I am so pissed about our home repairs!

The BBQ Pit
1

We sustained some damage to our house when Irene blew through in August. A huge pine tree came down, hitting the house and damaging our fence, roof, and siding, and ripping all the electrical and cable wires from the house. Our insurance company was really good about getting people out to see the damage and make up a repair plan, but everything since then has been an ordeal. We’re using the company they told us to use, and it’s been hell.

Once we got the tree removed (we got to pick our own company for that), we ended up waiting until October to have anyone show up to repair anything, and even then it was just the fence, and it only happened after we called to complain about how long it was taking. And the work guys, while competent, were only doing half the work - the boss had told them not to bother replacing the fence posts, despite the fact that they were obviously wobbly and wouldn’t hold a fence up for long. The guys agreed with us, it was weird not to replace a post that was leaning several degrees off, but the boss told them not to do those and they didn’t have post equipment with them for the job. Several phone calls and a few days later, we had a properly fixed fence. Hooray.

No word for weeks after that. The insurance guys called to see how we were doing with the repairs and we told them nothing was happening, and the next morning without warning, a crew showed up at 7:30 and started hammering on our bedroom walls to replace the siding. That was nice. It was Friday and I was concerned that they would only do part of it and leave it over the weekend, so I tried to ask them some questions, but nobody spoke enough English to make conversation possible. We ended up having to get in touch with the company by phone to figure out what was going on. We can never seem to reach Mike, the project boss guy, but when we tell them that the original estimate and plans included XYZ work, the work guys get on the phone with someone and come back and say, oh, they got approval to go ahead and do it.

Again, it looks like the crew has been told to cut corners. The roof is damaged - there are cracks in some of the facure board and other roof parts that I’m not familiar enough with to name. A 50-foot tree hit the roof and dragged along the whole edge before falling off - there are cracks and warped wood from that. The siding guys stopped work two days ago, saying a carpenter was coming to fix some of it but they had to wait for the electrical company for part of it since the wires are anchored to the house on one of the bad boards. Well, we’ve had no carpenter come by, and the siding guys are back and were told to cover the rest up and call it a day. There’s one guy here who speaks English today and he agrees it’s stupid to cover it up - it’s not fixed! So now we’ve left messages for the elusive Mike and we’re not letting the crew cover the damage.

I am so, so, frustrated. This asshole is trying to screw us. There’s more but this post is already too long. I would go punch a hole in a wall out of anger, but it would probably take 6 months to get it fixed.

2

I’m a contractor that specializes in insurance restoration.

A couple of things

You can hire anyone you want-you do not have to use their contractor. You can pay them for the work already done to your satisfaction, and hire someone else to do the rest. Kind of a pain, but possible.

If a contractor is part of the insurance company’s “preferred service provider” network, they have certain standards and time frames they must keep to continue to be on that list. It sounds like they are not meeting those requirements. Let your agent/adjuster/desk adjuster know. That might speed things up, most contractors don’t want to lose that status.

If it is just a contractor that has some sort of relationship with the original adjuster, you might not have that leverage.

You can threaten the BBB/Angie’s list/state licensing complaints, it may or may not work depending on the contractor.

It sounds like there is unorganized production going on, and they are probably way overbooked. (Just sell the job! We’ll worry about building it later!) The roof should have been the first thing done.

You are entitled to get every single item on your insurance estimate done properly by the contractor. They are getting paid to do every single thing, hold them accountable.

Be patient, don’t give in. Try to find someone other than Mike to help get this going. Squeaky wheel…

3

You really need to let your insurance company know what is (or is not) going on. They may have dealt with the company in the past and had great results; they don’t know it’s not wrong if you don’t tell them.

Do NOT sign off on anything until it is to your satisfaction.

4

As noted, the insurance company is just a checkbook that pays for suitable restoration. Sometimes they have special providers that have done quality work in the past and have a pricing/service agreement with the insurance company, but you have no obligation to use them. Damage restoration is a PITA, especially after a major storm because all the good workers are busy, and the fly-by-nights can come in and slap together some shitty work and disolve before ayone notices.

I’ve always felt insurance companies should have their own workers so they could better control the quality and timeliness of the repairs. That’s not really feasible, of course, because of the various unions that would offend.

5

We’ve let USAA know about the situation - I know they’ve called the company at least once, because they showed up for the siding work the day after we spoke to our insurance rep and I doubt that was a coincidence.

Looking up the company on Angie’s List, I see they had several A and B ratings but the most recent ratings, from the past 8 months or so, have dropped to Ds and Fs, with people complaining about getting quotes and then not being able to get any of the work done in a timely manner. So, something must have changed, and we’re not the only ones having a hard time with these guys.

The mysterious Mike is apparently coming out here on Monday to talk to us and see the problems with the roof. I’ll be at work but my husband will take the morning off to make sure stuff gets done right. Can’t wait to see what the guy says about our obviously messed-up roof, and why he thinks it doesn’t need fixing.

6

Sounds similar to my situation. Except I’ve already paid the contractor and he isn’t doing any work. To get shit done, I had to go and repay someone else to do everything. I’m out like $19,000 because of shady contractors. Sad that people are like that. Fucking crooks.

7

I remember reading about that somewhere,** Bear; ** I felt really bad for you. The finished project does look awesome though.

So,** Bear,** where do you think you went wrong? I’m not trying to blame you, the victim, but I’m curious how it all went down. Where’d you find the guy, when did it start going bad, when did you know you were getting screwed?

8

I was in too much of a rush to get the whole project completed. Didn’t check references, didn’t research the person properly (at all).
Found his business card in the house taped to the mirror in the bathroom. Figured the real estate agent or someone reputable left the card in there as a recommendation. But really I have no idea who left it there; how and why.
Paid an initial deposit, and he got right to work. Lots of movement and progress. At about half-way through, I paid him the rest. Still had no reason to worry or even be suspicious.
Then I didn’t hear from him for a full week. When I finally got ahold of him on a Friday, he said his mom past away so he’s been busy and depressed with that whole mess. Said he would be back to work Monday.
Didn’t see him for another week. Then he said his dad died. Didn’t see or hear from him for another two weeks or so and then he says he had a heart attack.
Then I noticed that the “granite” counter he put in was actually ceramic. Plus a lot of other nonsense.
There is a lot of blame on my part. I am like the guy who leaves his keys in his car and complains that it got stolen. But still… we should live in a world where people don’t steal cars simply because the keys are there.

What also played a big role was the simple fact that I haven’t lived in America for almost 6 years. And after all the scams and shadyness and difficulties of trying to do things overseas, I was so happy to be dealing with an American again. Kinda put the blinders on.

I’m going to court next week over it. Civil court would be useless because he isn’t solvent. So I’ve just accepted the loss. But I have pressed charges for the criminal part of the whole transaction–the theft by deception for using ceramic when the written contract said “granite” and the laminate floor where the contract said “hard wood”. So there is enough felonies there to put him away for a couple years. Not to mention I think he is on probation, so that’s going to add another charge of violation.
He keeps telling me he is going to make it right, fix everything and pay me back. I don’t care anymore. I don’t believe there is any chance at this point. I just want to crush him. He should be losing his business, his kids (going through a divorce), his freedom and some money over this. I’ve been warning him for 4 months, so I there is no sympathy from me.

Still added more equity than the total cost of losses and renovations. So I will end up on top. But I had to take on some ($20,000) credit card debt in the process. Sucks since I have been totally debt free for about 7 years!

9

Thanks for your post.

I, too, leave my keys in the ignition, and I never lock my doors. And when someone screws me over, I’m always surprised like a naive child. You think after all this time we’d get used to it.

But, never, ever pay the contractor in full until the job is done. It’s the only leverage you have, really.

I am glad you are prosecuting him. It should be not only for the cheap substitutions of material, but because he stole from you. He deserves to be taken down; it makes the reputable contractors look bad.

10

I’m surprised that USAA is your insurance company and that they aren’t doing more to help you put the screws to these lousy contractors. They are my auto/home insurance company too and I have never had a single bad experience with them…quite the opposite, in fact.

11

It doesn’t sound like they were keeping USAA informed, they were trying to handle it themselves. A lot of people don’t trust their insurance companies–which isn’t to say that isn’t a justifiable attitude (depending on the company). But you should be talking to your adjuster at least once a week, especially for a catastrophic (as in, related to a weather catastrophe, not necessarily that the amount of damages is catastrophically high) claim.

Yeah, given how long it’s been USAA should definitely have been in touch with them. But a whole lot of CAT adjusters work 70+ hour weeks and it’s easy to let a claim or two slip through the cracks. They naturally prioritize the squeakiest, litigiousest wheels.

12

Well, let’s put this in perspective.

USAA is a good insurance company, and they take care of vets really well in my experience. But… the contract is between the homeowner and the contractor. Legally, USAA can’t do anything. (short answer)

OP said she sustained damage because of Irene. Irene was a major event, and millions of people sustained damage.

There are only so many contractors in a given area, and even when storm chasers come in, there are still only so many resources-materials, workers, inspectors. If this particular contractor never has gone through a major event, he probably was overly optimistic on what workload he took on.

Additionally, most preferred providers (if that’s what he was) deal in inside work-sewer backup, etc. He may not have the background in exterior.

It sucks to have your home half done, I get it. Best course of action at this point is to be the squeakiest wheel ever. Be polite, be decent, but squeak. A lot.

Inigo, there’s a reason insurance companies don’t do the work themselves.

13

We’ve never had any problems with USAA, ever, and this current problem isn’t even with them, really. I’ve been wanting to get them involved since the first incident with the fence, but my husband wanted to get it figured out with the workers, and not the insurance company. Seems to me that USAA would want to know that the guys they told us to use are trying to screw them out of a decent amount of money by half-assing the job. We didn’t tell them anything was wrong until recently, and like I mentioned above, when we complained that the work had stalled, the guys showed up the very next day - I can only assume USAA had something to do with that.

I want to be “squeakier” with USAA, but my husband doesn’t like to rock the boat, so we’ve been arguing a little over how to deal with it. they can’t fix it if they don’t know it’s happening, and it’s in their best interest to get it done right - they’re the ones paying this guy, after all.

I’m pretty sure you’re right and these guys bit off more than they could chew by committing themselves to more projects than they could realistically finish well in a short period of time. Honestly, I’m not even that upset about it taking so long. We have neighbors down the street who had to move out because a tree went through their house - they lost a lot to water damage and the place still isn’t fixed enough for them to move back in yet. We got off easy and I am glad to let those with worse damage get repaired first. So our siding is ripped off in a few places and our fence was crushed, who cares? I’m more upset about how shady this Mike guy is and the corner-cutting he’s demanding all over the place.

14

I have nothing really to add except my sympathies for people who have dealt with crappy contractors. We are planning a few renovations in our house, and I’m scared to death of getting involved in a situation like the ones you see on “Holmes On Homes” (or like you guys are talking about here). Jim works in the construction industry, so hopefully he’ll have good contacts with people who can do the work, and they won’t shaft us too badly.