Recently, we took on this project of helping a friend update and sell a house. That is totally fine and there are no issues with the house or that we are doing this. The problem is that in the course of this, we hired another friend, Adam Cortese of NDC Home Services to do the work on the house and he has screwed us over. Big time.
There really isn't much to it: we gave him a deposit, he said the whole thing would take 2-3 weeks and that he'd begin prepping for paint the weekend that we gave him the deposit. This was on a Thursday. Brooks noticed that he cashed the deposit about a minute after getting it. No biggie, I thought. We were going to stop by the house on Monday and he was going to meet us there to see his work, but then on Monday he texted to say he had not been to the house and would not be going to the house to paint for a whole other week. Which meant that painting on a 2-3 week job would not begin for 12 whole days after the job was supposed to start. So we thought about it just a bit and decided we would paint to get back on schedule during that week that he said he couldn't paint. His response, again via text, was that he had some issues and concerns and this was not how he normally did business. He admitted he had not done any work or bought any materials though. We met again a few days later and he said he was now going to raise the prices on the remaining work. Since he had not done any work or bought any materials this really shouldn't have been an issue. When he came back with his new prices, we had already gotten second opinions on the other work he was supposed to do and thought his prices were higher than the job warranted. He didn't even give us the chance to fire him, but on his own said he'd give us the deposit back. He gave us some BS story about how he had pre-paid the money on his Home Depot account and said we'd have to give him time to earn the money back. In the meantime he had a birthday party for his son, so my guess is we paid for the party and presents. It was also the first of the month so we could have paid for his rent, or maybe a car payment. But regardless the money we gave him for the house was gone and had not been used on the house. He was supposed to meet us last week with the money, but once again, texted to say he couldn't come and told us we could "take the next step."
So we did.
We filed with the small claims court on Friday evening. On Monday I mailed his paperwork per the court's instructions. But, he could either not sign for it, not be home, not bother to pick it up if he is not home or not bother to respond. Which means the next step is to hire a constable to serve him. And then he has 20 days to respond and then we have to get a date scheduled. So this could take a while.
We are both angry/upset/hurt on a few different levels.
1) This was a friend. Why would you do that to a friend? He should have honored the schedule he gave us, should have understood that we were stepping in to make sure the work got done in time for our friend and should have made some good faith effort to return the money to us. Also, even though we weren't terribly close with Adam, his fiance Brandi and I are friends, and she made no effort to apologize on his behalf, or even try to communicate with me or make any good faith effort on her part. My husband would never do this to one of my friends. Ever. But, hypothetically speaking if he did you bet I'd make every attempt to do something for my friend. I'd be mortified. Why doesn't she care?
2) We found out Adam has been to small claims before. And, he even has a misdemeanor for contracting without a license. In both cases, he failed to appear and in the misdemeanor case had a warrant out and is still paying restitution. This makes me think he'll totally disregard our case just as he has the other two. I also feel stupid that we did not look into his business history before hand, friend or not.
3) We have to be good friends to Nas, who put us in charge of the house. Even though it was his money that we put down for the deposit, since we are good friends and will do the right thing, now it is our money that will replace it. Also, now we had to explain why we are doing the work on our own. Thank goodness he took it all well.
4) I am also mad at myself that I would vouch for this guy or allow people like Adam or Brandi into our lives. I had a really great conversation the other day with a real friend, who reminded me about the positives to being 30. At this point in our lives we have earned where we are and what we have. She also said that we've weeded out people in our lives who aren't worth being a part of our lives. So now I have weeded out Adam and Brandi. I am embarrassed I made the mistake of considering them friends, but also even more embarrassed for them by the way they have conducted themselves.
Brooks is awesome and amazing and I am so happy he is my husband. He is a pretty calm guy but is pretty fired up about this based on principal. $1000 is a lot of money, but not end-of-the-world money. It won't break us or make us fight or make our lives worse without it. It will take some time but we will get it back. Adam stands to lose a lot more - the money plus court costs, loss of business and maybe even a little dignity. If he has any.
3 comments:
That is horrible! I'm so sorry!
sorry to hear...my sister Karen did the same. A nurse co-worker`s hubbie was a contractor. Long story short she gets a loan for $ 47,000. I knew it was too low a price for full basement, master bed and total rehaul of the house. He did do the basement block walls . Then stopped when she wrote him a major check in advance. He walked, took her money. It took us two years to finish the project. Turns out the guy cleaned out his wife`s account, left the state and did the same to four other people. The sheriff says unless he is found in the three state area nearby , there is nothing they can do. So, the moral of the story is honest contractors do need a material advance, but they need to deliver to the site. Never; never pay for work in advance. Draws are fine based on work completed. Uncle....Jay
I remember when Karen went through that too. How horrible people like this are wandering around conning people out of money with promises of goods and services. Jail time needs to be served for people who do business like this. I pray you get your money back.
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