ComplaintsforHometown Restoration, LLC

• Initial Complaint

  08/26/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  January 20, 2022, I signed a contract with **** *******-Hometown Restoration. At that time Hometown had a physical office in Lake Charles, LA. The contract (attached) was for interior repair for $100,000. It read that any modifications or overages would be made known to me before proceeding. His first crew and project foreman performed poorly causing most of the work to be redone. I was originally promised a move in date by 3-5-22. Delays continued until May when the first crew was fired. A new subcontractor was hired. The second crew had to correct literally everything the first crew improperly installed or restored. I was paying my own temporary living expense, utilities, and storage while all the delays continued to evolve. On 6-20-222 we moved back in only to find over 44 items incorrectly installed by the first crew. This caused a partial move in and continued storage fee issues. The second subcontractor corrected all but two of the major issues, an improperly installed walk-in shower and a loose electric receptacle that was left dangling. Hometown kept pushing to close the contract with incomplete issues. I received a invoice on 8/15/22 (dated8/2/22) requesting final payment. It was $24,519.17 over our agreed amount. The invoice only listed prices, but lacked dates, sources, descriptions. I e-mailed the contractor asking for the missing information and an explanation for the overages. He just said "That is what it is and I need you to pay it." I told him many items were exchanged for being wrong. The first crew threw out reusable shelving, medicine cabinets, fixtures, and bath accessories. Four e-mails exchanged asking for item descriptions and refused. Via phone on 8/23/22, the owner offered $1500. off to pay for damaged personal items & incomplete back bath, then offered $5k, $7k and $12K off the $24,519.17. I cannot evaluate the invoice without descriptions to compare. I am being bullied to accept a vague invoice and pay for contractor mistakes.

  Business response

  08/29/2022

  The homeowner signed a General Service Agreement on 01/20/22. We had a physical office in Lake Charles, Louisiana until March 2022. Hometown Restoration continued to do business in the Lake Charles area after moving from that office as we had a very small amount of open contracts remaining. As we were approaching the $100,000 allotted budget our production manager notified the homeowners, at which point they agreed to proceed & continuously added work to be done. Yes, the original move-in date was pushed back due to delays that we encountered from the first crew that was terminated in April 2022 & additions made by the homeowner. We hired a new sub-contractor in April 2022 to complete the work as well as make the necessary repairs from the first crew. Upon moving back into the home the homeowner did not notify Hometown Restoration of any repairs that needed to be corrected. When the final invoice was emailed to the homeowner all work was complete. The balance owed is for $54,519.17 this does not reflect the $500 credit for personal items that were damaged or out of pocket expenses for hardware that needed to be replaced. We did not provide the homeowner with invoice dates or copies of each invoice as there are roughly 60+ invoices for this job. A second discount was offered for the repairs to the bathroom to which the homeowner never responded if he accepted or declined. There is also a total of $35,276.28 that we are not billing the customer for which was the amount to make repairs needed from the first subcontractor. Our owner **** ******* did offer the homeowner an additional amount off his balance owed when the homeowner told him the money for his repairs had already been spent & he would need to come up with the funds to pay his invoice. We have gone above & beyond to correct all errors & provide the homeowner with any necessary information.

  Customer response

  09/06/2022

  
  Complaint: 17755120
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  September 5, 2022
  
  Unresponsive and argumentative to my earlier requests
  
  No receipts with dates or descriptions have been given. That is the only way to evaluate Hometown's claims. There have been 6 formal requests with denials.
  
  We signed a contract for $100,00. and would mutually agree to any progression past that amount. 
  We communicated extensively via email and texts, but I can find no warning that the limit was about to, or had been surpassed.
  
  Any new work was set out when the owner and the second project manager came to do the walk through at the beginning.  Again, when I asked why it was so high for such a small house, I was told they always put in some "extra cushion" for unforeseen problems. 
  
  The second project manager was incompetent and did not advise us that the $100K high mark was about to, or had been exceeded. I had several conversations with the owner where I was told that ***** tries to "protect/insulate" me from things. On more than one occasion the project manager confided that he wasn't a contractor, that he was a salesman and was helping the owner out.
  I have several examples of this pattern of practice. I get that he was trying to keep the owner unencumbered, but I believe he was not fully articulating the degree of mistakes that the first crew were incurring on the company.
  
  The only new work that we are aware of, and discussed with both **** and project manager ***** ******, are as follows:
  
  -3 windows replaced. (This was reduced from the original agreement of 9 windows because the project (Wayne) said, "it wasn’t going to happen." He thought it was taking too long and the crew wasn’t familiar with the stucco and brick.) Because of this Low confidence (not that the cost was about to breach $100k), I abandoned all but the three they started on. 
  
  - installing an 18-inch wall in the office closet to create a separate closet,
  -replacing both toilets.
  -Changing an aged water heater that had been sitting dormant for 18 months.
  
  April 18,22 the first crew was let go and a new subcontractor, ******** Construction, began working. In May while discussing yet another punch out list, I asked **** for reassurance about all the extra costs for the faulty and improperly improper installation. He assured me that that was all on him because the first crew made the mistakes. At that time, he said I just looked at it and we’re around $72,000 but it may be closer to 76,000 due to the labor. When the owner and I talked prior to this complaint, he said he had no recollection of the conversation.
  
  I don’t know of any other new installation, modification, or revision to the remodeling. All work that I am aware of was purely corrective action for improper installation, damage, and disposal of reusable items i.e., all the lumber for the shelving in the closets, bathroom hardware, a good bathroom door that was to be reused but thrown out, bathroom accessories, mounting hardware for bathroom lighting. I personally paid for the bathroom lighting replacements, bathroom accessories, and two boxes of flooring that we were still short. 
  
  I would like to bring this to an equitable close. As stated earlier, I already sent the balance to Hometown Restoration for the originally agreed $100K interior restoration, even though I have serious doubts.  I propose that we complete the contract as paid in full with these waivers.
   I will waive all unfinished work on the project: Back bathroom shower and plumbing, the unfinished electrical. I will also waive the reimbursement of personal damaged items, fixtures, bathroom light bar, flooring, and other miscellaneous items. 
  
  Respectfully,
  
  ******* ******* *****

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