that includes installation of flooring, a vanity, mirror, lights and vent
  7. New flooring in living room 
  8. New flooring in dining room
  9. New flooring in kitchen
  10. New flooring in entryway
  11. New interior doors throughout 
  12. Demo of kitchen including removing a wall and bulkheads, open wall into sunroom and widen wall into living room
  13. Drywall kitchen/dining room after demo 
  14. Moving refrigerator
  15. Adding a small island to kitchen and installing purchased cabinets 
  16. Renovation of four season porch with drywall, paint and new floors 
  17. Installing shiplap over brick in the sun porch 
  
  
  …all of which I, the homeowner, purchased the materials such as flooring, cabinets, tile, fixtures, etc. for. 
  
  
  As you can see, regardless of reason, Ground Floor Renovations completed 4 of 17 contracted items and did so, in some cases such as the basement bathroom, poorly and hazardously. I believe a refund is in order due to an incomplete contract, poor quality work and the extra expense of hiring a new contractor to complete and fix the renovation and safety hazards. 
  
  Regards,
  
  ****** *******

  Business response

  07/18/2022

  Let me start by saying I do apologize for the aggravation and inconvenience of this entire situation. I would love to get this taken care of as it was never my intention to upset anyone. Please reach out to me so that we can move forward on settling this matter.

  Customer response

  07/21/2022

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, I reached out to Paul as per his request. He has agreed to refund half of my deposit in installments of at least $500 a month and will be paid completely in 10 months or less. In good faith I am accepting his resolution attempt in hopes that the refund is received.  
  
  Regards,
  
  ****** *******

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩