Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/11/2023

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Garage rebuild - payments from 2021-Feb-10 to beyond present - $55511.25 so far. No signs of a new garage until 2023-Oct-27, more than 2.75 years later! Work was promised to start in May 2021 and finish in a couple of months. Neither happened. Easiest to dispute is the $18221.25 that I paid on 2022-Sep-09 for the cement floor that they were to lay. This cement work was only done on 2023-Oct-27, more than a year later. They had my money for more than a year before they did the work that it was given for!

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/11/2023

  We appreciate the frustrations in the delays for this project that were out of our control due to COVID and *** **** all working from home. We began initial preparations within weeks of signing this agreement and the first step was the designs and engineers reports then submittal to *** **** for approvals and permits. This all happened in 2021. The original delays was with *** **** coming out and approving the plans. Then after months of dealing with all working from home staff and none able to travel to the site, **** employees either left their job or were transferred and new persons filled their roles and the process had to be restarted. Wither hit and we had to wait until the spring of 2022. Then the code requirements changed and we had to then provide and pay for soil testing and new engineer grading reports. this took months to complete. we did work on the property in 2022 and excavated the property for the foundation. There was soil issues that then had to be rectified and the weather did not cooperate so we had to back fill it all and we erected a temporary shelter at our own expense. We began the process again in the spring of 2023 and with permit expired now we started the process again. New designs and engineer reports. This all came out of the deposits collected. and our costs have exceeded what we had collected. We then were finally able to proceed with new excavation and pour the foundation and concrete floor. We rae now all caught up to wha we have collected and actually paid more than we had collected as prices have also gone up since the original quote.

  The next step is to collect the progress payment for erecting the framing. We went ahead and did this but as of yet been paid this money now owing according to our agreement. When asking for this now overdue payment the client is refusing to pay anything and has asked us to complete the rest of the garage with no further payments and wants us to give her a 2 year financing option for payment. We are not a financing company and are not able to offer financing. I have asked foe what is now due and we will complete the less than 2 weeks of work and the client has refused and chosen to make a formal complaint now that we are almost finished the job.

  All we ask is the she makes the payments now owing as per our agreement so we can finish the project or we will have to close this project as unable to pay. We are desparately close to winter now so time is of the essence and if we don't close in the garage now the work we have done framing may be destroyed from the winter weather and need to be redone and we won't be able to cover that cost.

  Thank you,
  

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 14/11/2023

  
  
  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  At least "Ottawa Home Select" and I agree that there were delays in my project, but for "Ottawa Home Select" to blame COVID and *** **** for their delay of more than two and three quarter years is disingenuous. Many other construction jobs were started and completed in my area over the past 3 years. The contractors for these jobs were able to draw up plans, get them approved, get permits, get the needed materials and show up at their work sites to get their jobs done. My neighbours and friends have commented on this repeatedly over the last couple of years and have asked why on earth my contractors weren't getting my garage finished!

  Anyway, it is my express desire that "Ottawa Home Select" get back to work on my garage build and complete it before winter hits hard and their first piece of their long overdue build is destroyed. As I mentioned before, I paid $18,221.25 fourteen months in advance for the cement laying that was just completed, and this should have suppressed the hunger to grab more money from me before the job is complete. Note that I have thus far given them 74% ($55,511.25) of the total money for the job, far in excess of the 10% which the "******** ********** ******" recommends that the customer limit their payment to the construction business before they complete the whole job. Note that the "******** ********** ******" does require all construction contracts to have start and finish dates, and I was promised an end date in the spring of 2021.

  Below are many details/impressions of my experiences with "Ottawa Home Select" and my desired, but negotiable, solution.
  
  I have been incredibly patient with "Ottawa Home Select" and, from 2021-Feb-10 until 2023-Nov-01, have met their every demand concerning payments. That's 2.75 years of me doing everything according to their wishes and 2.75 years of me not getting the finished garage that I had contracted for at the beginning of February 2021 and was promised to have finished in the spring of 2021.
  
  Here are the payments which I have made thus far:
  
  

  2021-Feb-10 #00531: $12,712.50

  2021-Oct-07 #00414: $12,712.50
  

  2022-Aug-17 #00496: $11,865.00
  

  2022-Sep-09 #00533: $18,221.25
  

  ==============================
  

  Total $55,511.25

  ==============================
  
  

  All of these payments (a total of $55,511.25) were collected before the work associated with them was started. Noteworthy are the large intervals of time between these payments: 8 months, 10 months and 11 months on a job which was, in total, to have taken less than 5 months from planning to completion of the rebuild of the new garage! Disturbed by the extremely slow progress despite my prepayments at every stage, I wrote an email to the general contractor a year ago (2022-Nov-07 - a year and 9 months after I hired them to do the job). Two months earlier (2022-Sep-09) I had paid them $18,221.25 for the cement laying part of the job. The cement laying had not yet started and winter was fast approaching. In my note I indicated that, because of all the delays, I would make no further payments until the garage was finished and approved. I received no response to this email and consequently assumed that, at the very least(!), the general contractor had accepted this highly reasonable amendment to our "agreement". I put agreement in quotations because I did not and would never agree to how "Ottawa Home Select" has proceeded (or not!) with my job.
  
  

  "Ottawa Home Select" kept my $18,221.25 prepayment for the cement laying part of my job for more than a year (14 months) without doing the work that this money was for. I am not a financing company, and if I was, my financing would certainly not include providing an interest-free 1.13 year loan of $18,221.25 to "Ottawa Home Select"!
  
  

  Finally, after I threatened legal consequences on 2023-Oct-11 if the construction of the garage wasn't started and completed before the end of October 2023, a flurry of activity ensued in the last week of October 2023 and first week of November. A bunch of dirt was moved around, the cement was laid (starting on 2023-Oct-27), and the framing was mostly completed in the first week of November.

  Despite my note of 2022-Nov-22 (last year!) which indicated that due to the continued delays, I'd withhold all remaining payments until the job was complete and approved, I received emails (starting on 2023-Nov-01) asking me to immediately pay $6,356.25 more which they claimed was now past due since the framing had started. Apparently the company, despite violating our contract with their endless delays, did not accept my very reasonable amendment of withholding further payments until the job was complete and approved. Note that I had already paid more than 74% ($55511.25) of the total price of the contract ($74,580.00) before I had anything more than holes dug and refilled in my backyard.
  
  I was told via email from "Ottawa Home Select" that, despite all their earlier delays (more than 2.75 years had passed for a job which was promised to be done within in 5 months) and their retention of large amounts of my money for long periods of time before the associated work was done (for example $18,221.25 retained for a year and two months before the cement laying piecework was done), they would not continue work until I paid them $6,356.25 now (and then $6,356.25 the following week and finally the remaining $6,356.25 upon job completion).

  They ceased work and threatened to close the contract if I didn't pay them the amount "now due". My attempts at negotiating with them were unsuccessful.
  
  It is only at this point that I called the "Better Business Bureau". They indicated that my complaint met the standards of a valid "Better Business Bureau" complaint and they suggested that I file one.

  After doing this, "Ottawa Home Select" sent me an email which still demanded more money now before resuming work on my job and also required a retraction of my complaint to the "Better Business Bureau". I do not feel that this is a reasonable way for a "Better Business Bureau"-accredited business to behave.
  
  

  The cement-laying and framing work just done looks good to my lay eye, apart from the missing drain that I was told was required at the back of the garage. I have no problem with the workers who were finally doing the actual construction. but am extremely unhappy with how this job was managed due to:

  
  
  - repeated promises that were broken in terms of the start/end dates of the build.
  

  - long delays between showing up at my property for work.
  

  - retention of large amounts of my money for long periods of time before they did the work which the money was to be used for.
  

  - refusal to renegotiate terms of our "agreement" in light of all of the above.
  

  - endless excuses for their lack of progress while I saw many constructions start and complete in my neighbourhood.
  

  - lack of communication from the general contractor - I sent him emails but have had no responses from him since 2022-Aug-15 after my retained payments totalled $55,511.25 with nothing yet built.
  

  - requiring prepayment far above the 10% that the ******** ********** ****** advises consumers to limit payments to until the job is finished. So far I have pre-paid more than 74% of the total contract, have been told that $12,712.50 more is required before they will finish the job, and then a final $6,356.25 payment upon completion. So they have required down payments totaling $68223.75 - 91.5% of a $74580.00 job before the job is even complete!
  

  
  I think that it is time for the management of "Ottawa Home Select" to accept the blame for their poor performance and make a serious effort to appease this very reasonable customer who has so clearly had a bad experience with their handling of her garage rebuild. I did not hire high school students to do piecework on my property whenever they had time under my management - I hired "Ottawa Home Select", as a construction business with an A+ rating from the "Better Business Bureau", to manage and complete the whole job over a period of 4 to 5 months. As such, I expected them to be able to handle all aspects of the job and to do the job well in the agreed upon amount of time. There is no value to me as a customer until the job is complete and the lack of completion that I have experienced for nearly three years has cost me a considerable amount of extra money (thousands of dollars) and caused me a lot of anguish.
  
  

  I would like the work to be finished as a quality build and I would like "Ottawa Home Select" to offer me a considerable reduction in fees to offset the costs/bother/discontent/difficulties (which can be detailed later) that I have endured due to their poor management of this project. If "Ottawa Home Select" does something really good for me now, they can at least partially redeem themselves.
  
  

  I am negotiable and open for mediation as available through the "Better Business Bureau". I hope that "Ottawa Home Select" is equally open for negotiation and/or mediation.
  
  Thank You.
  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ***** *******

  

  Business Response

  Date: 18/11/2023

  Unfortunately the claims here are false.

  We began all the necessary behind the scenes work from day one and continued throughout.

  The consumer protection act states that 10% should be held back until the final work is signed off not ,as the client states, only pay 10% until the work is complete. we have more than 10% as the final hold back.

  The client here repeatedly states that the work is complete past what she has paid for according to her contract but yet remains unwilling to pay her past due amounts.

  We are not willing to work for free! we are not going to resume work until she pays what is owing and honours her agreed upon payment plan.

  This is more than fare and accepted as the norm.

  Her unwillingness to pay and then asks us to give her a payment plan of two years after the work is completed at our expense is completely absurd and we are not returning to do the job this years as she has delayed the project now and has brought this on herself.

  Our only acceptable terms now is payment before returning as we feel she is trying to get her work done for free and then cause us cost and undue stress to try and collect from her with no leverage but to put a construction lean on her home as is our legal right.

  This will be our next step if unresolved, by making her payment, this week.
  

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 24/11/2023

  
  
  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Again I am requesting mediation with "Ottawa Home Select".

  
  
  "Ottawa Home Select" and I agree that there have been large delays in this project, so we need only negotiate a fair agreement in terms of how the delays should modify the monetary terms of our agreement. The consumer (me) does have rights under the "Consumer Protection Act", and "Ottawa Home Select" is obligated to respect them. In particular contracts must have start and finish dates and these are to be respected. "Ottawa Home Select" can't just show up to do work whenever it likes and expect to collect payments (under threat of liens, God forbid).
  

  
  In February 2021, when I signed a contract with "Ottawa Home Select", I was promised that the build of my new garage would start in May 2021 and be finished in one or two months. Nothing close to that happened.
  
  None of my friends or neighbours have ever heard of a garage rebuild taking more than 2.75 years! All expressed surprise when I mentioned the amount of my money that was given to "Ottawa Home Select" with nothing yet constructed. I have thus far paid $55,511.25 (more than 74% of the total contract) 14 months before I saw ANYTHING built, and yet this company is threatening to put a lien on my house if I don't give them more money pronto! Surely we can negotiate a reduction/delay in fees considering the behaviour of "Ottawa Home Select" over the past 2.75 years? Surely there's someone at "Ottawa Home Select" who would view the delays in my job as incredibly poor customer service?
  

  
  As an elderly customer who did not in any way contribute to the 2.75 years of delays and who likely has less than 7 years left to live in my house:
  

  
  - I have lost 3 years of enjoyment of a garage due to the delays.
  

  
  - I have damaged bicycles and other items which have been left out in the elements over winters or were damaged by the plastic garage that "Ottawa Home Select" put up for a while in 2022 and that collapsed after every winter storm (leaving me without transportation for the days it took to have it re-erected).
  

  
  - I have had $55,511.25 of pre-payments of my money (lost interest) in the pockets of "Ottawa Home Select" for 2.75 years with me having nothing to show for it. In particular the last payment of $18,221.25 on 2022-Sep-09 was for cement laying which did not start until 2023-Oct-27 - 14 months after the pre-payment was made.

  
  
  I request a reduction in the contract fees to make up for the above.

  
  
  As well, I have had a great deal of stress/sleeplessness concerning this company's behaviour when, after more than 2.75 years of delays, I have tried to renegotiate anything in our contract and I request, at the very least, that they stop threatening me and apologize for the way that they have treated me.

  It would be much appreciated if they would treat me as the great customer that I have been and if they would stop making me view them as a really nasty business.

  
  
  They have done the following:

  
  
  - refused to accept any blame for their delays.
  

  - kept a huge $18,221.25 pre-payment for cement laying for 14 months before laying any cement, etc..
  

  - refused to renegotiate anything with me despite their huge delays and retention of my pre-payments for long periods of time without doing the work they were given for.

  
  - repeatedly broken promises of work schedules.
  

  - called my attempts at negotiation absurd.
  

  - insulted me by saying that I expect them to work for free, even after I have paid them 74% of the contract before I saw ANYTHING constructed.
  

  - threatened closing the job before done (despite my huge pre-payments which totaled more than 74% of the total contract price).
  

  - threatened putting a lien on my house if I withheld remaining fees until they're finally done.
  

  
  It would be great if somebody from "Ottawa Home Select" can understand this customer's point of view and ameliorate this terrible situation that I have endured for more than 2.75 years.

  
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ***** *******

  

  Business Response

  Date: 30/11/2023

  
  The client has always known of the delays caused NOT by Ottawa Home Select BUT by *** **** and the issues caused by COVID.

  These delays, which we have all agreed has happened, was at no fault of our own. Not the client or Ottawa Home Select.
  -
  We did our best to mitigate these delays caused by *** **** and paid out of our own pocket to do so by erecting temporary shelters.
  All the payments made by the client were at agreed upon milestones and were used to further the project.

  We have spent more than we have collected and are out of pocket on this project.
  The point that we are sitting on clients money and collecting interest is absurd and the point the the client has lost interest is also absurd because she would have paid this and more much earlier if *** **** didn't delay the project and cost us more than what was budgeted and paid for.
  The client here is looking for a way to pay less or nothing more at all and we have provided more work than what has been paid for up to date.

  We are not threatening anyone but only asking for what is agreed upon but the client has refused to pay what is owing and what will be if we continue the project that we are already in the negative for.

  We have always communicated and treated our clients with respect and courteousness as well as communicated all aspects of the project.
  

  There has not been any pre-payments that were not used immediately for the progress of her project.

  We are not in the business of financing our clients projects but there are many financing options open to her from third party agencies.
  
  She is now in breach of contract and this is a legal matter now and not anything that mediation will resolve as she is not willing to pay what she owes or get the financing she needs to complete this project. The delays now are not caused by us because this project would have been completed a month ago if she made her agreed upon payments. Now we are unable to move forward due to the clients refusing to pay.

  Her payment owing was due upon start of framing and we completer her framing before asking her for the payment. everything she has paid for and more has been completed on our end and the delay now and the issues are at the fault of the client and not ours no matter the issues that were caused by *** **** that preceded this.
  
  Its too bad that the client doesn't see the reality of this and continues to make us the bad guy when in fact we are the victims and not her.

  I don't know what else there is to say other than there is no way we are able to finance her project.
  

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/12/2023

  
  
  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  On 2023-Feb-10 I signed a contract with "Ottawa Home Select" to rebuild my garage.
  Time is of the essence to me as an elderly person, so I asked for a timeline and
  was promised that work on the garage would begin in May 2021 and be finished in one
  or two months. Nothing close to this happened. After 2.75 years and $55,511.25 of
  prepayments I had no sign of a garage.
  
  My complaints about "Ottawa Home Select" are that:
  
  1. They did not finish the garage in the promised amount of time or even close to
  the promised amount of time.
  
  2. They retained large prepayments for long periods of time without doing the work
  which the prepayments were given for. The most noteworthy example of this is the
  $18122.25 cement-laying prepayment which only saw the cement-laying begin 14 months later on 2023-Oct-27.
  
  My attempts to negotiate with this company to make up for the delays, retained
  money and damage to my garage contents were completely unsuccessful, so I filed
  this complaint with the "Better Business Bureau", requesting mediation. "Ottawa
  Home Select" has refused mediation. So my next step will be to file a complaint
  with the "******** ********** ******".
  
  Meanwhile, here is what I wish to summarize for the "Better Business Bureau" about
  my interactions with "Ottawa Home Select".
  
  Prepayments Made and Payments Demanded
  
  On 2021-Feb-10 I hired "Ottawa Home Select" to rebuild my garage. They promised
  that it would be finished in the spring of 2021, but did not deliver. The initial
  contracted amount of $45,000 was upped by them to $74,580 which they said was
  because of code changes.
  
  Here are the payments I made to "Ottawa Home Select" through 2021 and 2022. All
  were prepayments which were required before the work was done. They totalled more
  than 74% of the total contract, and nothing was built for the new garage by the end
  of these prepayments.
  
  ==============================
  2021-Feb-10 #00531: $12,712.50
  2021-Oct-07 #00414: $12,712.50
  2022-Aug-17 #00496: $11,865.00
  2022-Sep-09 #00533: $18,221.25
  ==============================
  Total               $55,511.25
  ==============================
  
  There were delays before and after each of these payments. I found all of the
  delays to be very disturbing, but was particularly upset when the 2022-Sep-09
  prepayment for the cement-laying part of the job didn't result in cement-laying
  until I threatened them 14 months later! The cement-laying, which started on 2023Oct-27 was the first sign of a new garage, and I had already prepaid them for it 14 months earlier.
  
  Up until this point, I had always been billed (and had paid for) work before it was
  done, but on 2023-Nov-01, after the first layer of the cement-laying was finally
  finished, the framing was quickly done without a request for prepayment.
  Since on 2022-Nov-07 (almost a year earlier), I had sent an email to the general
  contractor indicating that, due to the continued delays, I would make no more
   
  prepayments until the garage build was complete and since there was no response
  from the general contractor and since the framing had been done without a request
  for prepayment, of course I assumed that my very reasonable and justifiable
  amendment of retaining all remaining payments to the end was accepted by "Ottawa
  Home Select". Instead I got a series of emails saying that $6356.25 was past due for the framing, that $6356.25 would be required the following week and that another $6356.25 upon
  job completion.
  
  Due to the 2.75 years of delays, I tried to renegotiate payments and payment
  schedules with them, but they seem to think that there is no consequence for their
  delays. They said that I would be in breach of our contract (which they had already
  breached by not finishing in the spring of 2021) if I didn't continue to pay them
  according to their undated schedule of "progress" payments. They seem to think that
  they can be 14 months late in doing cement-laying that I have prepaid them for, but
  I have to pay them whenever they make a plan to show up for work.
  
  Why the Start/End Dates are Important to Me
  
  "Ottawa Home Select" seems to believe that it doesn't need to respect start/finish
  dates in its contracts. It might do well to understand at least these two issues in
  terms of the impact of their delays on their customers:
  
  1. The customer has a finite lifetime and if the product is not delivered on time, the customer has less time than they agreed upon to enjoy the product, so late delivery can be viewed as a cost to the customer. In my case, as an elderly person, taking 2.5 years longer than promised to build my garage means that I will likely have 25% less time to enjoy that garage - and that makes the investment 25% less valuable to me. I would never hire a company to take 3 years to rebuild my garage!
  
  2. Contracted Prepayments to a company for a product that is not delivered on time costs the customer money that they did not agree to. In my case, I only agreed to a prepayment schedule for a job which was to be completed in 4-5 months. I wanted and expected to have nothing less than my finished garage after 4-5 months. I did not agree to "Ottawa Home Select" having any part of my $55,511.25 of prepayments in its possession for a year or two or three without me getting what I had contracted to receive in 4-5 months. I would have preferred to keep all of that money in my high interest TFSA UNTIL "Ottawa Home Select", or some other business, could complete the job in the AGREED UPON AMOUNT OF TIME. I would never agree to prepayments in a garage rebuild contract that would take three years to produce a new garage for me. In fact I wouldn't hire such a company even without required prepayments as indicated in the previous point!
  
  Concerning "Ottawa Home Select"'s Excuses for the Delays
  
  Getting a Permit from *** **** of Ottawa Caused Years of Delay?
  
  I spoke with **** staff concerning "Ottawa Home Select"'s stated permit
  difficulties and was told that the 1st permit application for my garage rebuild
  wasn't made until 2021-Jul-14. Note that this is later than the promised finish
  date for my project! Neither *** **** nor COVID are to blame for the lateness in
  submitting this first permit application!
  
  The permit application failed on three grounds, and the responses from the ****
  about these failures were all made within 15 days:
  
  • building code deficiency (notice given on 2021-Jul-21).
  
  • Zoning failure (notice given on 2021-Jul-29).
  
  • grading deficiency (notice given on 2021-Jul-19).
  
  Three more months passed before "Ottawa Home Select" resubmitted their document for
  zoning on 2021-Oct-26 and this submission was approved by *** **** on the same day.
  
  I don't yet know the date of the resubmission for the grading approval, but the
  approval was given on 2022-May-17, and **** staff told me that the grading
  department was very quick at processing submissions. They were, in fact, the
  quickest of the 3 departments to indicate failure of the initial permit application
  in their regard.
  
  The amendment for the building code was only submitted to *** **** by "Ottawa Home
  Select on Friday 2022-Jul-15, more than a year after the project was to be finished
  and almost a year after *** **** reported the building code deficiencies of the
  first permit submission to "Ottawa Home Select". The permit was issued by the ****
  on the next work day Monday 2022-Jul-18 - again very quick service.
  
  "Ottawa Home Select" said that building code changes also delayed their work, even
  though *** **** staff indicated that new building codes only apply to permit
  applications submitted AFTER the code changes. In particular, new code changes do
  not apply to permits which have already been submitted.
  
  As well, "Ottawa Home Select" indicated that their permit expired and they had to
  start all over again, whereas **** of Ottawa staff indicated that they haven't
  expired any permits since pre-COVID times.
  
  It really doesn't seem as if *** **** bears any fault for any delays - Indeed more
  than 14,000 permits were submitted to and approved by *** **** in 2021.
  
  
  
  
  COVID Caused Years of Delay?
  
  Claims of COVID delaying things for years also seem highly unlikely in that, in my
  neighbourhood many other full houses - complete with garages(!) - have been
  demolished and rebuilt within months rather than years. I'd accept that COVID might
  have added an extra month or two to the project, but not 2.75 years! I certainly
  gave the company much more accommodation for their delays than COVID would have
  caused.
  
  I never accepted the excuses given as contributing more than trivially to the
  repeated delays and I indicated this to "Ottawa Home Select" on multiple occasions.
  
  Difficulties I Encountered with "Ottawa Home Select"
  
  The communications from "Ottawa Home Select" concerning my complaint to the "Better
  Business Bureau" show that "Ottawa Home Select" believes that they have the right
  to hold the customer (me) to a payment schedule with no start or end dates, whereas
  the "******** ********** ******" stipulates that start and finish dates for all
  exchanges of money for goods/work are an essential part of all business contracts
  and that violating them is a breach of the contract.
  
  They believe that all 2.75 years of their delays were not their fault, that they were all due to circumstances beyond their control.
  
  Points of note:
  
  • "Ottawa Home Select" breached our contract in 2021 when they did not finish my garage rebuild in the spring of 2021.
  
  • I continued to uphold my part of the contract for 2.75 years with prepayments totalling $55,511.25 (more than 74% of the full contract) despite their breach of the contract in 2021.
  
  • I sent an email to the general contractor on 2022-Nov-07 indicating that due to the continued delays, I was going to withhold further payments until the work was done. I received no response from the general contractor then or to the present day (how's that for customer service), and so assumed that he had accepted this very reasonable amendment to our contract which he had so badly breached with his delays. I also asked him how he was going to make up for the delays, but again, there was no response.
  
  • In November 2023, I again requested a renegotiation of what remained in the contract due to the long delays and the questionable handling of my prepayments, this time from, I think, the company owner (curiously only one email had that title in the signage block). I also requested that the final payment be delayed for a year to make up for them holding my $18,122.25 cement-laying prepayment for 14 months before the work was done.
  
  • By this point, responses from "Ottawa Home Select" had become insulting/belittling/threatening. I saw no chance of negotiating directly with them, and hence filed a complaint with the "Better Business Bureau".
  
  • As seen in the "Better Business Bureau" communications, "Ottawa Home Select" continues to maintain that it is faultless, that all their delays are the fault of other persons or things - COVID, *** **** of Ottawa, the weather, the soil in my backyard, and now, even me for trying to negotiate after their poor performance and breach of our contract!
  
  • They threatened me with liens on my house and legal action if I didn't continue to uphold my part of the contract which they had already broken with years of delays.
  
  • They threatened closing the job (with no indication that I'd get the materials for my job which they were to already have bought with my prepayments) if I didn't continue to uphold my part of the contract which they had already broken with years of delay.
  
  • On 2021-Feb-10 at the contract signing, I was promised that the physical build of the new garage would start in May 2021 and be finished within 1 or 2 months. This promise was broken.
  
  • In the fall of 2022, I was then promised that my garage build would be the first "Ottawa Home Select" build in May 2022. Again this promise was broken.
  
  • In the fall of 2023, I was then promised that my garage build would be the first "Ottawa Home Select" build in May 2023. Again this promise was broken.
  
  • There was absolutely nothing built for 2.75 years despite $55,511.25 (more than 74% of the total contract) of prepayments from me.
  
  • There has been no communication from the general contractor after my payments to "Ottawa Home Select" reached $55,511.25 on 2022-Sep-09. My emails to him were all unanswered.
  
  • Prepayments to "Ottawa Home Select" were followed by long periods of absence from the work site before the work which was prepaid for was started/finished. The worst example of this was that after the $18,211.25 payment made on 2022-Sep-09 for the cement-laying, the cement-laying was only started 14 months later on 2023-Oct-27, and I had to threaten them in order to get that job started then.
  • I was not given any interest on the $18,211.25 prepayment which they held for 14 months without doing the cement-laying and the money was not returned to me.
  
  • They took down my old garage in the fall of 2022 and left me without a new garage over the winter (and spring and summer of 2023...). The plastic excuse of a temporary replacement garage was inadequate, dangerous, injurious to the contents and not at all what I wanted as a customer. It collapsed after every snowstorm and whenever the wind exceeded 40km/h. It generally took "Ottawa Home Select" 4 days to re-erect the structure after its collapse.
  
  • They took the plastic garage down in the spring of 2023. I expected that they'd start building my garage in May as had been promised in the fall of 2022, but they disappeared again. No sign of a build happened until late October after I threatened them.
  
  • They have refused to negotiate the terms they are trying to hold me to in the contract which they broke.
  
  • They have refused mediation via the "Better Business Bureau", an organization financed by the private business sector which is certainly not biased against businesses!
  
  • They have refused to appreciate that their delays have caused damage to my former garage contents.
  
  • They have refused to appreciate the financial impact on me of their required prepayments despite delays, calling my claims "absurd". I guess they don't realize that I have a PhD in Mathematics and can easily calculate the effective interest lost in paying early for a garage delivered later than agreed upon!
  
  All in all, it was a dreadful experience dealing with the management of
  "Ottawa Home Select".
  
   
  
  

  Sincerely,
  
  
  
  ***** *******