Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/14/2024

  Type:Order 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.

  Contract signed and $20,000 deposit given July 2023. We have paid $155,000 of a $196,000 cost plus contract and our project is less than 45% done. Contractor is refusing to let us see receipts and pay stubs even after we caught him double billing us. Contractor is refusing to terminate contract and has left threatening voicemails.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/25/2024

  To whom it may concern:

  As ***** ***** has stated, this is a cost plus contract in which to construct them a garage with living area above. Around May 15 I sent an invoice and I was contacted by Mrs ***** and she said they had monetary issues with finishing the garage and that I should stop work and cancel the garage door order if possible and I was able to cancel that. At this point they owed me $8,288.40 after I fixed a small labor time mistake and took off the garage door. The ***** are now in default of the contract and I am proceeding with collections of the amount owed. 

  Since default for non payment of the invoice, Mrs ***** has repeatedly asked for employee paystubs and she has no legal right to any employee personal paystubs or files. I have told Mrs ***** that when she pays the bill I will give her the job time sheets for which the time is tracked by gps location thru a service we use for time tracking.

  The overages in this project can be attributed to the engineering we had to obtain after the estimate and contract, in order to get the building permit for the county. Contract states that any additional engineering required would be additional costs involved. The materials and labor involved with the framing were more than anticipated.

  The ***** claim of percentages of completion are far from correct. I have offered to complete the garage and living area for $68,112 fixed price and that it would be complete to the standards of the estimate and all the extra and additional things she wanted would not be included and I also included a few items I didn't have in the estimate. Adding this to what has been paid and the invoice owed would make the total $231,987.09, thus making the overage about 15% which is more than acceptable in this area for a job that size that was estimated over 11 months ago. The ***** did not hesitate to want many extras like "really nice stairs" and didn't want a "cheap flooring" for the bathroom when asked and also wanted a kitchenette. These things were not in the estimate either and are the reason we only work as cost plus.

  Mrs ***** has also been telling folks in the community the same bogus figures and trying to act like I have mismanaged the project somehow, knowing that I have other projects upcoming in the area and obviously trying to sabotage my reputation. I think maybe they don't have the funds to complete and are just trying to make it look like its my fault and have her husband try to finish it over time. She originally said they had not sold the other house yet and had taxes to pay and were just tapped out. 

  I am moving fwd with legal collection since all attempts to resolve this have not worked thus far and I will not accept the blackmail they offered of "not reporting me if I would forget about the bill".

  ***** *****

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/27/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the offer and/or response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  
  
  [Provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.]
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  ***** *****
  
  
  
  The "small labor time mistake" was 170 hours at $60 per hour. During this particular week my husband and son were at the house and are aware of the hours that were actually worked, they did not see ***** ***** during this week although we were charged for construction management of our project. At this point I want to address Riverview's construction rates of $60 per employee per hour. ***** ***** emphasized several times to us that in the Northern Neck area he has difficulty finding employees and he has to pay them $60 per hour - we were floored by this as my husband who has been in the business for 40+ years in **** pays his most skilled carpenter $50 per hour, but we believed what ***** told us. I then see an ad where Riverview his advertising for help at a rate of $22-$30 an hour - let me stress again, he said that he was paying them $60 per hour, not that we would be charged $60 per hour. He intentionally mislead us. I also need to reveal that on occasion his guys would show up and then leave shortly thereafter - please see the first bullet point of the contract. We thought that we could trust ***** and did not realize that we might be setting ourselves up for intentionally being over charged for labor. Several of our neighbors had mentioned this to us, but our son witnessed it while he was here. Because of these we requested to see the paystubs. Our project was not far enough along to justify the labor that we had been charged and we needed to confirm that we actually owed $8288.40 before we paid anymore money. Also, I will point out that the windows that were incorrectly ordered by Riverview will most likely cost around $8000 to fix. ***** ***** refused to let us see receipts and paystubs, which we are entitled to see in a cost plus contract. This made us extremely suspicious of their billing. We have not been able to confirm that we actually do owe anymore money.

  In regards to the percentage of completion, we are indeed wrong. The building inspector for ************** County estimates that we are actually 25%-30% done. Please see photos that I have sent. Our framing is not complete as the garage needs to be attached to the house, we have no HVAC, plumbing, or electrical rough ins. In order to have a legal bedroom we will need to build a firewall, install a fire door, and then change an existing window to a door to meet the fire code. The siding was left unfinished and our yard was left unsightly and not safe - again please see photos. Backfill should have been done as soon as the foundation walls went up, but instead we were left with a huge mound of dirt, rocks, trees roots and cement right in front of our entrance door.

  I did indeed want a kitchenette, nice stairs and some nice finishings, but none of these things have been provided. The stairs are plywood and will most likely need to be replaced. Why would we ever have a finished garage without HVAC and a garage door. When I told ***** that we were out of money his reply was that it. was going to make him look bad because it wasn't finished. I'm not quite sure how he was intending to finish the job for $68,112, but I'm sure that it is not what we envisioned when we hired him.

  I had stressed to ***** many times that we needed to sell our home in **** and he assured me that our project would be completed by the spring - to quote him, "***** you can kick me in the **** if we aren't finished by March." I continued to talk to ***** about the budget and how we needed to sell with him eventually telling me that selling our house in the "Spring sell a thon" had nothing to do with him. So yes, here we are with a very unfinished project and we are indeed out of money. We will be finishing the project over time as we are able relying on sweat equity, friends, and family. 

  Our project has been grossly mismanaged. ***** cashed our first check almost a year ago. Our project could easily have been completed in 3 months. Had we properly vetted ***** out we would have found out that he has already ruined his own reputation. It is our neighbors who told us about him writing bad checks, bankruptcy, and not paying his debts. I have no desire to sabotage anyone. Our neighbors will make their own decisions about who they hire, although we were often asked what was going on with our project as so little work had been done on it.

  Just to point out a few issues:

  - Powerline was cut to our house and we were unable to use the house for 4 months. We lost everything in our refrigerator, freezer, and deep freeze and were left with a hideous, moldy mess to clean up.

  - Powerline to the dock was cut. We still do not have power to our dock (***** told us months ago that it would be fixed). We found an 6 foot electrical line under the mess in our front yard - we will now have to have an new line to our dock.

  - Our internet cable was cut and we had to have that repaired

  - The wrong windows were ordered

  - The bedroom is not egress compliant

  -The garage is not attached to the house - the only way for the permit to be approved was for it to be attached to the house. We failed our framing inspection.

  ***** has been very difficult to deal and we can not and will not continue to work with him. Unscrupulous businesses need to be investigated to protect the community.

  Thank you,

  **** and ***** *****
  
  
  
  

  Please see attached from Building Inspector. He had told us 25%-30% when he was here, 
  
   
  
  Thank you,
  
  ***** *****
  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/03/2024

  I never told the ***** that I pay my carpenters $60 and hour and what I pay them is none of their business. I did tell them and they also seen in the contract what my labor rates are and they signed the contract.

  I dispute what the inspector remarked during his inspection and will take that up with him, I did not ask for a framing inspection and I know it would not pass currently. FYI around here unless asked otherwise the framing is inspected at the same time as the rough ins and obviously the breezeway needed to be attached.

  And once again more slandering from the ***** and more incorrect statements and more lunacy.

  As they have admitted, the ***** do not have the money to finish the contract that they signed and now are hoping to get out of paying the bill they owe by slandering and this bogus inquiry. I should have vetted their finances to find out if they could afford this project to completion.

  This is my last response to this inquiry, and I will not waste anymore of my time on this lunacy. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/05/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the offer and/or response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  
  
  [Provide details of why you are not satisfied with this resolution.]
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  ***** *****
  
  
  
  ***** ***** did indeed tell us that he pays his contractors $60 per hour. He also told us that our project would be completed by March. He also told us that our project was close to budget. He also told us that he would restore the power to our dock, which was never done. 

  By the time we have a new trench dug for the new power line that we need to install, frame a fire wall and put in a door to make the bedroom egress compliant, replace the window sashes, order a custom garage door because the opening is not 8' as we had requested, and have the mess of a yard that we were left with cleaned up, we have more than paid for the $8,000.00 that ***** says we owe him. Again, ***** has refused to show us any receipts or pay stubs to prove that we owe him anything. We are quite certain that Riverview Contracting NNK owes us money for overcharging and compensation for the 4 months that we were unable to use our home and the loss of food and damages that they caused.

  After working hard our entire lives we were looking forward to our retirement in the Northern Neck - this has caused us much stress and angst. We wish to sever all ties with ***** ***** and Riverview Contracting NNK.